The Dinner Series: Water Tiger

In the spirit of celebrating and connecting Bali’s brightest thinkers, Elami and Co. launched The Dinner Series: a string of intimate evenings in collaboration with Bali’s top cooks, artisans and creators in 2019. After a two-year hiatus, The Dinner Series 2.0 is back in 2022!

The Dinner Series is co-created with Maya Kerthyasa. Maya is a writer and has her first cookbook coming out in 2022 from Hardie Grant Publishing. In a past life, she worked for the Australian Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide.

We design each event to tell a piece of Bali’s story, from past to present. We felt the story of China’s influence on Bali is an unknown one and wanted to take the opportunity to explore it through food and culture. And from there the Water Tiger Dinner was born!

We knew from the minute we planned this dinner we wanted to invite a very special guest: Eve Tedja, a journalist based here in Bali who is of Chinese-Balinese descent. Eve Tedja is also associate editor of Epicure Asia. Eve was the subject of a beautiful article on the legacy of China-Bali relations written by Risiyana Muthia. She shared her story with the table before we started the meal.

We gathered to celebrate the Water Tiger, and also to pay homage to the deep cultural bonds between China and Bali which date back centuries and are interwoven in many different ways throughout our cultural and spiritual lives on the island. The guests were seated based on their shio, or Chinese zodiac animal and each guest had an origami animal waiting for them when they sat down.

Our meal was crafted by chef Dwi Perkasa from Fu Shou Noodle Club, who prepared a beautiful spread of Chinese and Balinese-influenced foods for our meal. The tea was from the Kerthyasa family’s farm up in Bedugul, grown organically, rolled by hand and roasted over wood-fire.

21 incredible people gathered around the table to celebrate, taste, and soak in the atmosphere. We were visited by two very special guests: the Naga Langit Barongsai and the Balinese barong from Ubud Kaja.