culinary
A Sasak Kitchen in Central Lombok
Central Lombok 4 hours 8+ (dishes can be cooked mild)
Grind the chilli paste for ayam taliwang on a stone, then eat it with the family who taught you.
Sasak food is built on a chilli and shrimp-paste base pounded by hand, and it is hotter than the tourist versions on the coast. You shop the morning market for the day's chilli and greens, pound the paste, grill over coconut husk and eat sitting on the floor with the household.
How this scores
Cultural respect
Visitor-friendly
Dress code: Modest dress; shoulders covered in the household
What to bring
- · Appetite
- · Cash for the market
- · Head covering for women if visiting the prayer room
What not to do
- · Bring alcohol into the household
- · Refuse food without explaining kindly
Your host
Meet Inaq Sri
Sasak songket weaver · Sukarara, Central Lombok
Inaq Sri learned at her mother's backstrap loom and now runs the weaving group's dye shed. She will not sell a cloth as 'antique' if it is new, and she explains which motifs belong to a wedding rather than a market stall.