In Reply to: question pls dutchnat? posted by trishaslife on Thursday, 21. February 2013 at 17:59 Bali Time:
is a clear indication that there is a market for them, but I think you're absolutely correct in that if you had a mind do both cooking schools, then definitely do Bamboo Shoots first.
Having grown up in Indonesia for six years and now living in Malaysia, and travelling to Bali for three decades, I thought I had a pretty good working knowledge of Balinese food - but as it turned out, I didn't at all. What I had was a good working knowledge of Indonesian food, and often anglicised food at that.
I found that Bumbu Bali taught me things about Balinese food specifically, and also some things about Indonesian food, that I never knew before. Interesting things like - when you see stalls with piles of little cakes wrapped in banana leaf, you can tell things like sweet or savoury and chicken or fish, just by the way they're wrapped. A triangle means something, wrapping it THIS way means something else. I found I got more cultural knowledge about the food as well as the tasty recipies.
I also learned things about the sustainability of fishing in Bali and Indonesia and what the situation is, things that chefs like Heinz and Rick Stein and Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall are very passionate about - and it really makes you think about that beachside seafood extravaganza you're about to indulge in.
Bumbu Bali isn't the Balinese version of El Bulli, after all - for all the complexity of flavours, the cooking methods themselves are pretty simple, but I just found I learned more about what and why I was cooking as well as how I was cooking it.
By all accounts Bamboo Shoots is a fun day out with some tasty food, although my husband thought the food was oversalted which is a simple mistake anyone can make at any time, so it wasn't a killer. He just felt that that maybe he'd got them on a bad day.
I also think that how much you enjoy any class, depends alot of the people you're doing it with. If you have a great group of people with you, you're going to enjoy it no matter what!
What is fantasic about Bali in this respect is that there are so many cooking classes available, that there really is something to suit everyone :)