Bali

Island of temples, rice terraces, and a bird that almost vanished.

Your host · Indonesian

Wayan

Temple-island host

Wayan ties an udeng and a kain before he speaks. He will tell you the jalak Bali almost disappeared, and that salak still grows behind the house.

Bali is a Hindu island in a Muslim archipelago, speaking Indonesian and Balinese. The fields step down to the Indian Ocean. Offerings are made before breakfast.

Field notes

10 fruits

Snake fruit
Salak
Salacca zalacca
Scaly brown skin, crisp apple-pear flesh, grown in Karangasem as a Balinese signature.
Mangosteen
Manggis
Garcinia mangostana
Purple rind, snow interior. A wet-season stall fruit.
Rambutan
Rambutan
Nephelium lappaceum
Hairy red, sold in bunches from a bicycle in Ubud rain.
Durian
Durian
Durio zibethinus
Local durian is smaller and muskier than the export giants. Loved in the villages.
Mango
Mangga
Mangifera indica
Eaten green with sambal, or ripe and dripping on a stone wall.
Banana
Pisang
Musa
A family of varieties. Pisang goreng is the afternoon.
Papaya
Pepaya
Carica papaya
Leaf, flower, and fruit all enter the kitchen. Ripe at breakfast.
Pineapple
Nanas
Ananas comosus
Grown in the drier north, sold in spears with chili salt.
Coconut
Kelapa
Cocos nucifera
The tree of offerings. Young coconut water, grated flesh, oil, and temple baskets.
Jackfruit
Nangka
Artocarpus heterophyllus
Young nangka in a gudeg-adjacent curry; ripe bulbs sold in plastic.