Sugar and Salt

Up early, and that was not easy because I didn't sleep at all, feeling all bad about Oka - seriously, what am I like - it's my vacation!

I went down to Casa Luna for a tour of the east coast where they would show how palm sugar/caramel and sea salt are made followed by lunch.

My guide Olak and my 3 companions for the day showed up.  There was Greg, Australian math teacher working in Azerbasian as a tax dodge and Patricia and Paul from Utah, who live in Maui when it's cold.   I liked them all immediately, and was glad I wasn't going to have to see them tomorrow...Patricia found me very interesting and tried to pry information out of me most of the day, instead of changing the subject as my mother taught me to do - I just made stuff up - it was very entertaining...for me.

We headed East through the mountains, and it was absolutely gorgeous with mountains, lush green, rice paddies on the flats and coconut trees on the hills.  We stopped at a farm where they harvest nectar from the coconut tree for making palm sugar.  

This is an extraordinarily complicated process.  They climb these trees twice a day every day.  Each tree has 3 flowers and only one flower can be harvested at a time.  Harvesting the nectar from each flower takes 30 days - going up and down the tree twice a day.  The farm we stopped at was run by a guy that had a real job working for the government; he climbed is 23 trees before and after work.

After taking the nectar, his mother boils is down to palm sugar - his wife has tried but not been able to master the technique - bet that's a fun conversation, like everyday.

We spent a long time here.  They showed us the whole process of preparing the flower, climbing the tree, boiling the nectar and making the sugar and caramel.  We had to try everything - of course.  The caramel was amazing, and the resulting palm sugar was sweet and paste-like, which on the face of it probably doesn't sound so good, but it was good.  Olak is a chef at one of the restaurants in town, and he was stirring the nectar like a crazy person.  I thought Mama was actually going to brain him at one point.

As we said our goodbyes, we were each given 500 grams of palm sugar - they didn't try and sell us anything and were generally just very interested in showing us how they live - it was awesome.

We then drove to the coast.  This was a long arduous process because there was an impromtu festival procession going down the very narrow road.  Everyone was all dressed up, and there were a couple of guys in a glittery costume that looked like a horse.  Because of the heat - they had to switch off frequently.

We finally arrived on the sea - black sand.  There were several grass huts with all manner of stuff in it.  This impossibly tiny man then went and collected two buckets of sea water and poured it in the sand in front of the hut.  

He does this several times a day and then when it is sticky, he takes the sand and puts it in a hopper and water is poured over it.  This water is then evaporated, and the salt is revealed.  

Being the rainy season, they could only do the sand procedure on nice days - like the one we were having.  The salt was fairly glorious tasting - Olek assured us it was the black sand that made the difference.  I bought 1 kilogram for $2.

Lunch was at a famous wareng where everyone that knows comes for fish satay.  The place was in the middle of nowhere - seriously, and there were at least 100 people squished under the open air shack - many all dressed in their temple finery having Sunday lunch.  

There is no ordering - you get what they are serving which was rice, fish curry, fish satay - 2 kinds, fish mush wrapped in banana leaf, amazing fried peanuts, long beans, and chili pickle in this incredible salty sauce.  This was very very good - Paul doesn't eat hot food, but he did try and then I think he felt really awful for it.  I didn't think it was that hot, but it was so good - the fried peanuts were amazing.

A big drive back to Ubud, and we were dropped off in the early afternoon.  I went back to my room and took my clothes off so I could lay on the stone floor - very hot today.  After my clothes had dried and I'd rehydrated with some Bali Hai, I went and checked out some of the alleys I hadn't been in yet and then had a quiet dinner at the Cinte Grill - my waitress was hilarious, and I shuffled off to bed laughing.