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When I became a chef, the power and allure of the food market and grocery stores was so strong that my mum would need to visit them everyday. It was always a great thing that mum bought home - fruits and vegetables, sweet cake and candy and meat or fish. 

In the vegan cooking class you would want to explore vibrant spices, create beautiful sauces, work with fresh vegetables, tofu and beans. Otao Kitchen is specialise in Asian cooking so you can inspire your kitchen with  Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian dishes.

THE FOOD OF BALI INDONESIA

Balinese food celebrate Balinese people from the volcanic island of Bali using spices blending with the fresh vegetables, meat and seafood. Balinese food sometime refers to special regional Indonesian cuisine. It demonstrates indigenous traditions and other Indonesian regional cuisine, Chinese and Indian. Bali's culinary traditions are somewhat distinct with the rest of Indonesia. The people Bali celebrate their foods with festivals and celebrations.

INGREDIENTS

Spices such as Kaempferia galanga galangal, shallots, garlic, turmeric, ginger and Kaffir lime are used in Balinese foods. For example popular Balinese 8-spice is made with white and black pepper, coriander, cumin, clove, nutmeg, sesame seed, and candlenut. Other ingredients such as palm sugar, fish paste, and basa gede spice paste are used in everyday dishes.

Many tropical foods are rambutan, mangoes, mangosteen, bananas, jackfruit, rambutan, passion fruit, nangka, pineapple, salak snake fruit, duku, kelengkeng, wani white mango or Mangifera caesia, papaya, longan, melon, oranges, custard-apple, coconut and durian.

Steamed rice is commonly consumed in every meal everyday. Pork, chicken, seafood and vegetables are widely consumed. Because many Balinese follow Hindu tradition so they never or rarely consume beef.

If you keep it simple and buy ingredients at farmers’ markets, the food can pretty much take care of itself. Do as little as possible to the food; consider leaving out an ingredient and relying on instinct. We have a list of shopping streets and farmer markets in Melbourne for you.

Japanese restaurants are our favourite places to explore in Melbourne. Whether it’s a steaming bowl of ramen noodles, freshly sushi or a great kaiseki meal you’re after, you’ll find them on our Japanese restaurants’ list. Create a list of Japanese restaurants in Melbourne is a difficult task. We thought it is a little guide for Japanese restaurants’ lovers in Melbourne. Though they are NOT all the best Japanese restaurants in Melbourne and they are a great reference for you.

While there may be some stigma surrounding Vegetarianism, there shouldn’t be. Meat is actually only a very small part of our diets and on the whole, we eat predominantly vegetarian food. Think about it, do you ever just serve yourself a plate of meat for dinner? No. You accompany it with vegetables, salad, pasta etc. Who doesn’t love vegetables, fruit, nuts and rice?!