At the World Culture Forum held in Nusa Dua late November, renowned cultural expert and multilingual writer Jean Couteau represented Indonesia in the symposium "Holistic Approaches to Culture in Sustainable Development".

In an impassioned speech, he delved into a subject dear to many people, making direct reference to the theme of the forum in relation to Bali.

The four-day event, presented by the Education and Culture Ministry in conjunction with UNESCO, dubbed "The Power of Culture in Sustainable Development", featured discussions between hundreds of foreign dignitaries along with some of the finest cultural observers on the planet. It aimed to examine ideas to include culture in the goals for the post-2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda. Highlighted was the need for new approaches to the development of the planet focused on sustainability and equality.

In the symposium, it was stated that indigenous cultures could be a great hindrance to economic progress. If so, then should we not consider changing the economic model championed by the world's corporate governments?

Yet, insisted Couteau, the bulldozer of the contemporary capitalist economies turned everything into commodities. As land and labor were turned into commodities and the peasantry urbanized, the traditional agrarian economies were being destroyed, and the cultural traditions associated with them were not productive anymore and allowed to wither away.

As the control of the world's resources passes into the hands of the elite, local and international, the grinding capitalist machine standardizes everything and the people's original cultural memory is being lost.

The only elements of local memory that are preserved are those that become iconic of national or ethnic identity and can thus be turned into commodities, which means eventually into folklore. This engineered tradition is celebrated in seminars and conferences in the name of the nation and globalized in the media in the name of an exotic identity, but the cultural leftovers of the original traditions are neglected and thus inevitably seem bound to disappear.

Yet no society can flourish without culture for it is essential to build bridges between people and institutions — for culture is who we are. In the "new world", culture will be the key enricher of economic development, but it will be so only if we preserve the world cultural diversity and confront the standardizing machine of today's globalized modernity.

For an economic model to be sustainable it must be people-orientated and morally responsible, reflecting people's core values, while unlocking their potential at generating a new contemporary modernity that is as much based as possible on the original traditions.

The alternative is to have Disneyland masqueraded as Indonesian through a touch of wayang kulit (the Indonesian shadow puppet performances) and Balinese dance. Was that culture, asked Couteau.

What remains of the memory of old should be systematically recorded, documented and translated, and it is here where he emphasized our beloved Bali.

To do this, Couteau said, we had between 20-40 years left, or the remaining life expectancy of people whose memory was shaped by their local culture before the introduction of television and other modern media, which were quickly altering the transmission of knowledge.

This is a plea to bring the issue of the preservation of the cultural memory of Bali into your hearts and minds, and to sway the collective consciousness for the better. Here begins the mechanism of change.

In an era of rapid transformation and "cheap modern thrills" let us all think earnestly about what it is we are willing to sacrifice, and what is the legacy we wish to leave behind.

_________________

Richard Horstman is a cultural observer residing in Ubud.

In her acclaimed memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert's desire to travel was sparked by the loss of her husband; my own wanderlust was motivated by the imminent loss of my mother. I'd venture to guess that although our catalysts were different, we were both driven by a quest for peace—a desperate hope that exploring the world might provide the answers we were seeking.

Unfortunately, I had neither time nor money to take 12 months off for vacation, so my eat, pray, live journey took three years! But in the end, I found what I was seeking… and more.

Traveling to the opposite end of the world when your mom is terminally ill might sound like an odd thing to do, but I'll be honest in saying that when I began planning, I never imagined she'd still be with us. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I envisioned the trip would be a way of recharging "after." And somewhere at the front of my mind, I worried that I would get "the call" at the airport and have to head home. Either way, I comforted myself with thoughts of how devoted I'd been in the seven years since Parkinson's disease changed our lives, and reminded myself that my mom—always a lover of adventure—wouldn't want me to stop living.

It was my 40th birthday, so I decided it was time for the trip of a lifetime. Bali was a mere 24 hours away by plane, but well worth every minute.

I'll spare the details of my travel delirium and of our brief detour to Singapore (the cleanest city I've ever seen), and skip straight to the moment when my girlfriends and I stepped off the plane in Denpasar. We moved swiftly through customs, noting signs that said "the penalty for drug trafficking is death," and on to the money exchange, where we each got over two million rupiah in exchange for about $175. (Try doing the math on that!) Finally, we reclaimed our bags, looked for the sign with my name, and breathed a sigh of relief that our driver, Yudi, was there.

