Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

Lucky for you, you’re Australian (assuming) and will never have to worry about any of these photos being used against you if you were running for President of the US.
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Sense of Humour Roy. You must be getting mellow in your old age

So, what did those ladies cook up, and how "were things" in the morning, or is your constitution already used to pedas?[/

More humour As an aside I find it difficult to "go" without eating Pedas food.....or is that too much information.

Congratulations on your wedding Adam and Ani.

Wishing you a long and happy life together.

Best regards

Allan & Ina

Nice to see you posting Allan. I hope you stay around. Ina been cooking anything nice recently?

Hi Allan, thanks to you and Ina and thanks again for the help with the visa, just got our fingers crossed now.

No probs with the pedas food, Javanese ceremonial food for the most part isn't anywhere near as spicy as what Balinese cooking is. Though having said that my wife can't get enough chilli and has throat scorching sambal with everything but ice cream. Something I've observed is that the women in Indo like their food heaps spicier than what the men do, true or false? Heat doesn't bother me its just I really don't like the flavour of chilli (or capsicum/peppers) but can handle pepper (merica) by the bucket load, which strangely the locals view as spicier than chilli's! I'm blessed with a cast iron gut and have never had a stomach complaint in Indo, which is surprising because I live pretty rough over there and have had my fair share of river baths and consumed heaps of dodgy well water.

They cook 2 'sets' of food. The food in the white china bowls is just soto ayam with nasi, carrots, soybean sprouts and roast chicken. This is what everybody (everybody being all the men plus the bride cos its a man only affair, though judging by the size of some of the ladies in our kampung this isn't such a bad thing!) eats after the ceremony. The food in the orange bungkus bowls is given to all the men who attend and is taken back home to share with the family. Its a big layer of nasi then a banana leaf with ayam goreng, kare sapi, tofu goreng, chopped tempe goreng, a boiled egg and vegies with shredded coconut. This is pretty much staple tucker for all ceremonies, such as funerals, in our neck of the woods. How they cook such volumes of food with just a tiny kerosene stove astounds me!

Adz

Thanks Jimbo. Ina is pretty busy with work and study now but she does have a few new videos up on her YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/inaricci. The tabouli one is good I think.

No worries Adam, glad to help. BTW I got so pissed off with all the documentation required by DIMIA that we just sent the absolute bare minimum for the final stage, the PR visa, half of what they asked for. I thought to myself to hell with them, what are they going to do send Ina back to Indonesia? Five months later we hadn't heard anything and Ina wanted to enroll in a TAFE course which is ten times the price if you don't have PR. I rang DIMIA and spoke to a receptionist who was quite rude and dismissive but passed me on to a supervisor. He looked up our records and said "sorry we've have a five month backlog and we haven't looked at you're application yet but no worries I can give you approval now and you will have the visa tomorrow". So she has PR now and it only took three and a half years!

Your photos of the pedas dishes are making me hungry. I think you might be right about Javanese girls. Ina can't live without chilli. We have about twenty chilli plants growing in the garden. I guess I'm lucky I really like the flavour especially straight from the garden. It makes a huge difference when they are just picked.

Hi Al,

Yep I'm starting to get a bit pissed off too. The lady at the visa application centre complimented us on the most complete application she'd ever seen. However, they keep requesting a stream of Surat Pernyataan's from notaris' in relation to various issues. This wasn't such a drama when we were in Bali but it isn't so easy for Ani now she's back in Java, poor bugger. On the plus side, I guess they wouldn't be asking for them if were going to say outright no, hey? She's already had a phone interview, that happened just 2 weeks after we submitted the application. We were still asleep in bed when the case officer rang, good evidence of the genuiness of our relationship I spose! I'm feeling positive vibes - but by the same token I don't want to get my hopes up either. On the plus side, Ani's really keen to get the hell out of Indo, she's finally stopped being nervous about making the move and wants a break from it all. Please say Gday to Ina from us.

Adam

C ongrats !! What a pretty wife you have and good luck to both of you . And man oh man those dishes of food look really good , yum .

Thanks Jimbo. Ina is pretty busy with work and study now but she does have a few new videos up on her YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/inaricci. The tabouli one is good I think.

What is a good Indonesian girl doing making an Arabic salad

Adam

I hope all works well for you. I remember when I first took my wife and our then two children back to the UK and the difficulties we had with the Embassy in Jakarta. I rember sending them a picture of myself, Maria and the children. The children had blonde hair and were the spitting image of me. After they got the photo (proof) there was no further problem and the visa's were issued within an hour.