Food Lit: Fragrant Rice: My Continuing Love Affair with Bali

Nonfiction: Fragrant Rice: My Continuing Love Affair with Bali by Janet De Neefe (2006)
With guest expert Simran Singh.

Cooking teacher Simran Singh recommended this book at her Nasi Campur (Indonesian for “mixed rice”) class last year, over an assortment of curries, pickles, spicy sambal, fried shallots, peanuts and, of course, fragrant rice. As one-half of the duo behind the globally inspired family food of the blog called A Little Yumminess, similarly themed classes at 18 Reasons and Sonoma’s Ramekin Culinary School, her opinion carries some serious weight. Simran will join us to talk about her love of Indonesian food, show photos from her recent trip to Bali and tell us about taking classes with author Janet De Neefe, at her Casa Luna Cooking School.

Food Lit meets every third Sunday of the month for casual conversation around 18 Reasons’ table, usually featuring the author or other expert guest, led by our fearless moderator, Heather Knape. We talk about food, flavors, farming, politics, life in San Francisco and anything else that can fit into two hours and connect back to our book of the month.

Please bring a dish or drink to share for our potluck lunch, extra bonus points this time for something Indonesian and triple extra double points if the recipe came from this book and you made it yourself. Remember, you don’t have to have finished (or even begun) the book to attend - our discussions run the gamut from sparking interest in the book’s subject to full on raging debates over writing style, flavors, the food system and other loosely related topics. If nothing else, we’re hoping to get you fired up and thinking about eating well.