Indonesian food is no longer a novelty to many Dutch people as they are quite familiar with such dishes as “Nasi Goreng” (fried rice), “Gado-gado” (vegetable salad with peanut sauce) and “Sambal” (chili paste). If Dutch people want to eat fried rice, they just say “nasi goreng”, a quite popular dish in the Netherlands. The popularity of Indonesian food in Holland stems from the Dutch people’s long historical ties with
Indonesia which was once called the Netherlands East Indies.
When newly appointed Indonesian Ambassador to the Netherlands Retno Marsudi recently came up with the idea of promoting the Netherlands as a hub for Indonesian cuisine, many Indonesians living in the Netherlands hailed it.
In an emailed message to Antara on Tuesday, Hafid Husen, the owner
of ‘Bengawan Solo’ restaurant in The Hague, said promoting the Netherlands as a hub for Indonesian cuisine was an excellent idea, as many Dutch people like Indonesian food.
“We hope Mrs Retno will bring more hope to Indonesians living in the Netherland,” he said.
A similar opinion was expressed by Pak Surya, the owner of ‘Asli Indonesia’ restaurant in The Hague, who expected Mrs Retno to be a figure capable of promoting Indonesian food in countries outside the Netherlands, such as France, Belgium and Germany.
In his view, the idea to make the Netherlands a hub for Indonesian cuisine was quite good as Indonesian food was already widely known in the ‘windmill` country. The number of Indonesian restaurants in Holland had also increased tremendously in the past ten years.
He said one can now find Indonesian fast food restaurants at many malls or department stores in the Netherlands. Such fast food restaurants offer dishes like nasi goreng (fried rice), mie goreng (fried noodle), soto daging (meat soup), soto ayam (chicken soup), sup
buntut (oxtail soup), mie ayam (chicken noodle), nasi gulai ayam (chicken curry with rice) and nasi rendang sayur (rice with beef nd vegetable curry).
According to him, many Dutch people prefer to eat something strange but delicious. They like Indonesian food because it is rich in taste and variety. One example was Manadonese food which is hot but tasty.
Dutch people in general also like Padang food as its taste has been adjusted to the Dutch people’s palate, said Dr Sofyan Siregar, a lecturer of the Islamic European University in Rotterdam.
He said many Padang restaurants are to be found in the Netherlands. For example, Restaurant Garuda and Sederhana had branches in many regions in Holland and the food served there tasted the same as that in Jakarta but was not too hot as it had been adjusted to the Dutch people’s palate.
The food in Padang restaurants in general never fails to satisfy customers’ palates. But if the visitors happen to come from Indonesia, they usually prefer the food to be relatively hot and therefore they always inform the waiter accordingly
“I don’t know why it tastes a little bit hot,” he said adding that perhaps the waiter put more chillies in the food. Hence, it was not different from the taste of food in Jakarta.
The difference only lies in the way food is displayed. In the Netherlands, the food cannot be put on display as in many Padang restaurants in Indonesia because a government regulation forbids it for reasons of hygiene.
Putting the food on display behind a transparent screen as is done in Indonesia is considered risky as the food could then be contaminated by insects or viruses, said Sofyan who has been living in the Netherlands for more than 30 years.
Earlier, newly appointed Ambassador to the Netherlands Retno said that Indonesian cuisine was going to be developed in the Netherlands and she planned to make the Netherlands a promotional hub for other European countries.
Promoting Indonesian cuisine was not only considered an effort to exchange culture between Indonesia and the Netherlands but also a way to improve the Indonesian people’s economy, she said.
Indeed, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry has now made Indonesian cuisine promotion efforts part of its official policy. All the personnel at Indonesian embassies or missions abroad are now expected to conduct what Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Budi Bowoleksono calls “food diplomacy.”
More than simply making Padang food and other dishes famous, the government has a higher goal: triggering foreign people’s curiosity about Indonesia through their taste buds, so more and more of them would want to come to Indonesia as tourists, businessmen or investors at a time when the country’s economy is booming.
Bowoleksono said Indonesia was truly a country of culinary diversity. “We are not using it effectively to introduce ourselves to the world in the way some of our neighbouring countries are doing it.”
Indonesian embassies abroad, he noted, are already promoting the country’s dishes at social events. But his ministry was now working with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy to do so among wider audiences.
Playing a major role in this effort is well-known Indonesian chef William Wongso who owns several restaurants in Jakarta and advises national flag carrier Garuda.
In recent months, he has been conducting workshops for diplomats on Indonesian cuisine and gone on trips to showcase Indonesian food.
In September, he was in the Netherlands to instruct hunters and others on cooking games in Indonesian fashion.
About the problems still hampering Indonesian cuisine promotion efforts, Wongso said one major block was the tendency among Indonesians abroad always to please their visitors and guests by serving them what the latter were accustomed to.
When Indonesians abroad invite foreigners to their homes, Wongso said, they tend not to showcase their own food but to serve what they believe their guests are familiar with.
“Yet, almost every Indonesian would consider the best food in the world to be that of his own country,” he said.
