The banana leaf-wrapped parcel is deceptively small for the amount of food contained inside: a rich, filling meal with contrasting textures and zingy flavors.
“I’m quite familiar with the taste because I’m actually from Malaysia,” said Rendra Zawawi. “Bali is nearby, and we sort of share the same taste profile in our food. So when I found out that they were doing this during the pandemic, I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ It gives a sense of home.”
For Celene and Tara, taste isn’t enough — they want their bungkus to be eye-catching too.
“In Bali, there is a very intentional effort to make everything beautiful,” Celene said. “I really wanted the colors to be balanced all the way across. So, if you’re imagining the bungkus like a clock, there’s balance around the clock itself.”
The sisters’ creative flare is evident in their desserts too.
“All of our dishes are colorful and very dense,” Tara said. “Everything’s a little bit unbelievable when you see it, which I think is a very Bali thing. There’s this whimsy to things there.”
For example, kueh lapis is a cake made from rice flour, tapioca flour and coconut milk. Each layer is dyed a bright rainbow color.
“You have this really bouncy, chewy cake that you can cut up and peel each of the layers as you’re eating it,” Tara said. “So it’s a tactile, silly, wacky, fun dessert. We call it the sticky hand of desserts because you can literally fling it around like a sticky hand or like stick it on your face. It’s popular with children for that reason, but also with us, because we are children at heart.”
Discovering tastes of Bali in LA
Tara and Celene grew up in Bali, where big family meals were the norm. They would all gather round the table to share feasts, tucking into six or seven dishes at a time.
“I’ve definitely been on a personal quest since I was young, to figure out how to replicate the recipes that we were eating in Bali,” Celene said. “Our stepmom is Indonesian and she definitely was a huge player in teaching me how to make these dishes.”
She added that you can’t simply “Google it” and make the recipe. Textures are important. Celene further emphasized that even the measurements are different, “the amounts of ginger that go in one dish are measured in knuckle lengths!” she said.
The sisters both love cooking, but never planned to make food their business. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and they lost their jobs: Tara as a makeup artist and Celene as a doula. They began batting around the idea of a pop-up food business.
