Balinese Cooking Equipment: Old and New

As you might imagine, there is a combination of the traditional and the new in Balinese cook ware. Metal cooking pots and woks combine with more traditional pottery cooking vessels. Most families used to cook over a wood-burning stove of some sort—as they have all over the world. And gradually kitchens have become equipped with gas/propane or other kinds of burners.

These are pieces of equipment I saw used in Bali. How common the pottery pieces are in more modern settings is hard for me to know. Of course they are the ones I covet.

Ulekan, the Balinese mortar and pestle, used to grind up the ingredients for Bumbu Bali. An Australian chef told me that he carried an extremely weighty ulekan in his back pack onto the plane home. He said that it was hard to look casual walking onto the plane.

Cutting board and knife. The cutting board is a cross section of a tree trunk. You see the stain of the fresh turmeric on the board.

Wok. Such a useful cooking pan.

Metal cooking pot for simmering Bumbu Bali or any of the curry dishes we prepared.

Steamer. The bottom part of the steamer is generally made of metal. The steamer basket is woven. The lid placed over the basket is often pottery.

Banana leaves are incredibly useful wrappers of food to be steamed.



















Pottery. I wanted so much to bring some of these pottery pieces home with me. But I would have had to spend a lot of time locating the shops that sell them and then getting them shipped. I decided against it and hoped against hope that I could find an importer who was bringing them into the US. No such luck. I will make do, of course, with what I have.

A shallow pan for roasting coffee beans over a fire.

New in the market, but can you imagine me carrying these home on the plane?

Round pottery dish with indentations for rice cakes which are served with freshly grated coconut and drizzled with palm sugar syrup.