About the Author
Between her travels, Anik See is the cycling editor for Big World magazine and has bee the food researcher for television's The Urban Peasant for seven years. She has studied fiction writing under D.M. Thomas and Wayson Choy. Already published in travel anthologies and poetry collections, this is Anik's first book. When she isn't off seeing the world, Anik unpacks her bags in Toronto.
James Barber is the host of the popular television cooking series The Urban Peasant. He is the author of ten best-selling cookbooks, including his most recent book, Cooking for Two.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From the Chapter on Bali:
We unload in Ubud, and immediately decide to stay for at least a week. We are not yet sure why we feel compelled to do so, except for a mysterious, magical pull it already has on us, something tells us that there are things worth exploring here, in the town and beyond. As we are walking down tranquil, colourful streets, a small boy approaches us and asks us if we have a place to stay. He leads us to his family's house, where we are given a small hut in the back for a very reasonable price. As we are unpacking, the boy knocks on our door and enters with a large basket filled with tiny finger bananas, pieces of fresh coconut and pineapple, lychee-like salak and tangelos. He teaches us the Indonesian words of the fruit (pisang, kelapa, nanas, salak and jeruk) and asks if we can exchange English and Indonesian words each afternoon, when he returns from school. Of course, we say and he runs off.
In the afternoons, we meet with Wayan for Indonesian and English lessons. We walk with him through the streets while he points to things and tells us their Indonesian names. As we walk, we snack on srabi (tiny crisp pancake cups with rice pudding and coconut), pisang goreng (fried bananas sold straight from the fire, all gooey and charred and good) or jahe, a hot ginger tea that put the life back into you after you've been walking all day. Wayan tells us that he is nine years old and was born and raised in Ubud. Joanna asks him what his favourite subject is in school, and he stops on the road, grabs a stick and draws a map of Bali in the dirt. "Ah, geography," she says and he repeats it. He draws little circles all over his map of the island and shows us where the volcanoes are, then gives Joanna the stick and asks her show him where she is from. She walks away from him, across the road, while Wayan furrows his brow and watches her as she draws an outline of Canada. He shakes his head, saying, "No, no - where do you live?" pointing to his sketch of Bali and looking curiously at us when we tell him that we don't live on the island. He looks around at the rice paddies and wavering palms. He sniffs the sweet, volcanic air, closes his eyes and then opens them, looking at us. He laughs and shakes his head and we know we are fools for not living here.
Further down the road I ask him what he wants to be when he gets older. "Indiana Jones!" he shouts, jumping up and down on his skinny, dusty legs. He laughs, then shakes his head again and twirls around in the street, arms outstretched. He stops, leaves his arms out and wiggles his fingers. He looks at us and says, "I want to be Balinese."
