The Netherlands and Its Indonesian Table

The Dutch table of Indonesian food rests on the colonial relation between the Netherlands and the East Indies, which began with the VOC in the early seventeenth century and ended in Indonesian independence in 1945, recognised by the Netherlands in 1949. Its geographic anchor is the movement of people from Java, the Moluccas and the other islands, and of Dutch-Indonesian families of mixed descent, to the Dutch cities in the years after the war. The rijsttafel and the Dutch-Indonesian kitchen of the colonial households, recorded in Catenius-van der Meijden's Oost-Indisch kookboek of 1902, are the older ground on which the later restaurant trade stands.

The Indonesian table of the Netherlands grew out of the colonial relation between the two countries. The VOC began trading in the East Indies in the early seventeenth century, and the relation continued until Indonesian independence, proclaimed in 1945 and recognised by the Netherlands in 1949. Over those centuries Dutch households in the Indies lived among Indonesian cooks and Indonesian ingredients, and a mixed kitchen took shape that belonged to neither side alone. That kitchen was written down in Dutch before the age of the restaurant. J. M. J. Catenius-van der Meijden's Oost-Indisch kookboek of 1902 records the dishes of the Indo-European household, prepared by cooks who worked from Dutch habits and Indonesian produce. The rijsttafel belongs to the same ground: rice at the centre, and around it many small dishes of meat, vegetable, egg and sambal set down together. It was shaped in the households and hotels of the Indies before it was known in the Netherlands. After the war, people from Java, the Moluccas and the other islands, together with Dutch-Indonesian families of mixed descent, moved to the Dutch cities. They brought the cooking of the colonial household and of their home islands, and with it the habit of the shared table. The restaurant trade that followed stands on this older ground, and it still follows the pattern of the rijsttafel, with rice, sambal and a range of dishes served side by side. Indonesian food is now among the most familiar cuisines of Dutch eating out, and the people of Indonesian and Indo descent form a large part of the Dutch population. The colonial kitchen that came home with them has become part of the national table, as the food of Indonesia and the food of the Indo community have long since merged in Dutch kitchens.

The Dutch Indonesian table is built on the balance of many dishes against plain rice: something rich and coconut-based beside something dry and spiced, a braised meat beside a vegetable, a fried egg or a sambal to sharpen the whole. The cook seasons each dish for its place in the meal rather than for the plate alone. Sambal sits at the side so that each diner sets the heat, and sweet soy sauce, shallot, garlic and chilli carry the familiar savoury-sweet line of the Indo kitchen. Rice receives everything, and the meal is taken from the centre outward, a little of each dish at a time.