On the way to our rented villa in Nusa Dua, I tried to relax and find the peace I'd envisioned, but instead I began worrying about all the things that could go wrong. What if the villa didn't look like the photos? What if it didn't exist at all? Here I was on the other side of the world with a 12-hour time difference in a land where I didn't understand the language or know the culture. How would I survive? A rooster crossing the road as we passed by one of many shanties only heightened my fears.

But then it happened. We rounded a corner and gates opened to reveal the most beautiful resort grounds I'd ever seen. Minutes later, we stepped into the large family room of our three-bedroom home, where a staff of six greeted us with virgin mojitos and peaceful Balinese music playing in the background. Yes, peace lived here.

Over the next seven days, and under the watchful eye of our guide, my five girlfriends and I explored as much of Bali as we could. We sampled the beaches, giving credit to the waves in Kuta that were likely a surfer's dream, but ultimately preferring the calm turquoise waters in Nusa Dua. We visited numerous boutiques in the ex-pat community in Seminyak, but found our real treasures in the silver shops and flea markets where bargaining was the rule not exception. On the road to Ubud, I even stumbled upon a life-sized original piece of art that I negotiated down to $100—a steal in any country.

And did I mention the food? We had some of our best meals at places with no walls, including Blue Ocean—a restaurant where you pointed to the live seafood of your choice then found a seat out on the sand to watch the sunset while your meal was cooked. We also discovered a quaint hut in the rice fields where we sat on pillows and enjoyed the spiciest noodles I've ever tasted. Or what about the park where we rode elephants, or the holistic center in Ubud where we took an impromptu yoga class? No summary would be complete without paying homage to all of the beautiful temples, including the infamous Tanah Lot rock formation that (even with the little monkeys that scared me to death) was worth every minute of the two hour drive to get there.

All in all though, my favorite part of Bali wasn't any of the material things; it was something far less tangible. There was an energy of gratitude that permeated everything and everyone. The way people left offerings at their doors as a sacrifice each day, and had tributes to their beliefs sprinkled throughout their homes and businesses. The way a Thai restaurant displayed a picture of the king of Thailand as a thank you for allowing them to serve their food in Bali and in hopes that the good energy would pass to everyone who ate there. The way people happily lived without the material items we cling to as necessities in America.

Yes, I went to Bali in hopes of regaining my peace during a difficult time, and after a week there I came back with a renewed sense of gratitude—determined to live each and every day to the fullest, and to enjoy every moment with my mom in celebration of a tomorrow not promised.

The stakes for the Bali Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization from Dec. 3 to Dec. 6 could hardly be higher. With hundreds of bilateral and regional trade deals being negotiated worldwide, the Geneva-based WTO risks being permanently eclipsed as a forum for the negotiation of market-opening, growth-producing trade agreements on a global scale.

Under the leadership of new Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, the WTO has a chance to clinch a commercially significant Bali accord. At its heart would be a trade-facilitation agreement, and new commitments on development and agriculture would be included as well. But time is running out.

To say the WTO needs a win is an understatement. As U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has noted, the WTO has not concluded a single new multilateral trade agreement since it was created in 1995.

For its part, the U.S. business community needs the WTO today more than ever. Our strong preference has always been to pursue multilateral trade agreements, which tear down trade barriers comprehensively across the globe.

Together with its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the WTO has ushered in a 40-fold increase in world trade since the end of World War II. Global trade topped $22 trillion last year, and the worldwide exchange of goods and services has allowed incomes to rise in country after country.

Mr. Azevêdo is tackling the WTO's challenges head on. Formerly a Brazilian trade diplomat, he has won respect in Geneva for his insight into the WTO's rules and its members' interests. He has reinvigorated the negotiations with a single-minded focus on the Bali Ministerial.

The top priority is to finalize a strong and binding trade-facilitation agreement, which would boost economic growth and raise living standards worldwide. Such an agreement would recognize that businesses today create goods by tapping into a web of global value chains that provide access to raw materials and intermediate goods from all around the world.

In this new reality, red tape and choke points at the border have the same detrimental impact on trade as tariffs. Streamlining the flow of trade will save time and money, particularly for family farmers and small businesses trying to connect to potential customers worldwide.

