The pond with koi carp, the free calendar at the end of the year, the lanterns and of course the food: babi pangang, foe yong hai, prawn crackers. Who doesn’t love the Chinese-Indonesian Restaurant? I’m sure we’ve all eaten or ordered food there at least once. Yet more and more are disappearing.
The Chinese-Indonesian restaurants in our country are not doing well. Figures from the Chamber of Commerce show that 86 restaurants have closed their doors in the past two years. In reality, that number is much higher. Many restaurants are increasingly changing to an all you can eat concept or serving other dishes such as sushi. Children also often do not take over their parents’ business and finding staff is not easy either.
‘Chin. Ind. Spec. Rest.: a disappearing Dutch phenomenon’
Our former colleague also noticed that things are not going well with the restaurants Mark of Wonders. As a reporter, he traveled criss-cross through North Holland for years. He noticed that Chinese-Indonesian restaurants could be found everywhere, often in strange, not necessarily attractive, locations. In 2018 his book ‘Chin. Ind. Spec. Rest.: a disappearing Dutch phenomenon’. For this book he recorded all, almost 1100, still existing Chinese-Indonesian restaurants in the Netherlands.
Still, the Chinese-Indian restaurant culture was added to the list three years ago Dutch intangible heritage. According to the knowledge center, there is a unique convergence of cultures in Chinese-Indonesian restaurants. And that must be safeguarded, according to Intangible Heritage Netherlands.
Do you think that the Chinese-Indonesian restaurant should never disappear? And what do you think is the tastiest in North Holland?