Trend: the Indo cuisine
Indonesian cuisine is hotter than ever. Or rather: super-pedis. Trend forecaster Vincent van Dijk had already warned us about this.
Every day I crave sambal telor, and I would have a double murder committed for a good saté kambing. So it seemed like self-fulfilling prophecy when I announced the revival of Indonesian cuisine four years ago. But the rise of Indo cuisine really is a fact. It rocks like never before!
Spekkoek
Because of our colonial past, we primarily know Indonesian cuisine as Indische cuisine, with dishes adapted to the Dutch and Dutch products, such as the famous rijsttafel, spekkoek and gado gado. The Indo people here wanted to keep the culinary traditions alive and slept with Bep Vuyk’s somewhat yellowed Great Indonesian Cookbook under their pillow.
A fresh perspective
There are an enormous number of Dutch people with a family connection to Indonesia, and by now a new generation is emerging that does not so much long nostalgically for tempo doeloe: they are mainly looking ahead. With a fresh perspective, energetic curiosity and pride in seventy years of independence.
Modernization
We are seeing the growth of trendy Indonesian restaurants, such as Ron Gastrobar Indonesia Downtown, Restaurant Jin and Café Amoi, as well as a modernization of recipes. Because just like a language is constantly changing, a cuisine must continue to adapt to new flavors and innovations. Indonesian cuisine has always done that, incidentally. That is why, alongside Dutch influences, you also find Arab, Portuguese and Chinese influences in this cuisine.
Baru Belanda
This year, Pascal Jalhay wrote the book Baru Belanda with 14 top chefs, with the aim of modernizing and making Indische cuisine sexy. He unleashes his renowned creativity on dishes and flavors from his father’s homeland. And last week, a new cookbook was published, called INDOROCK. Creative culinary writer Vanja van der Leeden calls it a refresh of Indonesian cuisine. In this gorgeous picture book, discover how you can relatively easily throw together surprising flavor combinations, such as roasted pointed cabbage with cashew pecel sauce and sambal matah, Balinese porchetta and creamy jackfruit curry. Not to mention the incredible herring with Balinese sambal matah that we got to taste during the launch. Rock on!
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