Indonesian food items more popular in Holland

By Solita Sarwono

AMSTERDAM (JP): An Indonesian friend came to Holland for a postgraduate study program. Besides books, she brought with her a big bottle of sweet soya sauce. Another friend brought a cobek (stoneware bowl used for grinding spices) and its stone pestel. These women thought that they would not find these things in Holland. But they were wrong.

In all the major cities of Holland you will find shops selling Indonesian food, spices and kitchenware. These shops even have a special name. They are called toko. Although in the Indonesian language the word toko means "shop", in the Dutch context it refers to an Indonesian food store. These tokos sell all kinds of spices, vegetables and canned food that are found in the markets and supermarkets of Jakarta and other cities. Fresh hot chili, shrimp paste, soy bean cake, bean curd, pete, kangkung and even the strong-smelling durian. Super Mie is on the shelves, as well as dried spices. Just name it. It's all there. Indonesian snacks, such as lumpia (spring rolls), lemper, kue lapis legit (layer cake), bolu kukus, fried bananas and bapao (steamed bread) all have a following among the Dutch. They eat them at lunch or in the afternoon. Nasi goreng, nasi rames and gado-gado are very popular too.

The Dutch love Indonesian food but they do not have the patience to cook it. Buying the cooked dishes is much more convenient. Knowing this preference, each Indonesian restaurant provides take-away service. However, for Indonesians who cannot change their habit of eating rice, it is much more economical to cook their meals at home. And for that purpose, one can buy the necessary kitchenware -- also at the toko. Rice cookers, woks, bamboo baskets for steaming and so on; they are all available.

The only problem is the price. On their first visit to the shop most Indonesians, particularly students living on a limited budget, are usually shocked by the prices. I remember going to a toko for the first time and being shocked to see the price of soy bean cake. It was almost Rp 4,000 (US$1.80) a piece, when I was used to buying it at the Blok M market for Rp 300. Some Indonesian students say that here in Holland they would rather buy chicken because it is much cheaper than soy bean cake. And it contains real protein, too. But after a while one overcomes the initial shock because there is no choice. If you prefer to eat Indonesian food, then you must give up comparing its prices with the prices back home. After all, everything in Holland is much more expensive than in Indonesia.

In spite of the high price of Indonesian food products and spices, however, in the long run Indonesian cooking is still less expensive than European cooking. The spices can last for a long time because one only needs a small quantity for each dish. Moreover, not much meat is needed, since it (as well as soy bean cake and bean curd) is mostly chopped into small slices and mixed with vegetables. Vegetables are cheap. In European cooking, by contrast, one needs big slices of meat as the main course.

When you hear about the easy access to Indonesian food in Holland, you might think that exports of Indonesian food products to Holland are very high. You would be wrong. The larger part of the food products and exotic vegetables and fruits sold in the shops come from Thailand. People in this business, including Indonesians, prefer the Thai products because they are of a higher quality than the Indonesian products. They remain fresh for a much longer period than those imported from Indonesia. The import of soya bean products is no longer necessary since soy bean cake, bean curd and soy sauce are already produced in Holland. The taste of the Sumedang bean curd -- the famous bean curd of the Sumedang area in West Java -- made in Rijswijk (near The Hague) is as good as the original. The Dutch also make ready- to-cook Indonesian spices. There are satay spices, lodeh, fried chili paste, rendang, gulai and so on, all made in Rijswijk. But, of course, the flavors have already been adapted to Dutch taste. Not only is the taste of chile less strong, but the curry flavor is stronger, because the Dutch love curry.

That Indonesian cuisine is very popular in Holland is most obvious from the number of Indonesian restaurants and food stores. Everywhere in Holland you will find Indonesian restaurants. Or mixed Indonesian-Chinese restaurants. However, despite the large number and variety of Indonesian restaurants, it is not easy to find ones serving food with original Indonesian flavor. A lot of these restaurants are managed by Dutch or Chinese. Only the cooks are Indonesian or "Indo" (Dutch- Indonesian). In Chinese-Indonesian restaurants often times the cook is not Indonesian but Chinese. Most of the dishes are adapted to Dutch taste. As the result, many Dutch people are surprised and disappointed when they come to Indonesia and taste the food here, or when they taste the home cooking of an Indonesian in Holland.

Apart from the ample number of Indonesian restaurants, Indonesian food has also entered Dutch coffee shops and canteens. Needless to say that these dishes retain their original Indonesian names. Nasi goreng, lumpia, babi panggang (they always miss the second "g" in the middle of the word) and bakmi goreng appear in the menus can be found in their menu. Knowing that the Dutch like Indonesian food very much, some people invent food that is not part of Indonesian cuisine. For instance, the rijsttafel, rice with a large number of side dishes, is a Dutch invention, even though all the side dishes are Indonesian. It is true that Indonesians eat rice with three to four side dishes, but not the 16-32 dishes served in the rijsttafel. Some people also make bakmi balls (balls made of noodles and chopped meat) and Javanese cubes (cubes of rice cooked with curry spices). And they make a variety of chili pastes with the different names: sambal setan, sambal brandal, besides sambal terasi, sambal gandaria, etc.

No doubt, the Dutch like everything with an Indonesian flavor. The youth and children also like it. Every Dutch family goes out to eat Indonesian every now and then or on special occasions. Indonesian food, particularly the rijsttafel, is so popular that it was the main menu for the dinner given for the bicentennial celebration of the relationship between Holland and the United States some years ago. At that dinner party the host, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, said he was proud to offer his guests typically Dutch cuisine: the rijsttafel.

The success of Indonesian cuisine in Holland is mainly due to the limited variety and bland taste of Dutch food. The Dutch make excellent breads, chocolates and cakes, but the food cooked in the homes of Dutch families is similar to that found in France, Germany, America -- and Indonesia. In most Dutch kitchens you can find Indonesian spices and even chili paste, used to make Indonesian meals a la Dutch. Far tastier than fried meat, boiled beans and carrots and some potatoes.