Indeed, the developing world would be the chief beneficiary of a trade-facilitation agreement. It would reduce trade costs for developing countries by an estimated 14 percent (and 10 percent for developed countries), according to Froman. Such an agreement could boost the world economy by as much as $1 trillion and generate more than 20 million jobs, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

While it isn't likely to be part of a Bali package, the WTO is also poised to show its value in negotiations to expand the product coverage of the Information Technology Agreement, which has helped deliver a cornucopia of technology products to the world. Seventy countries are parties to the ITA, and they account for 97 percent of world trade in IT goods.

Today, however, a host of tech products invented since the ITA was negotiated in 1996 are not included. Among these are GPS systems, game consoles, Bluetooth devices and flat-panel televisions. Extending free trade to these new products would multiply the ITA's benefits.

Also under way in Geneva are negotiations for a new Trade in Services Agreement among more than 50 countries. Service industries already account for 70 percent of global gross domestic product and employ about 70 percent of employment worldwide, according to analyst Edward Gresser.

The TISA is needed because service-sector companies have seen regulatory barriers to trade multiply in recent years. New challenges to trade in services are particularly prevalent in the digital economy, which is driving a big share of U.S. economic growth. Tearing down barriers that shut services companies out of global markets will boost growth worldwide.

But above all, the WTO must shake off the gridlock of recent years and show it can deliver the goods in Bali. A substantial package with trade facilitation at its core could revitalize the WTO; failing to grasp it now could plunge the WTO to new depths. With prosperity on the line, let's make the right choice.

Thomas J. Donohue is president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses.

(Cashew nut snack, roasted and salted (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In eastern Bali, where the climate is dry and the soil unforgiving, just about the only trees that thrive are those producing cashew apples. But  while the residents depend on their crops for sustenance, perhaps 90% of the processing is done in places like Vietnam and India. Meaning: Most of the money is made elsewhere; the average income is $2 a day.

That's why Aaron Fishman, who moved there with his wife, Lindsay, about two years ago, decided the time was right to start a cashew processing plant smack dab in the rural village of Ban, where they resided. And thanks to an unusual partnership with private equity firm KKR and Shujog, a Singapore-based non-profit focused on social enterprises in Asia, he's made it happen. His East Bali Cashews, the first large-scale cashew processing plant in Bali, employs more than 200 local workers using eco-friendly practices to unshell, package and sell the food.

What's more, he recently raised $900,000 to expand the plant and, eventually, move to other locations.

How did  he raise all those funds? About a year after the company started up, KKR, interested in working with a social entrepreneurial venture, approached Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), a Singapore-based investment platform for social enterprises (I wrote about them several months ago), to help find a growing social venture they could work with.

Fishman had already approached IIX for funding, but had been told he first needed to prove the concept. By scraping together money from friends and family, and leaning on credit cards, he was able to get up and running, and was ready to show potential investors he'd provided the proof. At the point at which KKR approached IIX, Fishman was sorely in need of working capital, looking to quintuple his warehouse capacity and triple revenues and, he says, "to go about raising the money more professionally."

When he approached IIX again, his timing was perfect. KKR decided to  provide funding for IIX through the Singapore company's non-profit sister organization Shujog, allowing the enterprise to do a social impact analysis of East Bali Cashews that could be used in raising money from social impact-minded investors.

So, IIX and KKR each sent a team out to Bali, where they accomplished a lot: aside from doing an impact investment evaluation, they analyzed the financials and the industry, created a business plan and a road map for approaching investors for working capital, and provided a lot of advice.

With that, Fishman was ready to start knocking on potential investors' doors "with a much more mature plan than I would have had by just telling people we'd like to grow," he says. He ended up raising $900,000 from three private investors, including Red River Foods, a major importer of tree nuts, dried fruit, seeds and specialty snack products , in part by emphasizing the company's humane working conditions. According to Fishman, workers in plants in other countries face "despicable working conditions" that have been compared to slave labor.

"We highlight our model as different and better," he says. (Just so you know: The cashew is actually a seed encased in a hard coating inside a cashew apple; roasting, shelling and cleaning of the kernels is a laborious process and the shells can be highly corrosive).

He's been able to quintuple processing capacity and hire another 100 workers; he now has around 230 employees, most of whom are women who have never held a job before. He also plans to introduce a daycare center for workers' children age three months to five years. Employees will pay 50 cents a day and the rest will be subsidized by the company.

But Fishman has bigger goals. Bali has only 3% of Indonesia's cashews, he says; most of them grow on other islands.  His objective is to build a factory that's 10 times the size of the current one, using the Bali facility as a prototype.

