‘fings Can Be wot they use’ter be......
Sanur’s Sunday Market @ Cafe B Mk.III
At last a blow against Astroturf!
Back in March 2001 in these here pages I bemoaned the fact
our fruit & veggies just weren’t what they used
to be, lacking as they were in taste and nutrients. While
they looked like the veggies you remembered as a kid, they
just didn’t taste like them. Just as any ambience we
remembered with affection was being re-served up to us in
the form of a theme park, just so it was with facsimile vegetables.
Even with the advent of stores like Wholefoods in the US,
whose shelves groan with certified organic produce all sold
at a considerable premium, they just don’t taste that
good. Here in Bali, where thankfully we now have a trio of
stores who take such things seriously, the salad organic or
not, has the texture of astroturf as much as anything, fit
only for goats.
Unless you grow your own or have the good luck to live nearby
a genuine farmer’s market (i.e. not a theme park one)
we seem to have gotten used to a future of either wholly tasteless
goodlooking cheap produce or certified organic produce that,
even if it doesn’t have pesticides all over it, doesn’t
really taste that much better and is a lot more expensive.
Now that organics is big business, the question to ask yourself
is:
“How long ago was this romaine lettuce picked before
I bought it?”. And, “how long will it be before
I eat it?”.
Add the two together and you’re in business. Most people
like to buy their groceries for 3 or 4 days I’d say.
Given that it’s 2 to 3 days before you buy the goods
on the shelf, we’re talking a week. Next question to
ask yourself is:
“How long does a lettuce I pick in a field stay fresh?”.
Then, if you can answer such a question, you can draw your
own conclusions.
The essential lesson for us to re-learn is fresh tastes good!
While it’s healthier for us to eat organic food
because it doesn’t have all the gunk of industrial
farming on it, that doesn’t mean it’s fresh by
the time you get it, or that it tastes good. There are those
folk who get a bit sniffy about things that are not certifiably
100% organic, which means not only are the crops grown
organically but that the soil itself has been treated
in an organic way for a decade or more. That’s sometimes
hard to do, in which case until everything falls exactly into
place, give me organically grown vegetables (even if the soil
does not yet qualify) which I can buy on the day it was picked
any day.
Now Bali is blessed with its very own Sunday Market. It takes
place every Sunday between 10.00 AM to 2.00 PM at the new
Café Batujimbar in Sanur. If you want really fresh
vegetables picked at dawn that same day and at a really reasonable
price, then this is the place to go. It’s been going
four Sundays now and every week the throng gets bigger as
the buzz gets out. In addition to the fresh produce, there
are freshly cooked foods, organic jams and dried fruit, all
manner of things. The combination of Sunday Market and a revamped
Café Batujimbar brings out all manner of folk, come
to eat, buy and schmooze, see and be seen, and catch up on
gossip. A real market in fact. And so, a modicum of seemly
and sedate life returns to Jalan Tamblingan.
The people we have to thank for this happy development are
Bill Busch and Maya of Lotus Distribution, who have
relocated their Pantry outlet from Hardy’s to the site;
Ben & Blair Ripple, of Big Tree Farms, who bring in the
fresh vegetables from Bedugul; and Ade Wawo-Runtu with her
expanded team at CafeB, plus a cast of tens who barbecue seafood,
make quesadillas and offer all manner of food and produce
to add to the fun. Best to get there before Noon as Ben &
Blair start running out of a few popular items like tomatoes
and broccoli, but there’s always a lot more to choose
from. My household now buys all the salad we need to last
until Thursday, plus other longer-lasting veggies to take
us through the week. The price is a lot less than we used
to have to buy for stuff that tasted nothing like as good
and went bad within a couple of days. If you don’t live
near Sanur, don’t worry The Pantry outlets and Gourmet
Garage (and probably a few other good stores) carry the fresh
produce from Big Tree Farms.
The Fate of our Island
There is a movement I hear to hold the Sanur Sunday market
every other Sunday.
This is a wrong and bad decision I say in all selflessness,
and I strongly urge the organisers not to do it.
We need, we deserve, nay - it is our right, to have fresh
veggies on a weekly basis. Do not snatch that away from us.
Better it had never been etc. The move has less to do with
the numbers coming to the market, which increases every Sunday,
and more I suspect with the extra work it entails for the
staff of CaféB. To which I say, give them Monday off!
Whatever it takes, our Island Health must be preserved at
all costs. Think of the children, and generations to come.
Hangin’ out, Coffee, me & my IHT
The new Cafe Batujimbar itself is a worthy successor to it’s
two predecessors and takes the original warung concept to
the next level. Ade started her first café on the beach
at Batujimbar in 1979. It then moved in a more ambitious incarnation
to Jalan Tamblingan in 1990 and was the place to meet in Sanur
for a decade, though latterly it faded a bit, right along
with Sanur. The new café, which opened early April,
returns to the bosky purlieus of the Batujimbar Estate itself
and has a large forecourt for eating out under the trees,
while not being right on the street, and has an adjoining
car park. The building itself, designed by architect Hank
Voss, is open and airy with some interesting design features.
The huge coffee cup chandelier is certainly striking, though
will be the devil to dust. And making the loos a design feature
and their location is a curious if not eccentric decision
I’m not so sure about. It’s all somehow a bit
port-a-loo’ish but it all hangs together and works well.
It already has the look and feel of an old favourite.
The management are to be congratulated on resisting the temptation
to hike prices, in fact have kept them very reasonable and
the food remains fresh, simple and good, which is all anyone
with half a mind unbefuddled by foodie cant could possibly
want. There has long been tradition offering organic food
from Iskandar’s farm in Pupuan, which has been maintained
along with the signature Heliconia. You can now get a half
decent glass of various house wines at a reasonable
price, not the unpalatable local thimbleful you got before,
moreover The Pantry has a large wine cellar on the premises
from which you can buy and consume at a modest corkage of
Rp. 25K. Main courses come in at around Rp. 30K to Rp. 45K.
Good quality, very decent prices and a pleasant venue already
has le tout Sanur, such as it is, emerging from the woodwork,
or wherever it is they hang out. The news that CaféB
is back will no doubt spread and the place become a useful
oasis and meeting point, once again bridging the Ubud/Seminyak
divide.
Minor gripes: CaféB’s very creditable quesadilla
seems to have suffered in the transition and, where have the
newspapers and magazines that used to be on sale gone? Oh
yes, as before, if the place is anything like half full, expect
to wait a while for your food and don’t be a tourist
about it. It’s part of the charm.
