Come and join Columbia University alumnus Dr. Vivienne Kruger, Ph.D. on Friday, September 26th, 2014 at 6:30 PM for a vicarious, tropical dinner adventure to the legendary island of Bali!  Start your weekend off with an unforgettable meal, great company, and a luxury, VIP excursion across the borders of the culinary unknown!  Sequestered eight secret—and sacred degrees south of the equator—Bali is the shining green jewel in the lush, verdant Indonesian archipelago.  Balinese food is singular among the leading cuisines of the world: dedicated to their gods and fueled by an array of achingly fresh spices, it is inextricably bound to the island’s Bali-Hindu religion, culture, and community life.  Dr. Kruger’s new book, Balinese Food: The Traditional Cuisine and Food Culture of Bali bears witness to Bali’s time-honored, enduring, authentic village cuisine: the extraordinary, legendary beauty of Bali is mirrored in its spectacular ceremonial feasts. The preparation of Balinese food is steeped in divine rituals, exactitude, and religious perfectionism: curious strangers in paradise can only gape in awe, respect, and admiration—as we struggle to learn how to eat and make food offerings on the island of their gods. Three million peasants by day—three million smiling artists by night--the Balinese carve and etch and paint their food into the rich spiritual shapes and divine colors of fragrant, holy temples and imposing royal palaces. They build and they cook with love, art, and reverence on an island perfectly positioned and protected—and lost in time--eight secret degrees south of the equator. Welcome to the luscious green villages and humble kitchens of Bali!

Priced at $40 per person, this exciting new culinary-social event--exclusively for Columbia SOCAL alumni--will enable each dinner participant to select and enjoy a main course, dessert, Indonesian drink , coffee, etc. including tip.  The innovative package includes this unforgettable guided meal, an exotic new food foray, and an adventure goodie-bag concept.  Everyone will receive a personally and individually autographed copy of Vivienne Kruger’s new book, Balinese Food: The Traditional Cuisine and Food Culture of Bali (Tuttle Publishing, 2014).  This will be a permanent keepsake of this fun, educational food trip into the unknown in Southeast Asia.  Vivienne will be your personal culinary tour guide and take you through the tasty, spice and sauce-driven, gourmet menu—and explain the nexus between food, culture, religion, and Balinese society.  Come and please join us for this once-in-a-lifetime sociological, adventure-tasting journey through the
 most divine and blessed island on earth.  The 48 recipes in the book can all be recreated at home, leaving you with new cooking skills and possibilities, along with your guided tour through the rice fields and friendly village paon (kitchens) of Bali.

Dr. Kruger's biography can be found on www.balinesefoodtraditionalcuisine.blogspot.com

The restaurant address (highly regarded for food quality and authenticity by the Indonesian community itself) is:
Simpang Asia
10433 National Boulevard, no. 2
West LA  90034 (near Culver City)
(310) 815-9075

All that our Columbia people need to bring with them is a hearty appetite and intellectual-culinary-cultural curiosity!  You will be pampered throughout the meal by one of the world’s leading experts on Balinese food and food culture—allow me to be your very personal food concierge for the evening!