Balinese Food

 

Tonight we got to eat the most delicious Balinese food! We were seated at one long table, with hot plates and bowls of rice in front of us. Then they placed a bunch of different little bowls on the hot plates, including a coconut chicken, spicy boiled eggs, lamb in peanut sauce, spicy beef curry, and a yummy vegetable mix. The food was all very aromatic and you could smell the spices that they used in each dish. Smelling each dish was helpful in giving clues to what everything was because you could smell the seasoning and meat. The taste was also of course helpful in that and it was fun to really try and taste what I was eating and decipher what everything was. All of the colors were very bright and appealing to look at (especially after the typical brownish nature of my meals here lol). The dishes were extremely colorful including orange, green, yellow, and red. This food was, as Rob might say, slap your mama! 

Balinese food is important historically and culturally because of the way that it came to Europe and the effect that it has had on cuisine since then. The Dutch East India Company brought spices back from their travels. This was a game changer because before this the people here didn't even have pepper! (blech I can't even imagine what they must have been eating) Because of these spices, the food culture in places, including Amsterdam, developed and grew into what we see it as today. It is interesting how this cuisine has developed in Europe versus the typical cuisine in Indonesia. In Europe, like we saw tonight, there is a wide variety of small bowls. In Indonesia, there are simply two main courses with rice. In this way we see how Amsterdam took Indonesian spices and cuisine and still developed on their own.

Food is such an important part of a city's culture. Everybody needs to eat! Food is something that brings us all together and that is celebrated and enjoyed differently in different cultures. The food in Amsterdam, specifically the Balinese food that can be found here, shows how Amsterdam is a melting pot of cultures and has a wide variety of multicultural populations. It also is something that is representative of their history, the Dutch East India company, and their willingness to preserve tradition. I think that it is wonderful that Balinese food has stayed so prominent here and that it tastes so good! I think that shows that they value culture and want to maintain their culture as well as other cultures that have been brought to them throughout history.