Central to the plan is not only employing local residents at the plant, but also reaching out to the 6,000 or so farmers in the area who make $300 to $400 a year from their crops. He's helping to teach them techniques with the aim ultimately of increasing their yield, as well as starting to do hibiscus planting."If we can double their yield and get the product certified organic, they're going to make more money and I'm going to make more money," he says.

Fishman and his wife, a nurse practitioner specializing in women's health, had been living in Boston for three years when they decided to try joining the Peace Corps. (Fishman worked as an EMT, also learning about emergency health care in the wilderness).  But budget cuts pushed back their program. So they bought tickets to Indonesia to volunteer for an NGO for which a friend already was working. They started teaching villagers about wound care, nutrition, proper sanitation and the like, and were surprised by the depth of the poverty they encountered. Electricity, for example, had just been introduced four months earlier.

Then Fishman learned about the cashew situation and the lack of any large-scale processing facility in the area. With previous experience in operations management "My business side took over," he says. "I said, I'm going to start one." With that, he and his wife moved into their own house (the owner of the place they'd been living in eventually became the plant's floor manager) and decided to stay permanently. Fishman, of course, knew nothing about cashew production but "we just figured it out," he says.  Part of his plan included an unusual way of getting energy: Heat and steam comes from discarded cashew shells.

For Fishman, the biggest challenge is marketing and distribution. He's an operations manager, not a marketing guy. For now, he sells to local supermarkets, as well as restaurants and hotels, in addition to exporting. Ultimately, he envisions his products being sold by the type of retailers that like to show where their food comes from. Up until now, he says, such stores might indicate where, say, all their cheeses and lettuce originated, but the cashews would be in a bin and "for all you know, they could have been processed in a sweatshop somewhere."

That can't happen until he's found a way to pay for a new packaging design, however.  "I've looked into design firms that charge $20,000," he says. "That's what the first facility cost." (forbes.com)

As a top international tourist destination, millions of domestic and foreign tourists visit Bali every year for various reasons, such as for a vacation or to get married.

Known as the Island of the Gods, Bali offers visitors natural beauty and a unique culture. The province's allure prompts many people to get married here, hence the idea to hold the 2013 Wedding Expo at Aston Hotel in Denpasar, from Nov. 8 to 10.

Event committee head Lucy Gani explained that Bali's scenic beauty for pre-wedding and wedding photos offers settings that give couples unforgettable memories.

The exhibition, themed My Dream Wedding, is the largest wedding expo to be held in Bali and offers various options to those wanting to marry on the island.

Lucy said exhibitors would be showcasing bridal gowns, jewelry, venues and much more at the event. Exhibitors also come from cities outside Bali like Surabaya, Semarang, Yogyakarta and Jakarta. Some are also from abroad, such as those from Singapore.

Event promotion and media coordinator Grace Jeanie said that besides being a suitable event for brides and grooms, the expo also gave exhibitors the chance to establish business relations among themselves.

She said the event was open to the public for free.

Various games, a fashion parade and discussions will also be held. There will also be door prizes during the three-day event.

Separately, Bali Tourism Promotion Board head Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati said the island's allure as a wedding venue was due to its scenic beauty, such as pristine beaches, rice fields and mountains. Many also opt to wed in a village, with local residents' involvement, he added.

"That is why Bali is chosen as a wedding venue," said the Ubud royal family member.

He said the provincial administration should work hard to promote local tourism.

Tjok Oka Artha said the fact that many local celebrities chose to marry in Bali and that articles had been written about the island being a place for the sacred ceremony helped promote the island.

Furthermore, Bali was one of the locations in the movie Eat, Pray and Love starring Julia Roberts. The movie — adopted from a true story — ended with the main character finding happiness on the paradise island.

Bali, famed for its multi-tiered paddy fields and strong agricultural society, will have fewer farmers and a small new generation of farmers leaving the island's agricultural sector in dire straits, a census revealed.

The agriculture census has been recently completed by Bali Statistics Agency.

The census revealed that in the 10-year period between 2003 and 2013, farming households in Bali decreased by around 83,494 households, or 8,400 households every year, an annual decrease of 1.84 percent.

In 2003, Bali had 491,725 farming households, while 10 years later, in 2013, that had fallen to only 408,229 households.

Luh Kartini, professor of agriculture at Udayana University, said that Bali's tourism used art, culture and tradition as famous lures.

"But the real essence of Balinese culture is based on the island's agricultural society," the professor said, adding that spiritual and cultural tourism would be soon lose ground.

