Did you ever attend a Balinese Wedding party? And had meals there? Take a look at what do Balinese use to serve the food? Yes, Balinese usually use ‘ingka’ as a substitute for plate in many ceremonies. It has similar form and function with plate.

Ingka is a kind of plate that is made from spine of ivory-colored coconut leaves. Those spines are woven like a plate. On the average, one ingka needs 105 spines. Well, how many coconut leave spines are needed if we want to make 100 ingka? More or less they need 10500. Yet, Bali has abundance of materials to make Ingka.

In fact, at first ingka is only a means of traditional ceremonies as a plate for the offering. Later on, Balinese use it as place of food for human. Making ingka is a potential home industry that provides a good source of income for Balinese women. Ingka is not just used in Bali but also some big cities like Jakarta and Surabaya.

Balinese restaurants which are located outside of Bali usually use ingka to give a sense of Balinese to the dishese, it gives a characteristic of Bali. A sense of rustic and natural which is given by using ingka can not be produced by other kinds of plates.

Ingka is also more practical than other kinds of plates. In preparing or excuting a religious ceremony dozens up to hundreds of helpers and guest have to be feed and it will be a great task to wash all the plates that are used by the helpers or the guest. This problem is solved with ingka; if other plates need to be washed after using, ingka needs not. Ingka is used by placing banana leave or paper on it and you put the food on the Banana leaf or paper. As a result, after you finish eating, all you have to do throw the paper or the banana leave into trashcan. Then ingka can be re-used or stored by in the cupboard without any washing. So simple and practical.

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