Bali: To market, to market

Oh how I love markets. I make no secret of it. Sure, I like buying cheap things, but the main reason is I love the chaos! So the housewife yelling, shin bumping, meat smelling, incense burning, slippery floored quagmire of the daily morning Ubud farmers market was a particular treat.

You have to be keen, because it starts early. Before 6am. Before the heat kicks in and spoils all the food. And maybe more impotantly, before it melts the mums schlepping about with heavy baskets perched on their hips and heads, trying to sort out their families meals and offerings for the week.

Farmers' utes lined up in the Ubud market carpark, lined with baskets of fruit and vegetables 

A lady sells colourful flowers (used for offerings), garlic cloves and chillis

Mountains of dried fish, noodles and seasoning

A chicken, obviously

Above left: Cakes! 

Above right: Fruit, eggs and other essentials.

We also paid a visit to another craft market, renowned for being even cheaper than Ubud, and filled with crafty nick nacks, in the Sukawati village. I have to say, the quality at most of these markets' craft goods is not great, and you certainly get what you pay for. A lot of pieces are mass produced replicas of more traditional pieces and they will of course tell you almost anything for a sale. So if you are going to these markets to shop, my advice is to use your head, pick what you buy with care, and take everything the shopkeepers say with a grain of salt. You do need to negotiate becuse otherwise you will be stupidly ripped off (just wander into a supermarket early in your trip if you need a point of comparison). But despite all of that, I also think its good to negotiate in good faith and pay a reasonable price. Indonesia is a developing country and lots of people earn less than half of what you earn in an hour, for their entire days hard work.

Entry to Sukawati market

Nevertheless, Sukawati certainly has a lot of stuff for sale. Fabrics, beads, dresses, bags, the notorious Bintang t-shirts,  carvings, hats, etc. It was really hot when we arrived, and although I wanted to explore more, the muggy tarp-built tents in the back area had the combined effect of somewhere between a sauna and a convection oven. After buying an armload of brightly coloured wooden beads for my girlfriends back home, I almost passed out. So despite any vague intentions of extended gift buying, I just took photos instead. 

Yep, bags and thongs, you got it

Like a turtle, one savvy Sukawati shop-keeper carries her hat shop on her head. Or something.

Get your rainbow body bling right here

Note: If you'd like to start at the beginning of this thread of Bali posts, go back here. 

Feeling bitter? Have a corn fritter (or golden moon pancake)

Actually, this afternoon I was in a perfectly good mood, not bitter at all. But my batteries were starting to run out and I could feel myself growing grumpy at silly little things like pictures on the internet not loading fast enough, or the back door slamming in the wind. Thankfully, yesterday my friend Ine and I made corn fritters, and I had plenty of the mix left over. Fritters saved the day!

Fritters are the easiest thing in the world to make. And I used one of those recipes that must have been made and refined by mums over generations because, as you will see, the ingredients are in suspiciously convenient portions. I can almost imagine a busy mum with a baby hoisted on one hip and toddler crashing about on the kitchen floor with the tupperware, while she cooks this one handed. Its super! I should add this to the 'future supermum' recipe folder, you know, because I have one of those.

Oh and because they're yellow, and kind of lunarscaped, and I am a child...I'm calling them golden moon pancakes!

Golden moon pancakes:

• 1 can of corn (dont throw out the juice!)
• 1 cup of plain flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 generous grind of pepper
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 eggs
• oil, margarine, or butter for cooking (depending on your degree of healthiness denial you can determine the amount of 'fry' in your fritter. With a non stick pan you could use none.)
• topping ideas: sour cream, chives or spring onion, smoked salmon and capers.

1. Put the corn juice and eggs into a bowl and whisk them together til its all one yellow colour. 
2. Sift in the flour and add the salt, pepper, sugar and baking powder. Mush* it together with a spoon until its not lumpy.
3. Add the corn, and if it looks a bit runny, add a bit more flour.
4. Add oil to the fry pan (or melt butter) and warm it on a medium heat. Spoon the mixture onto the pan, making 6 or so pancakes at a time, leaving room for them to spread out a bit. Cook for a few minutes.
5. Once the undersides firm up (and you can lift one to check that the colour is golden brown) flip them over and give them a few more minutes on the other side.
6. Remove from the pan and use paper towel to soak off excess oil.
7. You can just eat them as is, but they're quite yummy served with a crunchy salad, and topped with nice things like capers, sour cream etc!

* Mushing = a form of stirring using the back of the spoon to push the mixture up against the side of the bowl to get rid of lumps. Yep. Its a technical term.

- Nelle -