"Such tourism will not exist in the future," stated Kartini.

"Balinese Hindus perform entire rituals to pay their respects to the earth and its abundant harvests," she said.

The present reality was dismaying as farmers and the agricultural sector received inadequate attention and protection from downstream to upstream, the scholar argued.

The government, she said, should assist the farmers, ranging from the procurement and distribution of seeds and fertilizers, to pre- and post-harvest handling, including marketing harvests.

"Rocketing prices for food, cost of living and education have forced farmers to leave their profession to find other jobs," noted Kartini.

To make things worse, farmers were selling their land to outside investors, who would later convert it into business and housing complexes.

"When the rice fields are sold, farmers will stop performing rituals related to their properties—meaning that the tradition will be extinct forever," the professor said.

Pan Marwan is one of the poor farmers possessing only less than one hectare of paddy field (2,500 square meters) in Badung regency.

"I have had to gradually sell part of my rice field because of the burden of daily necessities," Marwan said. The farmer said he could not afford to send his children to school if he worked as a farmer.

"Now with a smaller plot of land, I cannot grow paddy. I have had to change to fast-growing crops, like seasonal fruit and vegetables. This also means that we do not have to perform elaborate rituals related to subak tradition,"
Marwan said.

In Balinese agricultural society, farmers are required to conduct rituals at every step of their cultivation process. The day they sow the seeds must start with certain rituals. During harvest season, the rituals are much more elaborate.

In other prominent areas, like Tabanan and Gianyar, the island's rice baskets, the number of people willing to work in the agricultural sector is also decreasing sharply.

The rapid growth of the tourism and business sectors has led to many farmers giving up their ancestral lands.

In Denpasar, only 6,000 households are still working their land.

The agriculture census has been conducted six times across Indonesia.

T

delMango Villa Estate in Bali. Source: Supplied

Bali's just opened delMango Villa Estate might incorporate traditional materials such as recycled teak, bamboo and volcanic stone but the aesthetic is resolutely contemporary, defined by  curvy white walls, avant-garde furniture, in-room iPads and hand-woven Japanese fabrics.
 
Acclaimed Balinese architect Yoka Sara has combined with interior designer Nobuyuki Narabayashi (a former creative director at the pioneering Japanese design group Super Potato), to create an eco-oasis — and one of the Design Hotels group's newest members — in the heart of buzzy Seminyak.
 
Twelve self-contained villas are linked by recycled timber decks and each features a well-equipped kitchen, private swimming pool and garden, and luxe bathroom complete with a tub built for two and indoor/outdoor monsoon showers.

Then opposition leader Tony Abbott meets President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta last year. Picture: Stuart McEvoy Source: TheAustralian

Indonesia knows good relations between our two countries are critical at this time throughout the region, and particularly as both the US and China are now positioning themselves as the regional superpower.

The danger for Australia's new government, however, is that Indonesia has a democratic electoral system as robust as that in Australia. As Indonesia now heads into its own national pre-election period, a "turn back the boats" policy could easily become a strong point of nationalism in Indonesia used by opposition parties, for domestic political purposes, to portray Australia as the big and arrogant southern neighbour.

And the suggestion by Abbott that Australia would buy old fishing boats and pay village wardens to "dob in" people-smugglers is seen by most Indonesians - including senior government officials - as silly and quite offensive.

Abbott will therefore need to handle this matter with great skill and diplomacy because at some stage, if the Coalition desires to build a deeper relationship with this emerging giant of 240 million people on our doorstep, the focus will need to move beyond not only the "boats", but also beyond the other two dominant issues that suck oxygen out of the larger and more significant issues facing our two countries: beef and Bali.

The term "Beef, Boats and Bali" was coined on the recent ABC Q&A program was filmed live in Jakarta. It was a phrase that did in a way summarise how many Australians see our relationship with Indonesia; a relationship built upon misperceptions, fear and a narrow community mindset trapped in a 20-year-old time warp.

The Prime Minister and his Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, may therefore, as a first step, take a look at a snapshot of how Australians view today's Indonesia. The recent survey conducted within Australia by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade revealed a community perception of Indonesia that is insightful but disturbing in its misunderstanding of our near neighbour:

* 50 per cent see Indonesia as a military threat to Australia.

* 53 per cent see Indonesia as having an undemocratic political system.

* 50 per cent see Indonesia as having laws based on the Islamic code.

* 20 per cent of Australians see Bali as an independent nation, and the two words most associated with Indonesia were "holidays" and "Muslims".

