Sexy Indonesian

In England, you stumble over Indian restaurants. And every French hamlet has a Vietnamese eatery, too, even back when that cuisine wasn’t hip yet. All because of historical events (read: colonial times). The Netherlands puts satay sauce on fries and nutmeg in its food, thanks to the seventeenth-century ‘trading company’ VOC, which introduced Indonesian products to us.

But we don’t really have a thriving Indonesian cuisine. A few cookbooks did appear, mostly Dutch East Indies-style. And Ron Blaauw opened his Gastrobar Indonesia in 2016. But a good Indonesian restaurant on every street corner? No. Isn’t that a denial of such an important part of Dutch-Indonesian history, and of all those wonderful dishes?

BaruBelanda (Dutch new)

Pascal Jalhay, the chef with Indonesian roots who once earned two stars at restaurant Vermeer, thinks so too. He had already been playing with the idea of making traditional Indonesian cuisine modern and sexy for five years. On Jalhay’s Facebook page, BaruBelanda (Dutch new), he was inundated with enthusiastic responses from chefs with Indonesian ancestors.

The New Indonesian Cuisine: modern & sexy.

Together with several of them—Syrco Bakker (Pure C), Jaimie van Heije (Jaimie van Heije restaurant), Hans van Triest (Kasteel Kerkebosch) and Noah Thenu (Supperclub)—the New Indonesian Cuisine was launched last weekend at Amsterdam’s Supperclub. Traditional dishes prepared and served in a modern way.

Teh Botol

“I think it’s a shame that Indonesian cuisine in the Netherlands has never evolved in seventy years,” says Jalhay. Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese and Japanese cuisine developed into modern, sexy lounge concepts. Why hasn’t Indonesian cuisine become more sophisticated, refined and sexy?’

Why hasn’t Indonesian cuisine become sexy in 70 years?

Jalhay’s efforts to apply more refined flavors and more technical preparations resulted in elegant dishes such as his daging, besengek, kangkung, fermented soybeans and teh botol. A celebration of typically Indonesian ingredients in universally modern packaging.

Sexy

What happens next? In any case, Jalhay’s initiative will continue every two years. And that’s wonderful, because Indonesian cuisine deserves to eventually be represented on every street corner. The original dishes could certainly be refined further, too.

But… When we’re in Indonesia or anywhere else, we passionately search for that one authentic place that still cooks and serves food in a hyper-traditional way. And we don’t rest until we’ve Instagrammed it. Isn’t that very geographical and cultural distinctiveness precisely what makes it supersexy?

Image: Mitchell van Voorbergen