It may sound a bit snobbish, but everything I know about Surinamese cuisine I learned from the Surinamese-Dutch star chef Soenil Bahadoer. Before I met him, I had of course eaten roti and a fried cod sandwich, but that was me when I ate roti with Bahadoer’s mother, tasted his sister’s noodles with chicken and met his bara.
I listened breathlessly to the stories behind his dishes and discovered that we, two people with completely different backgrounds, had had the same experiences as children in the white villages where we grew up.
That was at a time when eggplants were rare in supermarkets, n.e. The Dutch have enthusiastically embraced those cooking smells and the associated cuisines, but unfortunately not so the people who brought all that delicious food with them.
Surinamese cuisine is the amalgamation of different communities that were brought to Suriname, where the indigenous Maroon population lived, to work for a pittance; indentured servants from India, China and Indonesia, and Portuguese plantation owners, all of whom took their dishes with them and breathed new life into them.
So when you eat a pom sandwich, enjoy a bara or catch your breath with a bowl of saoto soup, a rich, long history of people who moved from continent to continent with the recipes from home as a permanent fixture. And that is exactly what we come to do at Warung Melatie in Rotterdam, a small takeaway restaurant with limited space to eat. When we walk in for lunch, the gentleman behind the counter continues to work unperturbed; There is no greeting, no looking around, only when he is ready does he ask without ceremony what we want. It’s not bad, even a bit funny, the man doesn’t waste time or energy on anything other than the orders coming in.
Best saoto soup
Warung Melatie is known for its saoto soup, which is praised as Rotterdam. Saoto is the Surinamese version of the Indonesian soto ayam. At Warung Melatie it is richly filled with chicken, bean sprouts, crispy mini fries, vermicelli and an egg, served with a bowl of white rice that we don’t touch because the soup is completely good. Very satisfying and perfect for warming up.
We also share a spring roll, nice and crispy and well filled with crunchy vegetables and sweet-spicy thanks to the sauce. The first thing you notice about the bakkeljauw sandwich is the warm, fine bread. The salty taste of the dried and salted fish is subdued. The bara, the Surinamese snack par excellence, is well fried, not greasy, the dough is airy and the filling of softly cooked chicken with that characteristic taste of masala spices is irresistible. The noodles with chicken marinated in soy sauce are also delicious; ideal for eating on the couch with a good movie.
That’s what I like about Surinamese cuisine: it is uncomplicatedly delicious. Earthy, fragrant, spicy and the kind of food that makes you immediately feel at home. The noodles, bara, bakkeljauw and saoto are mainstays of the kitchen, but not the only ones. Crown jewels such as the roti and pom should not be missing from any discussion – and they are not.
Not a subtle hat
The roti is adequate: the vegetarian version comes with potatoes, beans and pickles and has a good taste, but in my opinion it could be seasoned more generously. This also applies to the version with chicken. It is more aromatic than the vegetarian version, you can taste the masala spices here too, but that could have been more pronounced.
The pom sandwich, abbreviated from pomtayer, the festive meal in Suriname, is also warm and good; the pom has a creamy structure and wonderfully spicy with a subtle hint of sweet.
Less subtle is the petjel, an East Javanese version of gado gado, blanched vegetables with peanut sauce. In this sauce the ketjap dominates in a somewhat clumsy way.
You may be wondering: where does that woman put it? Well we went back for dinner the same day. And I’m glad we did, because while we placed our order and waited for it, we got a good sense of the atmosphere. The gentleman behind the counter was as unperturbed as ever. While the business filled up, he continued to work at his own pace, making video calls with a small child in between.
Despite the crowds, the store remained remarkably quiet and friendly. People who came in asked politely who was last, so that there was no confusion about whose turn it was, and spontaneously started conversations with each other about the delicious food.
That’s what I like most about Warung Melatie: you see a cross-section of Rotterdam passing by, different cultures and classes brought together by the flavors of the cuisine, and that alone makes it worthwhile to eat there or pick up something to take away. And the saoto, of course, it is indeed good.
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