The takeaway menu · Chinees-Indisch
The Chinees-Indisch Menu
Nearly every Dutch town has one: a Chinees-Indisch restaurant with a numbered menu, a takeaway counter, and a bag of kroepoek thrown in with the order. These are the dishes on that menu, written so you can cook them at home.
Where the menu came from
Chinese sailors and ship’s stokers settled in Rotterdam and Amsterdam in the early twentieth century, and the first Chinese eating houses in the Netherlands grew up around them. The bigger change came after Indonesian independence, when Indo-Dutch families and returning colonials arrived with a taste for nasi, bami and saté. Chinese cooks, some of whom had lived in the Indies themselves, put those dishes on the menu beside Cantonese ones. By the 1970s the Chinees-Indisch restaurant had reached towns that had never had a restaurant of any other kind.
What makes it Dutch
Much of this food has no single home country. Babi pangang takes its name from Indonesian and its roasting from Cantonese kitchens, but the sweet red sauce was made for Dutch customers. Foe yong hai arrives under a tomato sauce you would not find in Guangzhou. Kip kerrie is milder and thicker than any curry from Java. These are Netherlands dishes with Asian roots, and they deserve the same care as a pot of hachee.
How to order, and how to cook it
Regulars order by number, ask for speciaal to get a fried egg and extra meat on their nasi or bami, and share a small rijsttafel between two. At home the same logic works: cook one rice or noodle base, one or two dishes in sauce, then add atjar, sambal and kroepoek.
Questions
What is Chinees-Indisch food?+
It is Chinese-Indonesian restaurant cooking as it developed in the Netherlands: Cantonese technique and Indonesian dishes, adjusted to Dutch tastes in the decades after the Second World War.
What does speciaal mean on the menu?+
It varies by restaurant, but nasi or bami speciaal usually comes with a fried egg and extra meat on top. Ask if you are unsure; every kitchen has its own version.
Is it the same as Indonesian food?+
No. Nasi goreng and saté come straight from Indonesia, while the red sauce on babi pangang and the tomato sauce on foe yong hai were shaped in Dutch restaurants. For Indo-Dutch home cooking, see The Indies at Home.