Miguel Covarrubias described the traditional Balinese kitchen as “a simple roof of coarse thatch supported by four posts, with a bamboo platform at one end—the kitchen table—and a primitive mud-clay stove at the other.” The kitchen or paon (meaning “ashes”) is still a small, spare, utilitarian room with not much more than the basic wood-fired stove and a chopping bench. Most village kitchens continue to be built outdoors as a freestanding compound building out of traditional mud and red brick with a basic tiled or grass roof. They are also usually dark, blackened and dirty: the ceilings are covered with soot from years of burning traditional cooking fuels such as local wood, bamboo, kerosene and smoky coconut oil. Ritually considered to be one of the least pure areas of the family compound, the kitchen, along with the bathroom, pigsty, compost heap and rubbish dump, is always constructed in the least auspicious, southwest, kelod -facing corner of the property closest to the sea. Direction in Bali is reckoned on a kaja–kelod axis: kaja is mountainward and upward, in the direction of the magic mountain, Gunung Agung, and the gods, while kelod is downward and seaward, in the direction of the negative spirits and forces. The rustic Balinese kitchen is not a place in which to relax, entertain, socialize or feed guests. It is a functional production site to cook and prepare food offerings. More modern indoor kitchens within the dwelling or in a room or building within the compound are always characterized by plain, institutional-looking gray concrete walls and angular tiled counters and workspaces.
Basic cooking equipment and installations include a simple open wood-fired, mud-brick stove, and perhaps, in more modern homes, a second two-burner stove called a kompor, or a gas cooker to boil water and fry. The kompor (Dutch for stove) is powered by minyak tanah (motorbike oil), kerosene or petroleum. The kompor is also known as a kompor panci after the Dutch panci, an ordinary metal cooking pot with two handles which sits atop the kompor. The panci is used to steam rice or make soup. There will also be a large clay container or water basin for water (gebah), and a long, low, rectangular tiled chopping bench against the back wall. Over 90 percent of people living in the villages still have antiquated wood-fired stoves, evidenced in the piles of wooden logs in local kitchens. This traditional Balinese oven (tempat memasak) has three holes in the top—the Balinese believe that evil fortune will befall anyone who builds a stove with only two holes—and an opening underneath to burn the firewood. Rice is always cooked over the most powerful middle hole, with other dishes cooked on the side.
Producing steamed white rice (nasi kukus) is a laborious multi-step process in Bali where rice perfection is de rigueur. It employs an ingenious three-tiered rice steamer known as a dangdang, kukusan or kekeban. This is an hourglass-shaped gray sheet iron or aluminum pot designed by the Balinese to reflect the symbolic shape of the beloved rice goddess, Dewi Sri. The dangdang is filled up to the waist with water and placed on top of an iron brazier (kran). A large, loosely plaited, cone-shaped bamboo steamer called a kukusan or pengukusan fits like a funnel down into the mouth of the dangdang. To make steamed rice, fresh drinking water, which, as recently as the 1990s had to be carried home daily in an earthenware pot, bucket or empty plastic jug from a nearby spring, is brought to the boil in the dangdang. Thoroughly washed rice grains (beras) are then placed in the naturally vented cone-shaped bamboo kukusan. A special heavy clay bowl with a handle (kekeban or kekeb) is placed on top of the inverted “Southeast Asian rice farmer coolie hat” to cap the rising heat and steam. The rice is steamed for thirty minutes, transferred into a clay container to soak up a little hot water for twenty minutes, and then returned to the steamer for another thirty minutes. The traditional woven bamboo steaming basket adds a distinctive flavor and aroma to the finished rice. More modern households now use huge blackened pots or have substituted an electric rice cooker. The dangdang and kukusan, along with various large pots are frequently hung outside on a compound wall or from tree branches in the garden area above the family’s assorted collection of battered and burnt thin aluminium pots and pans. There will also be an inevitable plastic rack of brightly colored plastic tubs and mismatched plastic, woven bamboo and metal baskets, bowls and crockery.