Ironically, very few Australians see Indonesia as it really is: the absolute opposite of the above. These misperceptions are often fuelled by politicians who seem to focus only on the "three Bs", and also some sections of our electronic media, who appear interested only in the latest Bali holiday disaster.

The second thing Bishop should consider doing is to attend the inaugural Conference of Australia & Indonesia Youth in Canberra next month.

Thirty youth leaders from both countries will attend this event, which has the appropriate title, "Our turn to decide". They are right, as these young people can provide our Foreign Minister with an honest and achievable vision for the future, and some good starting points.

These could include making it easier for youth to move more freely between our respective shores; to be able to work, holiday and learn without bureaucratic red tape that makes it simply too hard at present for many young people.

We need to see how more young people from Indonesia can undertake temporary work here in the hospitality and tourism sectors, and how young Australians can live and study in Indonesia.

In this regard the Coalition's reverse Colombo Plan is an excellent initiative. As part of the review of our foreign aid budget for Indonesia, we need to ensure the focus is on how to lift the living standards and education of young people. Indonesia is already No 3 in the world for Facebook usage and No 2 for Twitter, yet online banking using smartphone technology is almost non-existent.

Their youth are hi-tech savvy, but the country's internet infrastructure is run down and outdated.

Here is an opportunity for Australia to make a difference.

So while the immediate challenge for Abbott and Bishop will be about turning around the boats, there must be a broader agenda to completely review the relationship to move beyond the cliche of needing to build closer ties because without a coherent plan they become just words.

The Indonesia Strategy as developed by DFAT provides the framework for a substantial upgrading of the bilateral relationship. Australia and Indonesia are very different in many respects, but we are also natural partners.

Therefore the sooner we start to look beyond Beef, Boats and Bali, the sooner we will genuinely strengthen the relationship, starting by re-focusing on our young people, language skills, technology and exchange programs. Then business, cultural and educational opportunities will flow to benefit both countries and the region.

It's a matter of whether Abbott and Bishop are willing to seriously invest in a new and more vibrant relationship with our close - and very youthful - neighbour.

All the indications are that they will.

Ross Taylor is chairman of the Indonesia Institute (Inc) and Australia's 2013 "Presidential Friend of Indonesia".

A trip to Manila always promises interest. The city has always been a colorful source for food and culture. The Hyatt Regency Hotel and Casino Manila features both in its Balinese Food Festival, ongoing at Market Cafe until September 8. 

Balinese dish Karee Nangka, young jackfruit curry

A Balinese live cooking station joins the buffet restaurant's roster of cooking stations, each featuring a different type of cuisine. "The idea behind the Balinese Food Festival is to bring a new style of food to Market Cafe," says Executive Chef Josef Miklav.

Balinese cuisine is a mix of Indonesian, Chinese, and Indian influences. Since the island is predominantly Hindu, pork plays a big part in its cuisine; a big departure from the rest of predominantly Muslim Indonesia. 

Gado Gado is a dish of assorted vegetables with peanut sauce.

There were Indonesian staples such as Gado Gado or mixed vegetables with peanut sauce; Rendang Sapi or braised beef in coconut sauce, and Nasi Goreng or Indonesian fried rice; as well as Balinese specialties like Lawar Kacang or long bean salad, Bebek Menyatnyat or braised duck with Balinese spices, and Babi Kecap or braised pork in soya sauce. 

The beef rendang was tender and faintly spicy, perfect with the nasi goreng. The gado gado, a personal favorite, is, to put it very simply, similar to our nilagang gulay except served with peanut sauce instead of bagoong. 

There was also a selection of sate, or meat and seafood skewers served with peanut sauce. 

A variety of sates from fish to meat

"We have eight different sates on the menu from fish to meat, (all served) with peanut sauce. And they make this rice cake longing, (where) you put rice in a banana leaf and you boil it and the rice expands in there and keeps together. It's very compact, very nice, and goes with the peanut sauce and sate," Chef Josef says. 

Of all the sates, I liked the fish and beef the most. The peanut sauce that accompanied them was made fresh, and had complex notes of sweet and spice.

Another dish to look out for is the Karee Nangka or young jackfruit curry with eggplant, a rich vegetarian dish. 

"I think it's a very unique dish," says Chef Josef. I was very excited to try this dish but I couldn't find it when I was there, giving me an excuse to return to the Food Fest for a round two. —KG, GMA News