Suriname, what is in a cuisine?

Hallo,

Recently I have had someone mentioned that a dish I cooked wasn’t representative of the country, it is one of the pitfalls from using google as my only source of reference and I would gladly welcome authentic recipes but so far they are slow coming. It makes me think though, what is the essence of a nation, a culture, a cuisine and a way of life? Do the influences of other cultures not form part of where each nation is today?

Suriname is a good example, the official language of the country is Dutch, a reflection of its Dutch past. Its cuisine is even more influenced with touches of the Dutch, India, China, Indonesia and Africa. We decided to cook a Surinamese curry, this made me wonder about whether the recipe was authentic. After doing a little digging I found that Indians arrived in Suriname as labourers in 1873, no doubt bringing their cuisine with them in part, after 10 years hard labour they were allowed to settle.

The curry was easy to make, chicken with garam masala, chili, ginger and onion, it was served with rice. I quite like the flavour of masala curries, it is different to that of curry powder.

Doei

Sam’s rating: 8/10