Breakfast on Pulau Dewata--a relaxed, reverential, island
of thousands of holy temples--is a form of prayer: the Balinese
ritually cleanse themselves first by washing their bodies
(traditionally necessitating a dawn walk through the rice
fields to a river for a chilly morning bath) and cleaning
up the kitchen before receiving spiritual nourishment from
the soul of the rice. The first meal of the day is a gift
from the benevolent gods, and is treated and eaten with silent
wonder and respect. Breakfast slowly begins on early morning
village streets, where passersby are waylaid by a head-on
collision of shallots sizzling and shrimp paste frying as
a scorching sambal of the gods is cooked for the main daily
meal. The senses are overwhelmed with spices as fragrant floating
leaves exude exotic, unknown scents from steaming, bamboo
cauldrons of cherished white rice. This olfactory bouquet—directed
heavenwards--boldly announces that breakfast, lunch, and dinner
are being prepared in the Balinese compound. Breakfast in
the sacred, sacrosanct “morning of the world”
begins with one of the most exotic, exquisite, and satisfying
taste sensations on planet earth: a delicious, typical, local
Balinese breakfast food called bubur mebasa. Bubur mebasa
(bubur means porridge in Bahasa Indonesia, and basa means
spice in Balinese) is a rice porridge with saffron, Balinese
spice paste, and tasty green leaves found only on a rare tree
(bulan baon) sequestered in select housing compound gardens
(and also--somewhat secretly—sold in the markets). Crowned
with fried shallots and served on a banana leaf (if you’re
Balinese), or in a bowl for crockery-dependent Westerners,
this dish is out of this world (and you will love the flavorful,
fragrant, forbidden leaf delicacy!). Bubur mebasa saur is
another porridge-like, Balinese breakfast rice soup—blessed
with toasted coconut sauce and traditionally placed on a bright
green, environmentally friendly, banana leaf receptacle. Flavored
with salam leaves, it is often served with fried shallots,
a hard-boiled egg, diced cooked chicken, or any easily digestible
food (at home, the Balinese make bubur for people who are
sick, depleted of energy, or for small children). Bali boasts
an entire exotic range of these velvety breakfast or snack
porridges: bubur sumsum is a creamy rice porridge with palm
sugar, rice flour, and coconut milk. Bubur mengguh is porridge
mixed with meat (chicken or fish), vegetable, and spices—ususally
served on special occasions like family gatherings. Old-fashioned
compound bubur consists of soft-boiled rice topped with steamed
greens and soy sprouts mixed with shredded coconut, shrimp
paste, chilli seasoning, and coconut sauce.
The Balinese breakfast menu (morning food, or makan pagi)
also offers freshly cooked, fried golden bananas or local
Balinese rice cakes (jaja) composed of rice flour dough, coconut,
and palm sugar and a piping hot, very sweet glass of thick,
heavenly-smelling, locally grown, black kopi Bali with extra
sugar (no milk, as it is too expensive). Industrious village
women wake up before sunrise to fry banjar-size quantities
of hot, golden, vanilla-scented bananas in batter (pisang
goreng) and walk door to door in the early morning selling
the warm sweet fritters from a native, bamboo carrying basket.
Freshly cooked in the wee hours, hot off the oven jaja are
available in the village market stalls by dawn: a wife might
buy a tasty breakfast treat for herself and her husband consisting
of a few small, moist rice cakes (jaja) sprinkled with fresh
coconut and palm sugar syrup. Sweet, soft, springroll-shaped
coconut pancakes (dadar) are a standard Balinese breakfast
food with the bubbly, chewey texture and consistency of Ethopian
injera bread (a springy, sour, airy flat bread made with teff—a
tiny, round, indigenous grain). Thin, blintz-like dadar unti
(rice flour, sugar, salt, egg, and coconut milk pancakes)
are renowned for their sweet, grated fried coconut, bruised
pandanus leaf, and palm sugar syrup filling known as unti.
Dadar gulung (roll) is a rolled pancake stuffed with an internal
DNA of freshly grated coconut and palm sugar. Urab jagung
(sweet corn kernels integrated into grated coconut, sugar,
salt, and coconut cream), and jaja injin (steamed black and
white glutinous rice, pandanus leaves, grated coconut, and
coconut cream with palm sugar syrup) also fortify the Balinese
in the early morning hours. Warung regulars break the overnight
fast with a variation of fried bananas called jaja pulung
biu (fried, mashed, overripe bananas) served with hot, super-sweet,
muddy morning coffee.
Some Balinese make fried rice in the morning or purchase small
portions of rice with vegetables as breakfast at a nearby
warung. Typical local warung breakfasts consist of spicy free-range
chicken, coconut vegetables, salted egg, and sambal combined
into a mini-feast for 10,000Rp. Village grandmas sell sticky
rice, nasi campur, and sweet or savory rice porridges (bubur)
in the local markets as early morning, take-out breakfast
fare wrapped up in waxy, flexible green banana leaves. Many
market-goers indulge in a plastic bag take-out breakfast of
fried creamy tofu in fiery chilli sauce topped with crunchy,
tofu skin remnants. Another luxurious, mouth-watering morning
repast is black rice pudding, or bubuh injin (bubuh is pudding
and injin is black rice). Dense in texture, warm in flavor,
and full of home-cooked goodness, it is made with black, glutinous
rice (or combined with a small admixture of white glutinous
rice) cooked with brown palm sugar syrup, vanilla bean, pandanus
leaf, and salt topped with white (roasted) coconut milk (or
thick coconut cream), fresh coconut shavings, palm sugar syrup,
or banana wedges—served hot and deliciously addictive
at room temperature. (The Balinese normally buy it from a
warung because it takes time to prepare, and they often eat
it as a substantial afternoon snack.)
