Vivienne Kruger was born and grew up in Manhattan, New York. She graduated with a MA, M.Phil., and Ph.D. in American history from Columbia University. Her interests are reading, writing, swimming, yoga, exercising, visiting wildlife parks and aquariums, and surfing the Net. Vivienne is now based in Darwin, Australia where she enjoys looking for crocodiles on the beach, taking trips to the outback, and luxuriating in the tropics. Vivienne is also the author of the “Food for the Gods” column in the Bali Advertiser and recently stayed up all night in Nusa Lembongan drinking homemade village arak with a fearless troupe of Aussies, South Africans, and hotel room boys solely for the edification of her loyal and curious Bali Advertiser readers.
How did you first become interested in Indonesia?
I took a one-week overland tour across Java, including a freezing cold, pre-sunrise jaunt up Mt. Bromo before sunrise, in 1993. The trip ended in Bali which was then unknown to me. I fell in love with the exotic Island of the Gods at first sight.
Have you traveled extensively in Indonesia?
I’ve been Sumatra, Lombok, Flores, Sulawesi, and Java.
What’s the most exciting destination you’ve visited in this country?
Way Kanaan and Way Kambaas national parks, deep in elephant country near Bandar Lampung in southern Sumatra.
What is your favorite place in Indonesia?
Bali, including its sister island of Nusa Lembongan, is my favorite place in Indonesia. It is a place blessed by the gods with kind, friendly people, smiles from the heart, a lovely Bali-Hindu religious philosophy, equatorial flora and fauna, and luscious white beaches. Everything is possible in spiritual Bali.
What kinds of work have you done in your life?
I worked as a compliance auditor-monitor/business consultant checking voluminous corporate records for compliance with U.S. federal regulations.
Why do you like going back to Australia?
Darwin, Australia has perpetual summer, abundant crocodiles, a gorgeous wet season and dramatic electrical storms. At the city’s semi-sinful Sky City Casino, outstanding club sandwiches and unlimited free hot tea keep the home fires burning. I also enjoy looking at the striking, white naso brevirostris unicorn fish in the Casino’s Aqua Aquarium.
How did you become interested in writing a column on Balinese food?
I approached Bali Advertiser with the Balinese food column concept. I was originally writing the biography of a prominent Balinese restaurateur and businesswoman, got sidetracked into food, and have since invested three years researching the traditional cuisine of Bali.
In what ways is Balinese food unique among the great cuisines of the world?
Balinese food is singular among the leading cuisines of the world: dedicated to the gods and fueled by an aromatic array of achingly fresh spices, this time-consuming, highly manual culinary art is inextricably bound to this one island’s Bali-Hindu religion, culture and community life.
What is the purpose of the food column?
My column educates and informs the expatriate community, many excited and interested tourists, as well as the Balinese themselves about traditional, often sacred—yet very elusive—ceremonial and village food. Lucky strangers in paradise can most easily approach and understand a foreign country, its people, and its culture through its food.
Do you research information in your column first hand or do you use second-hand sources?
I repeatedly engaged in first-hand, high-risk, “extreme eating” (worthy of a “Survivor” episode) to research the mysterious, inscrutable, sacred cuisine of Bali. I personally sampled such adventure nourishment as fern tips, nasi bungkus packets with the beach ladies, home-made village-grilled pindang, sambal matah, rock hard taop nuts, yeast-infested and flecked tape and tempe, beachside jagung bakar, rice ketupat (in Singapore), endless rows of sate ayam and sate lilit, black rice pudding, and countless colorful local fruits and palm sugar and coconut-based desserts (kue mangkok, sumping, dadar guling, jaja laklak, onde-onde). I swallowed a ghastly, slippery, rubbery ritual meat (or dare I say organ meat) object at a high-caste purification ceremony in Ubud in order not to offend the officiating priest. As for second hand sources, I’ve interviewed hundreds of helpful Balinese friends in an endless scholarly quest for culinary and cultural perfection, clarity and accuracy.
Do you adhere to certain principles in the research process?
I draw the line at two very popular Balinese food sources—penyu (turtle) and poor, skinny, suffering anjing (dogs). I will not contribute to the death, discomfort, slaughter and misery of Bali’s stray dogs by partaking in the island’s very troubled “RW stall” saté de chien feasts. (But, I did indulge in witchetty grub, kangaroo, camel, and crocodile in Australia!)
Do you take your own photographs?
Over the course of 2007, I amassed over I,000 original, copyrighted photos of the traditional foods of Bali—from the barnyard to the temple to the “final resting plate.” I crawled and slipped through wet, muddy rice fields photographing dragonflies and ducks, pursued live chicken delivery trucks down the side roads of Ubud, and invaded a dark, dank, Dickensian tofu factory in Seririt. I snapped saté stick offerings at a cremation ceremony on Kuta Beach, goat saté sellers in Lovina (trophy display leg, hoof, and skin waving in the breeze), and jukung fishermen bringing in the morning mackerel catch at the break of dawn.
Does your Food of the Gods column have a hidden agenda, such as an environmental, animal rights, or conservation message?
Most Balinese live close to the hunger line—they therefore continue to consume everything from dragonflies to endangered sea turtles (in contravention of the law) to street (and even their neighbors’) dogs. This is a severe shock to humanitarian and western sensibilities, which see and treat canines as beloved house pets and family members. Bali’s sea turtles need to be removed from the dinner plate, and Bali’s precious dogs need love, compassion, food, water, affection, and stable family homes. I recently adopted a loyal, loving beach dog, Chessie, and she and these other beautiful dogs do not deserve to be abused, hit, kidnapped, killed, and roasted onto saté sticks by the local population.
Do you have any future plans?
My book Food of the Gods: The Traditional Cuisine of Bali, is headed for publication and should be available in bookstores worldwide (and through www.amazon.com) in 2008. A mainstream publishing house is being sought and all inquiries from publishers and editors are welcome. It will contain revised, updated, and expanded chapters (based on my Bali Advertiser columns), embellished with original photographs, museum artwork reprints, and loads of authentic mouth-watering Balinese recipes.
Where can my readers learn more about your work?
They may read my Ph.D. thesis, “Born to Run: The Slave Family in Early New York, 1626-1827” at www.newyorkslavery.blogspot.com or at www.geocities.com/newyorkslavery.
