Trip Report Asia 2013: Day 21 Cooking Class (Auntie Puspa)
Another glorious morning in Ubud, there is something really magical about the way the light bounces off the Rice Fields at sunrise – really amazing view.
We had breakfast up at Reception this morning, because we were heading off to the Paon Bali Cooking Class today and didn’t want to miss our pickup.
Couldn’t resist this great shot of the stunning Frangipani flowers which were in bloom right out the front of our Hotel room.
Paon Bali Cooking Class
For those of you who followed our last trip to Bali we went along and did the Paon Bali Cooking class and absolutely loved it. Since we were returning to Ubud with some friends this time we wanted them to experience the cooking class and well we didn’t want to miss out either so we went along again.
The day starts with a pickup from the hotel and you are transported to the Ubud Markets, Made our driver took us for a walk through the markets and explained all the different food products available from Ubud Market and showed some of the more unique fruits available. I am totally addicted to Mangosteen and Snake Fruit as a result of this!
Following the Market trip we then head out to the Rice Fields near where the class is run. Nyoman took us through the Rice Field explaining the process of cultivating rice – and as usual you get a terrible sense of guilt associated with how easy it is to just head to the supermarket and buy a big 10 kilo bag of rice without a second thought to the process involved with making it.
Normally Wayan (Puspa’s husband) takes the session at the rice field but he was busy due to a big ceremony in the village.
We then headed onto the family compound where Puspa (or Auntie Puspa as we were instructed to call her) took us through a great introduction and we started the course.
The raw ingredients – you also receive all the recipes so that you can come home and “try” to replicate the menu!
The cooking class is usually run with about 10-15 people so the work gets divided up well between everyone and you have plenty of time to prep and take photos as well as get involved. It is a real light hearted experience and you really make some great friends along the way.
As usual this was amazing fun, I won’t spoil it too much because Puspa’s personality and teaching style is really fun and her jokes are just as much fun!
You basically cook about 7 courses together and then sit down to enjoy a nice banquet lunch. All up it will only cook you about 350k per person (which when you think it is almost 6 hours entertainment, free pickup, and a buffet lunch – is spectacular value). *Plus some of the cheapest Bintang available for sale in Bali……*
We always are made to feel like family with Puspa and Wayan – we got to catch up with Wayan because he was coming home just as we were leaving so he drove us back to the hotel.
We had a quick swim and some afternoon tea before heading back into town.
Stopped off quickly at Coco’s Supermarket to deposit a quantity of our Rupiahs in exchange for a wide variety of “essential” crap! We walked up to Jl Raya Ubud and changed some money before heading down to Cafe Havanna. Now usually my rule in Bali is not to go to a place more than once, because well there are so many places to try and only so many meals. But we had such a great time at Cafe Havanna the other day we were itching to get back there.
Sorry no photos from this evening – things got a little messy after some lovely cheap Cuba Libre Cocktails to say the least, there was a really cool Balinese Cuban Band playing some great tunes. All in all it was a really fun night.
We jumped into a taxi and headed home. Tomorrow is our last full day in Ubud before heading to Sanur.
Thank you again for reading along with us on this trip, I do hope you have been enjoying the read, please feel free to leave a comment to let me know if you enjoy our blog. Thanks and see you tomorrow.
