Excuse the less than prompt update as things have been busy both at work and family. Here’s putting together our second day of our babymoon with #B2!
Day 2: The Trans Resort Bali – Mango Tree – Ultimo – Hotel
We woke up for breakfast at the hotel (Did I mention that their breakfast spread was akin to a high tea buffet??), and in the midst of our meal, the lovely hotel team surprised me with a birthday cake and balloons! Such a kind gesture and yes, there were a couple of our birthday babies too, so they were singing at other times as well. How sweet was that?
Today’s itinerary consisted of a culinary workshop, followed by dinner at one of our fave Italian restaurants. And since this day was MY day, I got to tuck into non-Asian food. HEH!
K did the research for culinary workshops in Bali, as we wanted to spend this Bali babymoon holiday a little different. Our plan for this babymoon was to pack it with activities that were suitable for a pregnant woman PLUS doing stuff which we would otherwise not be able to with little Vera in tow. So this trip allowed us to connect as a couple and on a personal level – well, I basically found out more about myself through these activities too! Sharing more in the upcoming articles! :P
Bali Mango Tree at Seminyak offers a variety of classes, and you can actually book them directly or through a couple of websites. Reviews seemed promising. At the end of the day, the classes are conducted by their folks.
The downsides?
Classes are not exactly cheap. This costs about USD$110 per couple, and we were supposed to choose the preferred cuisine. However, Mae, the person whom K was liaising with didn’t check with us and we overlooked it as well, so we ended up cooking their “default” Balinese dishes.
It was uber tough to get to the venue! Mae gave us the wrong address and we ended circling in the cab for more than an hour, and i nearly puked my breakfast! Motion sickness and I were never the best of friends, not even during pregnancy! We were so cheesed off, we texted her to say it’s been such a trouble and I wasn’t feeling well, so we would forgo the class. But, she replied that we’d still have to pay for the classes as it was considered as a last minute cancellation! SIGHPIE…
Somehow after our cab driver tried calling several folks and finally, we found our destination after 1.5hrs. We were just flat from the ride and totally lost the mood.
Thankfully, our Chef for the day was a really nice lady. No hard sell, no pushy attitude or annoyed stares! We were ushered to a villa and had the entire space all to ourselves for the culinary workshop.
Seeing the pool and beds made me feel like lying down that instant….. HAHA!
As our instructor introduced herself and shared what we were about to prepare, that’s when we knew the menu was pre-decided without us :( We would have chosen 2 different cuisines as I was actually keen in another. But, oh well…
Today’s lesson would take us through a hands-on experience to create 5 dishes! Basically, we got to cook our own lunch, but the portion was way too much for the two of us, so we offered the food to the staff at the hotel instead :)
So, what were the 5 dishes that we were to learn?
Nasi Goreng, Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, Urap (a Javanese Mixed Vegetable Salad with Spiced Grated Coconut), Balinese Chicken Salad and Kolak Pisang for dessert!
All the ingredients were prepared in advance, and we just needed to follow the instructor’s instructions and get involved! She did share that she had several students who would simply stand around, let her do all the cooking, and they were just snapping away. Oh, what fun would that bring without getting hot and dirty in the kitchen? :P
Someone was putting his muscles to work! And it does take quite abit of strength, and we’re amazed by our petite instructor’s muscles too! HA! Or maybe, I’m just weak :P
Hey, I’m hard at work too, okay! Peeling the boiled chicken to prepare for our Balinese Chicken Salad, the first dish we learned.
There! I was busy at the wok too, frying the paste and getting the aroma out of those fresh ingredients.. Hmmmmm..!
Okay, the mister had to help with the stirring and flipping of everything together!
TA-DAH! Presenting: Balinese Chicken Salad! A little spicy, a little sweet and makes a great appetizer, I must say. Although “salads” usually come with vegetables, this one is just pure meat. We have a veg dish coming up soon, so it offered the right balance of meat and vegetables!
Next dish was the Urap, also known as the Javanese Mixed Vegetable Salad with Spiced Grated Coconut. Grated coconut comes to play by lending a flavourful taste to this vegetarian dish.
The third dish: Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, and we made the peanut sauce from scratch!
Well, the peanut sauce required quite abit of crushing with the mortar and pestle, and well, according to K, my contribution was rather negligible and at the rate I was going, that meal was going to end up as our breakfast! >.<
So, I shall put myself to good use by slicing the chicken thighs and marinating them instead. Let’s just say I had to stop myself from wanting to snip of any fats sighted! K says satays should be fatty – that explains his growing belly :P
After the meats were skewered, Chef K took them to the grill, while our instructor guided me in the preparation of peanut sauce. Frying the peanuts was okay, but the crushing part was best left to her. HA!
And, TA-DAH! Our piping hot dish of Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce! Yums!
Our 4th dish: Nasi Goreng.
This was easy, because I used to learn this during Home Economics, and even did this dish for the examinations! Well, not without several weeks of practice at home, and my family had to endure having Fried Rice for dinner over a period! LOL!
And our lesson ended on a sweet note with some desserts: Kolak Pisang, which was really sweet, to be honest!
Hey, presto! There’s our easy dish of dessert where fresh coconut milk and bananas were the main heros! If you’re looking at losing weight, this is definitely not going to help! :P
So, we tucked into a small portion of the dishes that we made together. Servings were already cut down because we didn’t want to waste food. How would 2 of us be able to finish EVERYTHING?? @.@
We’ll be putting up the recipes and steps soon, so do keep a look out if you’d like to recreate these dishes at home too! :)
Really miss cooking up a storm with the man at home. Before we had kids, we often had gatherings at our home, and hosting our friends and family with homecooked dishes (although not top notch, at least none had diarrhoea! HAHA!). These days, it’s just tougher to do that.
After tucking into our homecooked lunch, we took a stroll along the shops, in hope to bring home some loot for Vera and B2. The weather was hot, and K was craving for ice cream, so we went into a random ice cream place – Gelato Factory!
And the lovely surprise?
Birthday peeps get FREE ice cream! How lucky were my belly and bump?? :P
K ordered a double scoop and then I was happily licking away at my Tiramisu ice cream. The weather was making them melt really quick! :(
Shopping was rather disappointing because I didn’t get to buy anything, so we headed back to the hotel to soak in the pool before we prepared to make our way for my birthday dinner!
Dinner was at one of our favourite restaurants in Bali – Ultimo! Thanks to a friend who recommended it to us years ago when we were here for our first babymoon, this place was still brimming with people and reservations are highly recommended!
Address: Jl. Kayu Aya 104X Oberoi-Seminyak, Seminyak, Bali80361, Indonesia
Contact: +62 361 738720
Lighting was bad, so this was the only shot of what we had. May I add that their cheese bread sticks were highly addictive?? We had to stop ourselves from downing everything! Our main courses went into our tummies and we finished off with a dessert.
After a tummy-filling birthday dinner, we headed back to KO, and basically enjoy the comfy bed all to ourselves.
We didn’t sleep away my birthday just like that, of course. Not at least without a Viber call back home to Vera to see how she was doing after her first night at Mamak’s :) Guess that’s how our lives have changed with the little one.
In Day 3 of our babymoon adventures, we explored the hotel to discover their kid-friendly activities, and commuted to Ubud for the rest of our stay. That hotel was really new, and we even bumped into the owner who took us on a mini tour! Stick around to find out more!
Are you planning a babymoon too? Bali makes a lovely place for couples and to take things nice and easy for pregnant mums.
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