Foodie Fun!

Trying to work out what to do when, no activity was scheduled for the morning after Borobudur. Although we contemplated shopping at the nearby market, we spotted a poster in the hotel for an Indonesian cooking class. That peaked our interest, so we signed up. It was the three of us plus a Japanese couple. Mick intended to spend his morning poolside but spent it working with Garuda Airlines on our return flight to Singapore

We gathered in the lobby at 9 am, piled into a van and went shopping with Chef Totok. Living overseas in Asia for many years, we were used to these types of markets; though there were a couple of ingredients that I had never seen, like candlenut – which I suspect is a relative to our chestnuts; and beautiful brown speckled, blue Swan eggs!!!

Below are fish in baskets ready to take home and fresh turmeric, which we don’t often find in our markets back in the States.

Back at the hotel we were given our recipes, a package with apron and toque (that we got to keep), and a kitchen towel, which they took back (darn!). The “kitchen” was set up outside in a little alcove surrounded by foliage and a canopy of pretty batik.

The two prettiest sou chefs:

After we completed each recipe, we went over to the open-air dining area where a table was set up with juice and water, and our creation was brought to us for tasting.

We made Indonesian spring rolls for our first course:

Our main course was a fried fish. Chef Totok had us each filet our own fish. Then after seasoning and dusting the pieces of fish with cornstarch, it was deep fried. We kept our fish “skeleton” and deep fried it to use in the plating.

Then came dessert – crepes but not crepes. They were very fluffy, the insides were almost like an egg-white omelet or souffle. As you see, I’m already rolling it. So you don’t cook it til it’s set. In fact, you put more batter into the pan than you would for a crepe.

Yogyakarta has no real restaurants. There are many of those little local eateries/stalls, but are not for the tourist’s stomach. You almost have to eat in your hotel or another hotel. Yogyakarta is a large city but it’s an “Indonesian” city. Except for the tourists, who are usually accompanied by their tour guide, we saw no ex-pat community in our travels.

It was a real treat to take cooking classes in the country of the cuisine. Chef Totok was trained in Bali, and had a very good command of English. We give it two spatulas!