BALI - part three:... NXT

 

The last time [2017] we visited our long-time friend Joel... a fellow foodie living in Bali,  he raved about a restaurant in Ubud called Locavore. Of course we we went, to discover one unique more-than-a-meal. It was an experience. I watched chefs plating food using tweezers!

Now for some months, as we planned the recent trip [November 2024], he was raving even more-so about... Locavore NXT.  I'm as curious as I might be skeptical... what's next!?

The experience begins with a drive down a long single lane driveway enclosed with tall old walls;  

there's an occasional gate, but little room for another vehicle. A set-up for an adventure! But then we come to a generous parking ramp seemingly tucked into the foliage... the first indication of the careful design of what becomes more a farm than garden. 

 

In fact, it is rather raw land. A feature catching my eye was a bamboo lattice leaning above a muddy plot. I deduced that it was a tool used to examine, analyze & catalogue the biomass of this plot of soil by means of this grid of a few square centimeters. 

This is not at all just another eatery, even if it is the latest child of a growing family of experimental  foodie ventures. We had marveled at a 20+ course menu featuring very local foods when dining at Locavore, which menu included baby wild field birds, skewered  & roasted whole...

So now... here... we are really off into the mud & weeds!

But we are also entering a sophisticated  piece of architecture. An elegant structure designed so naturally as to become almost invisible... a display case for a concept. This obviously has very deep thinking investors! 

To begin, we listen to a recorded welcome & introduction to the concept...

  With a wall of living specimens collected in jars behind us, we begin to perceive that we are in a laboratory for the immersive study of the biome of this place. 

 

To begin, trays were presented by young acolytes who were teach/learning their craft...

Introducing us to some of the variety from the land...

We are invited to examine, & touch... &, invited to play! To rearrange an arrangement of wild flora while we sip an elixir of some kind.

I was fascinated 'trying to suss what those specimens might be...

Being encouraged to play with our food was certainly not a problem! We continued taking lessons, meeting the two co-creating owner/partners [one of whom is the chef] who explain their dedication to the philosophy -- & realization that all must play, actually play!, with this life of learning.

We also need to play it smart!... as explained in part of the menu:

Knowing now the over-arching concepts,  we are properly prepped, as we move under the palm-like spread of the bar's roof,  to pass through the ornately carved & gilded doors of the elaborate portal... & actually enter... 

We visited  any number of spaces & places as the meal's education proceeded to present the potential of this institution of teach/learning:

 

The mushroom cellar was a rather eerie, low lighted space with a stairway down into red light... a very high tech mushroom cellar...

Then up to a demonstration of the digital library housing all the data being collected.

A food lab... as if this entire operation isn't that!

The food laboratory sported a group drawing made by the chefs toward a menu...

The entire staff is attending what is a live college course in food.

This is an aerial view of the entire campus:

A fermentation lab...

Meat curing facility...

After all these pieces adding to our education... 

 

At last, the dining room... 

Satisfyingly spacious design. 

Lively staff... front back & center ... cooking, prepping, plating...  all with attentive personal development as part of the service. 

Contemplation was in evidence. This is a school...

The meal of myriad courses was conflated by those side trips to the mushroom cellar; fermentation, aging  processes; numerous areas with high tech tools.

The descriptions on the menu... of which I did not keep a copy... would not communicate so well as these images...

 

 Several of those might could have been dessert!

  ... Still, there is always more... 

We were, after all, celebrating Joel's 76th birthday... postponed from last year, when the planning for this month's travel in Asia was first being planned.

HUZZAH!

BALI - part two: BY THE SEA...

 

Joel & Nana had recently experienced a guest house behind a wall on a beach. They took us for several days of relaxation. It seems they've discovered a bit of paradise! We want to return to stay for a month next year, perhaps. The notion of having a more low-keyed stay-put holiday holds charm when compared to this past month's driving pace. To have hours to journal & blog -- to simply write at whim... Heaven! This image of Mount Agung, looking up the beach from the purple gate in that wall.

Inside is a sweet swimming pool & a 3-bedroom house with ample terraces & decks... spaces to read or eat al fresco. A kitchen with part-time staff to cook & serve. Maybe this actually is paradise! 

What will next year bring?

BALI - part one... PUPPETS & MASKS...

 We ended our Asian adventures by joining Joel & Nana... in their home in Bali, Indonesia, for a final week.

Their home, Villa Vajra, is in the village of Sebali, north of Ubud.  We've visited this retreat several times over the years since Joel left the West coast, where we all met at various times in our decades of shared history. This time, a respite of slow quiet after the intensity of driving 'round Sri Lanka.

 

After a day or two Nana's enthusiasm took us to the 

Setia Darma House of Mask and Puppets... which we'd never known, new to us.

 

The website explains that the collection currently consists of approximately 7,000 items, of which 1,300 are masks from Indonesia, Africa, and Japan; whilst the other 5,700 are puppets from Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia.  All are housed in four different traditional Javanese antique houses, commonly known as Joglo... originally from East and Middle Java, made out of good quality teak wood, and have been put up to help keep their preservation.

All together... mind-boggling. 

The collections fill the buildings with a bewildering variety of objects becoming history lessons about processions, music, storytelling & theater -- of festival & performance.

Almost stifling inside so much celebration... almost. at every turn, new wonders present a new form, style or mood. Serious, playful, stern. Color was a strong language. Reflective surface as well!

We were captivated for several hours...

I found a number of the displays simply effective holding quite handsome masks playing deep character...

Curated very well...

These Javanese houses were handsome & spacious, with lofty central volume.

 We explored individually & in pairs... occasionally joining to share story...

Nana, being raised in Java, came to life here in ways unique to that experience. He told story around the many complexions contained under these temple-like buildings. We continue appreciating who he is. That continues... Huzzah!

 

We take another break... 

The even more intense collection was the fine art of puppetry, mostly Shadow Puppets... finely crafted so as to create illusions on screens backlit by lanterns... presaging the motion picture film industry of the last century. These shows were finely wrought sculptures in a plethora of characters performing in temporary theaters in towns & village squares, these being traveling affairs. Yet, in their complications of needing vigorous handling & manipulation, they become art objects of their own, displayed in full frontal light... only parts needing players following a script. Miniature operas, front & back.

 Driving home I wondered as we passed a shop displaying a piece of grass woven into a dragon... how would that work as a shadow puppet?!?

Even later, in their pavilion, I found another sense of living in theatrical lighting

We live in many museums!