BALI’S TRADITIONAL DISH AND ITS RELATION TO RITUALS

Bali known as an island  with nearly 80% of the balinese people are majorities of hindusm adherents,called Hindu Dharma. where in their daily life can not be separate from their customs and rich of rituals ceremony. various offerings includes Babi guling  is often offered during the ceremony.Babi guling is one of the most important stuff  on hinduism ceremony suck as for wedding ceremony ,three months new born Baby ceremony,funeral and many more. Nowdays , babi guling is not just part of the ceremony’s offers only. but in reality its became a prestige culinary business caused by the increase of tourist visits every year, population, food needed and complexity of the local activities.it has given really wide chances to open a small babi guling food stand (locally called warung ) or even a restaurant which based on original local dish.

Babi guling ( suckling pig roasted) is originally called” be guling”.Be locally means the assence of Meat ( it can substitute from other animal instead pig) and guling means rolled over wood,coconut skin or charcoal fire( it is not baked in the oven for sure). So babi guling or be guling is a roasting process of the whole meat of pig or others which is always rolled over the fire for some certain of time(3-4 hours) until its get cook and the color is changed into brown and mostly the skin of the meat become crispy.and commonly we choose the young pig with the average weight between 30kg -40 kg .sometimes, for any reason of the ritual needs,we made also the huge babi guling with almost 100 kg pig, for e.g. a ceremony to pay a promise(sesangi or sesaudan) if something you wished for came true.

THE PROCESS TO MAKE BABI GULING

Anyway, to make Babi guling takes a lots of process.starting from preparing the sauces which made from the complete Balinese spices ingredients such as Galangal,aromatic ginger,ginger,domestic curcuma,garlic,onion,fresh chilli papers  and many more. A good composition of those ingredients create a complete Balinese sauce called Base gede. This sauce is the basic of all Balinese food such Lawar, jejeruk,tum,jukut ares or jukut balung  and etc , with some of addition required sauces.so when the sauce part is done ,then they’ve got to catch the pig from their cage or  even from the wild ,hehe…

The whole process of making babi guling takes totally between 4-5 hours  and normally has to work on team. started  with slaughtering the pig (they collect its fresh blood for other balinese food called lawar ). Then cleaning the skin out with fire or hot water. This process takes a little bit longer while has to be all everything  cleaned and shinny before we take out the innards contents from the pig belly. then we have to separate the clean pig part from its innards contents to get ready  for roasting the pig. in Bali  it has not a special slaughter house where a ready pig for babi guling available .While the whole pig is clean and ready  to be roasted with the special roasting stick wood or Bamboo.in the pig’s belly we put the mix of young cassava leaves and some of the base gede which has made in the beginning.beside of that, the fire has to be sure ready before they begin to rolled over it.in this process will take another 3 hours even more.they have still to work on team where one person has to rolled the pig over the fire always and the other has to manage the fire for giving a nice and smooth heat for a better fire’s circumstance. the Babi guling will get well cook when it gets the color changed into deep shiny brow,of course not burned and the skin gets crispy but for some part it won’t get that crispy or crunchy. as they supposed to have the most delicious part is the crispy skin and a juicy tender meat with a perfect blending of cassava leaves and base gede itself cook in the pig belly during the roasting process. then, it has to be taken out from the fire when the Babi guling is done.so it is ready used for an offerings on ceremony at first or directly used for the party.

WORTH IT TO TRY ?

Eating Babi guling is not just about consuming  a juicy tender meat at all.but it is a unique blending  taste of the meat itself with a complex taste of Balinese sauce or base gede.it melt in the mouth which gave a real taste of the  authentic Balinese  food to be enjoyed.in Bali to have a portion of babi guling is always serve with a big mixture from steamed rice,a juicy meat of the babi guling itself ,the vegetable of cassava leave which is cook together along the process.it comes also with lawar, some grated coconut mixed with a fine chopped fork and base gede with the fried onion and garlic( originally this food also mixed with fresh blood for red lawar and white lawar without blood).usually for the tourist or non Balinese will serve only with white lawar.  other things,it may comes with Balinese sausages,sate lilit ( a mixed of minced fork or other meats with soft grated of coconut and skewed on a bamboo stick and grilled),and some of fried innards or fork itself. The last normally serve in a bowl is fork bones soup(jukut balung) which also taste so much different  with those all mixture. So the question is, worth it to try when you are in Bali ? ok, if you are a non muslim or meat lover,  the answer is “ yes ,it is !”. it is worth to try cause it really safe food by processed in fine way and having rich mixture of taste of a complex ingredients of Balinese base gede. Also one thing you should ask before you try this food is” no spicy “. Cause commonly the Balinese food is spicy for most otherwise you will have burned lips  afterward. it might be also as an alternative food references while you are having holiday in our beautiful and religious Bali island.

Eventually with all of our respects and appreciation to all of our visitors  in Bali. hopefully this article could be worthwhile for your alternative Balinese authentic food instead of others  Balinese delicate dishes. it might also raising up the economic and help  the local Balinese people with supports and contribution by purchased their local products.  Without trying or taste the local Balinese food ,you will never get to know the real Bali ever.

created by bli gojink bali