0 Enjoying sate kebet in a breezy public park

A public park in Denpasar would not be complete without the presence of street food vendors. Located right in downtown Denpasar, next to the Bali Museum and the Jagatnatha Temple, the Puputan Badung field, which now has the new name of I Gusti Ngurah Made Agung field, has always been a favorite hangout for locals and tourists. As the saying goes: “Where there’s sugar, there’re ants”. 

The breezy public park is a favorite trading spot for street vendors. Among them are the sate kebet vendors. Kebet is the Balinese word for fan, the tool usually used by satay vendors to keep the charcoal burning hot when roasting their satay. Sate kebet vendor Nyoman Martini, 35, originates from Banjarangkan in Klungkung regency. She has been selling sate kebet for the past 15 years on the Puputan Badung field. Every day, Martini marinates at least 2 kilograms of fresh cubed pork with a quarter kilogram of liquid Balinese palm sugar for some 30 minutes. 

The slices of pork are then seasoned with a mixture of red chilies, small green chilies and the Balinese traditional spice mix base genep, also known as bebungkilan. Afterwards, the cubed meat is stuck onto bamboo skewers, ready to be grilled. Martini takes her favorite spot in the public park, just across from the Bali Museum, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. There, she sits on her little chair in front of her satay grill, ready to serve any hungry customers. As customers come to make an order, Martini preps her satay on the grill heated by burning charcoal. She smears more seasoning on the rows of satay while she fans the charcoal fire. 

After turning the skewers for 10 minutes, the satay are cooked and ready to be served. For only Rp 10,000 (US$1.03), a customer gets a plate of ketupat (rice cake) with eight skewers of hot and sweet sate kebet. Spicy chili condiment and sweet soy sauce complement the dish. The tenderness and succulent taste of the sweet spicy pork meat makes a mere portion of sate kebet never enough to satisfy her customers. “I have a loyal customer who comes here every single day to have satay for lunch,” Martini said. Martini sells around 200 sticks of sate kebet every day. While every purnama (full moon; a special day for Balinese Hindus), the sales can double. “I always bring more satay on those days and I could return home later at night,” said Martini.

source : bali daily