Every traditional Balinese cook brandishes large, weighty, hand-crafted axe-like Balinese cleavers (belaka) for chopping and special knives for ceremonial food preparation. Used solely to process ritual ingredients, these have carved handles with powerful Hindu symbols etched on the blades. A thick round tree trunk cutting board (talenan), a bamboo rice basket (sok asi) used to store fresh steamed rice, a clay pot to steam small banana leaf-wrapped bundles of food and perhaps a coffee roasting pan are other essential Balinese utensils. Banana leaf squares or rectangles used for enclosing, rolling and folding food parcels and offerings to be steamed or grilled, are also a part of the kitchen, as are their substitutes, corn husks and vine leaves. There will also be traditional stamping utensils—the lu and lesung —used for hand pounding and grinding foodstuffs. The lu is a long hand-held wooden pole used to physically grind rice, spices, meat (daging or flesh) and traditional Balinese village coffee. The lesung is a large mortar or bowl made from a hard material, generally stone, with a round hole in its center corresponding to the circumference and size of the lu. Recreating ancient agricultural sounds and rhythms, the Balinese put the unprocessed material in the lesung, which is placed solidly on the ground, and stand above it with the pole, crushing or pounding the coffee beans or rice into the desired particles or consistency.
Most important of all is the mortar and pestle, an important kitchen tool of varying size and shape common to all Southeast Asian countries. The shallow round stone mortar (batu base), wrought from rustic black volcanic rock, and its corresponding pestle are used to crush, combine, bruise and grind dry spices and aromatic seasonings. It is with these implements that exotic spice island treasures are transformed into the fragrant spice and herb pastes so essential for Balinese cooking. To prepare the ground spices, the freshly cut up or whole spices and roots must first be crushed into a coarse paste. Using a mortar to process the spice paste affects the flavor of the dish, as does the physical effort expended while pounding the spices. Patient, powerful, slow movements give the best flavor and texture for the dish. Modern appliances cannot replicate the culinary results and tastes achieved with the traditional mortar and pestle. The Balinese cook also owns a rudimentary wooden, hand-held paddle bristling with rows of small, sharp iron nails called a parutan sayur for fine-grating vegetables or a parutan kelapa for scraping coconuts to make desserts or for obtaining coconut milk. (Its traditional bamboo predecessor boasted spiky rattan points held together and trimmed with bamboo.) A different type of coconut grater made out of tin with elongated holes framed in wood is used for shredding coconut to the texture required for ceremonial food. A kukur (parut) is a grater or rasp for grating coconuts (mengukur means to grate or rasp the flesh of the coconut using a parut).
The Balinese invariably use fresh locally available cooking ingredients and foodstuffs, along with live animals. Food is picked, caught, bought and consumed directly off the vine, tree, hoof, fin and wing. The Balinese have always preferred fresh natural flavors. For this reason, ingredients are bought in small quantities to obtain maximum flavor, spices are bought throughout the week, and seasonal market produce is carried home daily. The Balinese have great respect for the food ingredients that they select and use to complement the inordinate amount of care and attention that goes into producing each dish. Spices are freshly ground and fried, coconut is roasted and grated, vegetables are prepared and cooked separately, and then all are combined and mixed thoroughly with the bare hands. The final cooking method—grilling, smoking or simmering—marries the diverse flavors and aromas into a distinctive, delicious whole. Traditionally, none of the resulting dishes was designed to last long because there was no refrigeration. Leftovers were always fed to the compound dogs and livestock. Because refrigeration is still a recent innovation, there is no custom of saving religious feast foods for the next day. Instead, all leftovers are wrapped in banana leaves and distributed to the neighbors. The Balinese live one day at a time—on every single level.
Refrigeration is slightly more common today but it is still far from universal. The Balinese do not know its function and do not see or understand a need for it. According to long-time custom, most local people still shop at the traditional market every single morning and cook fresh foods and produce from scratch every day, so they do not need a refrigerator to preserve their food and meat. Some more modern Balinese do own refrigerators but they just use them to house offerings and offering components,
