Eco Warriors Create a Variety of Rice Dishes

‘I haven’t eaten if it was not rice’ is an expression attached to Indonesian people. In this country, rice production is abundant and a variety of rice foods are very easy to find. Rice is currently a staple food consumed for daily carbohydrate intake.

In the theme of Cooking Science, Eco Warriors learned how to create a variety of different rice dishes. Besides cooking these rice dishes, they also looked for information on the internet about its history, meaning, and use, as well as the steps to make a variety of dishes. This way, their learning became very comprehensive.

Under a shady durian tree, a small group of Eco Warriors shaped rice into yellow cones. The yellow cone-shaped rice is colored with yellow natural dye from turmeric.

“The cone shape of this yellow cone-shaped rice symbolizes gratitude to God and the yellow color symbolizes gold, which symbolizes prosperity. A yellow cone-shaped rice is often used for various celebrations such as birthdays, weddings, thanksgiving for happy events, and others,” explained a student in charge of looking for information about the yellow cone-shaped rice on his tablet.

In a corner of Begawan Foundation Learning Centre, a small group of Eco Warriors worked together to make various Indonesian spices and herbs. They made nasi liwet (savory rice served with choko) and nasi uduk (steamed rice with coconut milk), a famous Javanese rice dish, creating appetizing dishes. The savory taste is the mainstay of these two rice dishes, more delicious than ordinary white rice.

Eco Warriors also made a rice dish called penek. Penek is a symbol of inner strength or steadfastness in glorifying God, made of rice, shaped into a ball and then slightly flattened. The activity of making penek was designed to foster the students’ love in preserving Balinese culture.

Another small group of Eco Warriors made lontong. The shape of this dish is very distinctive, rice is wrapped in banana leaves to form a cylindrical shape. For the students, shaping rice into a cylinder has its own challenges. They failed several times, but they never gave up and learned to improve the shape of this rice cake. This is in line with the learning principle at Begawan Foundation Learning Centre, Learning by Doing – Eco Warriors learn while living! (Ketut Desy)