Balinese Food

Lawar

Lawar is Balinese traditional food, well-known in all over Bali and available in many Balinese restaurants. Lawar is mixed vegetable with chopped meat, vegetable, spices, and coconut which tastes is sharpened with natural flavors.
There are various Lawar based on the materials for composing the cooking, such as Red Lawar, and White Lawar which is a large part made of coconut meat, and other is vegetable and meat. The vegetables which can be cooked into lawar normally are young bean fruit and jackfruit. Pork lawar is made of pork meat while Jackfruit Lawar is made of jackfruit. There is also Padamare Lawar, made of many kinds of Lawar.
Lawar is usually served with rice and other dishes. Lawar is the most favorite cooking during religious ceremony, family rituals or any family occasion. If there is a ceremony or any event of Bali tradition, Lawar is the first plan in cooking activity.

Babi Guling

Babi Guling is more well-known as ‘be guling’ in Bali. Actually, be guling can be made of other meats such as duck or chicken. Babi Guling is a kind of dish made of a whole suckling pig. It is cooked by taking out its whole bowel and stuffed the inside with spice paste and vegetables such as cassava leaf, then grilled and rolled over a charcoal made from dried coconut shells until it is well-done.
Babi Guling was originally made as a ritual offering in Balinese traditional ceremonies as well as religious ceremonies. But nowadays, it can be found in many restaurants and certain hotels in Bali area. The most well-known Babi Guling is from Gianyar regency.

Urutan Babi

Urutan is Balinese sausage. It is made of pig’s intestines, stuffed with pork meat and spice paste inside, and fried until it is brownish. Urutan is usually served with Balinese rice wine.

Sate (Satay)

Sate is made of sea fish or turtle meat, green coconut, spices, and brown sugar. It is the traditional food of Tabanan regency, but it can be found in all over Bali. Sate is usually cooked over charcoal made from dried coconut shells, on a small ceramic grille, which gives them a delicious smoky and slightly charred flavor.

Sate is served as a dish as well as an offering in ritual ceremony. It is better served right after grilled (while it is still hot) and usually served with Lawar. It can last for only one day.

Lempet (Pepes Ikan Tongkol)

Lempet is made of tuna or languan fish and spices, wrapped in banana leaf and grilled over charcoal made from dried coconut shells. Lempet is also known as Pésan or Pepes. It is served with rice and can last for 2 days. Lempet can be served as a dish in wedding ceremony and other ceremonies.

Ayam Betutu (Roasted Chicken in Banana Leaf)

Ayam Betutu is made of chicken with spices inside. The spices consist of turmeric, ginger, kencur, galangal, onion, garlic, salam leaf, and chilies. All these spices are mixed and put inside the chicken. That is why it is called Ayam Betutu.
Ayam Betutu is usually served in Balinese traditional ceremonies such as Odalan, Otonan, wedding ceremony, etc.

Sate Languan

Sate Languan is made of sea fish, green coconut, spices, and brown sugar. It is a traditional food of Klungkung regency, but it can be found in all over Bali. Sate Languan is served in Balinese ritual ceremonies. It is better served right after grilled (while it is still hot). It can last for only one day.

Sate Lembat (Lembat Satay
Sate Lembat is made of crushed meat mixed with grated coconut and spices. The meat is usually pork, chicken, duck, and turtle.
Sate Lembat is served in Balinese ritual and traditional ceremonies. It is also available in many Balinese restaurants, along with Urutan, Babi Guling, and Lawar.

Nasi Kuning Bali (Balinese Yellow Rice

Nasi Kuning Bali is a bit different from the common Nasi Kuning, especially from the spices and preparation. Nasi Kuning is usually served during Kuningan Day, the Balinese Hindhu Holy Day which comes every 210 days on Saniscara (Saturday) Kliwon Wuku Kuningan.
Nowadays, Nasi Kuning is also served in other ceremonies such as birthday party, thanksgiving ceremony, etc. Nasi Kuning is served with fried chili spices, kemangi leaf, and green-peas. It is not available in Balinese restaurants. Balinese people usually prepare it only for ceremonies.

Nasi Yasa (Yasa Rice)
Nasi Yasa is Nasi Kuning combined with chicken, egg, and raw vegetable. Nasi Yasa is usually served in religious ceremonies such as Saraswati, Ciwalatri Day and as a ritual offering for the ancestors.

Jajan Bantal

Jajan Bantal is well-known in all over Bali. The main ingredients of this snack are sticky rice, peas and fruits. Wrapped in coconut leaf, tied with a rope and steamed.
This snack is prepared as a dish and ritual offering in certain ritual ceremonies such as Piodalan in the temples.

Cerorot

Cerorot is usually produced in Tenganan Village, Karangasem regency, but it is also produced in other regions in Bali. Cerorot is made of rice flour, brown sugar, and salt, wrapped in twisted coconut leaf, and steamed. This snack is served with coffee or tea. It can last for only one day.

Jajan Abug
Jajan Abug is a Balinese traditional snack made of sticky rice with various shapes: cube, triangle, round, etc. It has many layers in red and white colors. This snack is specially made for Balinese ritual or traditional ceremonies. But sometimes it is also made for people’s consumption.

Ayam Panggang Mesanten (Roasted Chicken with Coconut Sauce)
Chicken is one of the materials used for Balinese ritual offerings. After being used for ritual offerings, the chicken is cooked with chilies to be served as a dish. Balinese people prefer to cook local chicken because it tastes better and is less fat than broiler chicken. Ayam Panggang Mesanten is one of Balinese well-known traditional recipes.

Bubur Mengguh
Bubur Mengguh is a kind of porridge, mixed with meat (chicken or fish), vegetable, and spices. This porridge is usually served in special occasions such as family gathering and any other occasions.

