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Mouth-watering
Plecing Kangkung
 Succulence
of kangkung or water spinach vegetable may
tempt everyone’s appetite. Possibly,
you need to taste it one day on visiting
Bali. Water spinach is one of the delicious
and popular vegetables in Bali. Since almost
cultivated across this island all year around,
it is available at an affordable price.
Just have a look at the serombotan, the
native delicacy of Klungkung in Eastern
Bali. It also makes use of water spinach
as its ingredient along with others like
sprout, long bean, eggplant and fried peanut.
However, some may prefer to use that of
the Lombok variety, offering a larger and
softer stem.
Plecing kangkung is another variant of this
vegetable. It is commonly served together
with other dish like grilled seafood. Or
it could be served independently along with
good-tasting rice if one prefers not to
consume meat.
Ingredients: 3 strings of water spinach,
2 tbsp fried peanut
Spices: 2 cloves garlic; 3 small chillies;
2 medium-size tomato; 2 large chillies;
1 tsp palm sugar; ½ tsp grilled shrimp
paste; ½ tsp salt; few drops of squeezed
lime.
Method:
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Wash the water spinach and remove any
hard stem. Halve them lengthwise.
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Boil them until convenient to eat or to
taste. Take out and drain.
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All spices (garlic, small and large chilli
and tomato) are steamed until the skin
of tomato getting moderately peeled off
and then take out. Having added palm sugar,
shrimp paste, salt and squeeze of lime
to the tomato, pound them finely.
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When already cool, the water spinach is
mixed with the spices above. Later, sprinkle
it with fried peanuts. Now, it’s
ready to serve! (BTN/029)
The
Winning Cake of Mr. Balang Tamak
 When
the modern stories like cartoon and other
challenging adventures had not penetrated
the world of children in Bali, their parents
traditionally told local bedtime stories
to lullaby them. Before the story ended,
they usually have fallen asleep. One of
the favourite stories is that about Mr.
Balang Tamak, a figure that is not worth
exemplifying as his character is rich, stingy
and tricky. He often breaks the village
rule but he always gives a logical justification.
This made other villagers get infuriated.
One day, the village held a meeting. Again,
he wanted to deceive others by preparing
a cake made from black sticky rice (Balinese
people has some variants like the jaja uli,
iwel or dodol). He came earlier before the
others to put the cakes near the pillars
then sprinkle them with water. Sorry! It
looked like a dog’s shit. In front
of the meeting, he challenged the others
to eat them. Those who dare to eat them
will get a prize of a certain amount. Nobody
dare! The klian or village head challenged
back Mr. Balang Tamak. “If you do,
I will pay you that amount!” At the
beginning, he pretended to hesitate accepting
the challenge, but ultimately devour them
all and won the game!
Dodol or taffy is not only made of black
sticky rice, coconut milk and palm sugar,
but also mostly enriched with various ingredients
like durian, snake fruit, apple or soursoup
to enhance the flavour. Addition of flavour
was originally inspired by the abundant
stock during its season when its price fell
down. This taffy is also used to fill in
the sodan offering on the celebration of
Galungan feast day.
Today, this dodol or taffy is widely on
sale at both traditional market and super
market. Uniquely, it is wrapped in the cub’s
sheath of corn and usually sold in a bunch
of ten pieces. It could become a legendary
tasty gift to bring home! (BTN/029)
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