Here comes the bride!

Out on the prowl for things to do in and around Ubud, we stopped by a wedding. As you do, right? And as it happens (of course it doesn't), the wedding party invited us right in, and offered us cake. Well, sort of.

The "sort-of" part of the story is where truth meets wishful thinking, and the truth was that we were invited in, but not for long. We did have cake, but were escorted right out once the mother of the bride noticed her daughter arriving (pictured top). For the life of me, I can't figure out why were invited in in the first place, but I'm thrilled to have had the chance to see a local wedding, and to encourage absolutely everyone on the planet to adopt the Balinese tradition of eating cake first (pictured bottom). I mean, seriously, Let us eat cake already; why wait?

Now about that cake, which is really a form of glutinous rice: It's made from rice flower mixed with pandan leaf until it turns an olive green color, rolled into bite-sized balls covered in shredded coconut. And, there's a secret ingredient (in good food, there always is). The secret? A center of liquid palm sugar. If you remember "Chewels" liquid-center gum from back when Boy George was cool, you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, get yourself on a flight to Bali and drop by a local wedding.

Photos by Lori Davidson