Jukut Ares

Jukut Ares is made of baby banana tree mixed with ribs and meat (cow, pork, duck), and spices. It is usually served in Balinese ritual ceremonies, dished up for family and people who assisted in arranging the ceremonies. Jukut Ares is served with rice. It is available in many restaurants in Bali regencies, such as Denpasar.

Jukut Rambanan
Jukut Rambanan is a kind of dish made of various vegetables. Cooked with coconut sauce that makes it tastes delicious. Good for digestion because of its various vegetables. Usually served with shrimp paste spices to make it more delicious.

from : bali3000.com

Gamelan Angklung

At temple festivals, the exuberance of the 4-tone gamelan angklung's melodies ring out in bold contrast to the solemn and grave lelambatan compositions often heard playing simultaneously right across the courtyard. While to many outsiders the slendro-derived tuning of the gamelan produces a mood of playfulness and charm, to the Balinese it is sentimental, bittersweet, and an indispensable component of the atmosphere at any meaningful ceremony.

A modern Balinese gamelan angklung comprises 8-12 4-keyed metallophones used for melody or kotekan, a reyong of 8 pots, 2 jegogans, a small kempur, 2 tiny drums, cengceng, suling and a kind of kempli called tawa-tawa. The word angklung originally referred to a bamboo rattle which produces but one tone when shaken. Ensembles of these, tuned to a scale and shaken in alternation to create melodies, are still common in West Java. In Bali they used to be played in conjunction with the bronze instruments,2 but today they are rarely seen, although people often lament their demise nostalgically.

There is a large repertoire of compositions for gamelan angklung. It is full of whimsical short pieces with names like Goak Maling Taloh (Crow Steals Eggs) and Katak Nongkek (Croaking Frog) and longer pieces of considerable breadth. Having only 4 keys per instrument would seem a limitation, and certainly no one would claim that gamelan angklung has as great an expressive range as any of the larger bronze ensembles. Yet as a rule angklung music is full of supple melodies and inventive kotekans, which often breathe and flow in quite unexpected directions. A number of angklungs around the island, particularly in the north, use the full 5-tone slendro scale for the additional possibilities it provides, with the size of the instruments expanded accordingly, sometimes up to as many as seven keys. This serves to drastically reduce the constraints imposed by the 4-tone version, substantially altering the personality of the resultant music in the process.

There may be more sets of gamelan angklung in Bali than there are gamelan gong kebyar. Most villages have at least one or two. The village of Mas alone had, at last count, seven; their players have a tough time with scheduling, because a local temple festival lasts only a few days! But the temple is not the only place to hear angklung. Because of the instruments' portability, they are often strung up on bamboo poles and carried in processions. Some tari lepas and kreasi baru have been adapted for the ensemble, thus creating the secular subgenre of angklung kebyar. Ketut Partha, a teacher at the STSI conservatory, is well known for his contributions to the development of this style (Partha's composition Sindu Arsa can be heard on Gamelan Sekar Jaya's CD, Balinese Music in America). One of the most famous traditional angklung gamelans can be found in the village of Sidan, on the road between Gianyar and Bangli.

from : balivision.com

Kecak Dance

Kecak (pronounced: /'ke.tʃak/, roughly "KEH-chahk", alternate spellings: Ketjak and Ketjack), a form of Balinese music drama, originated in the 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.[1]

Kecak was originally a trance ritual accompanied by male chorus. German painter and musician Walter Spies became deeply interested in the ritual while living in Bali in the 1930s and worked to recreate it into a drama, based on the Hindu Ramayana and including dance, intended to be presented to Western tourist audiences. This transformation is an example of what James Clifford describes as part of the "modern art-culture system"[2] in which, "the West or the central power adopts, transforms, and consumes non-Western or peripheral cultural elements, while making 'art' which was once embedded in the culture as a while, into a separate entity."[3] Spies worked with Wayan Limbak and Limbak popularized the dance by traveling throughout the world with Balinese performance groups. These travels have helped to make the Kecak famous throughout the world.

Performer, choreographer, and scholar I Wayan Dibia cites a contrasting theory that the Balinese where already developing the form when Spies arrived on the island.[4] For example, well-known dancer I Limbak had incorporated Baris movements into the cak leader role during the 1920s. "Spies liked this innovation," and it suggested that Limbak, "devise a spectacle based on the Ramayana," accompanied by cak chorus rather than gamelan, as would have been usual.[1]



from : wikipedia.org

The Barong Dance of Bali

Barong is probably the most well known dance. It is also another story telling dance, narrating the fight between good and evil. This dance is the classic example of Balinese way of acting out mythology, resulting in myth and history being blended into one reality.

The story goes that Rangda, the mother of Erlangga, the King of Bali in the tenth century, was condemned by Erlangga's father because she practiced black magic. After she became a widow, she summoned all the evil spirits in the jungle, the leaks and the demons, to come after Erlangga. A fight occurred, but she and her black magic troops were too strong that Erlangga had to ask for the help of Barong. Barong came with Erlangga's soldiers, and fight ensued. Rangda casted a spell that made Erlangga soldiers all wanted to kill themselves, pointing their poisoned keris into their own stomachs and chests. Barong casted a spell that turned their body resistant to the sharp keris. At the end, Barong won, and Rangda ran away.

Somebody can die or get seriously injured in a Barong dance. It is said that if Rangda's spell is too strong, a weak soldier may not be able to resist it, even with the help of Barong. He may end up hurting himself with his own keris.

The masks of Barong and Rangda are considered sacred items, and before they are brought out, a priest must be present to offer blessings by sprinkling them with holy water taken from Mount Agung, and offerrings must be presented.

from : indo.com