Bali: The Food Of My Island Home

Bali: The Food of My Island Home is a delectable manifestation of food, art, writing and place. Its Australian author, Janet de Neefe, has lived in Bali for over two decades and knows very well how to introduce the food of Bali to newcomers.

De Neefe is a writer as well as a proponent of books and writing, being the Founder and Director of the Ubud Writers' and Readers Festival. In addition, she has an art school legacy, has become a restaurateur, and at her cooking school in Ubud, Bali, she teaches hundreds of people a year how to cook.

As you turn the book's pages, the presentation, photography, colour, fonts and textures, conjure up the food, aromas and atmosphere of Bali. The book zooms in, not just on to the intricate details of the food and food preparation, but to the general Balinese tendency towards precision and intricacy. Photographs of carefully woven banana leaves or finely chopped red shallots, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and torch ginger flower, are interspersed with close-ups of finely carved and painted doors and carefully crafted offerings to the gods.

Bali has attracted many foodies and food writers and at the 2011 Ubud Writer's and Readers Festival, they featured prominently. And while none of them would deny that the best exponents of the cooking style of Bali are the Balinese themselves, writers and foodies like de Neefe, have become the documenters of the food traditions of Bali. The Balinese themselves are ensconced in their culinary and cultural heritage and it is really the western fascination with Bali that has led to the process of documentation for outsiders. At the Ubud Writers' and Readers Festival, food panellists pointed out that this has really only happened in the last ten years or so.

I like the way the book is organised. It starts with a visit to The Spice Market, where the right ingredients and proportions for various spice mixes can be sourced and then included in the recipes, which are provided by de Neefe with appropriate commentary.

Once you've learned how to prepare the spice mixes, de Neefe gives you recipes for the chilli and shrimp-paste based Fragrant Sambals that embellish each Balinese meal. Then in the chapter on Coconut & Curries, she demonstrates how to concoct curries made of chicken, seafood, tofu, beef, greens or chokos, after you’ve gathered a few coconuts and mixed a few spice pastes.

A whole chapter is devoted to that mainstay of Asian cuisine - rice. The book pays homage to The Sacred Grain with photographs of the greenest-of-green rice paddies, and recipes for nasi putih (steamed rice), nasi kuning (yellow rice), nasi uduk (coconut rice), nasi goreng (fried rice) through to rice porridges and banana-leaf wrapped combination's of rice with mushroom, or rice with chicken.

De Neefe then moves outside to help you sample Street Food and Snacks, and then the food of Ceremonies and Celebrations, always reminding you of the fusion of Balinese cuisine with its culture.

Inevitably, the fascination of Western writers and chefs with Balinese food, has led to the merger of styles, which de Neefe denotes in her book as Modern Offerings, eschewing the notion of fusion cuisine, which she associates with conflicting flavours. Emphasising the harmony of flavours, she presents options like Balinese-style Paella, Pork belly with Balinese spices, or Black Rice Risotto with Salmon.

De Neefe is perhaps at her most inventive in her chapter on Palm Sugar & Puddings, where she introduces the largely Western concept of desserts to the Balinese kitchen. With considerable attention to the labour-intensive production of sugar from the nectar of the coconut stalk, she suggests Kintamani Coffee and Ginger Semifreddo, Black Rice and Orange Tartand Coconut Pannacottas.

I consider Bali: the Food of my Island Home, to be an authentic presentation of Bali and its food. Yes, it's through the eyes of a Westerner, but it's clear that Janet de Neefe, who loves and lives in Bali, has got to know the food intimately. On every page, you can envisage her going through the process of shopping, experimenting, cooking, tasting and fine-tuning. If you never prepare a single recipe from the book's pages, you will still absorb much of the flavour of Bali.

Pan Macmillan Australia, 2011
ISBN 978-1-7426-1061-0