Guus Bosman

software engineering director


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dutchusa

A Soutern Season & Indonesian cuisine

Sambal.Dutch cuisine is strongly influenced by the Indonesian kitchen and around here it's hard to find some of the ingredients that I used on a daily basis in Holland.

I didn't quite realize it in the beginning, but condiments like sambal manis or ketjap manis, or things like nasi aren't for sale in regular supermarkets. Thai cuisine is more popular here, so there are similar curry pastes to sambal available but there is much less variety. I really like sambal manis, a sweet mild sambal.

A couple of months ago I ordered some Dutch ingredients by mail order, including mixes for babi pangang and foo yong hai and seroendeng, roasted coconut with spices. I almost finished the sambals so I was very happy when Petra told me about a store in Chapel Hill where they carry Indonesian condiments: A Southern Season. A wonderful store!

Curry.

When I walked through the isles my eyes fell on this bottle with Dutch curry. It's a ketchup with spices that is often used with fried snacks. I'm not particularly fond of it, but this is the first time that I see this sauce outside the Netherlands. It gives an indication of the rich selection A Southern Season has to offer.

Sambal.

Ketjap manis, sambal trassi, sambal manis, mixes for sambal stir fry and Indonesian satay, sambal oelek, sambal badjak, and in the right bottem corner mixes for various Indonesian sauces. When we lived in Amsterdam Bijlmer I get these same brands from local shops.

Mie.

Mie are Chinese wheat noodles that are popular in the Dutch kitchen. Bami goreng is an Indonesian dish based on fried noodles.

Hagelslag.

After seeing this rich choice I wasn't really surprised to find hagelslag...

Droste.

...and that the "wall of chocolate" included Dutch Droste wasn't all that surprising either...

Friese Keukenstroop.

...but they even have Friese Keukenstroop! I can't remember ever seeing that in the US before.

I bought a couple of things. Sambal manis of course, and a package for Indonesian peanut sauce (which is different than the Thai peanut sauce that is popular here). I also bought some other Asian condiments like rice vinegar and sesame oil.

Comments

Jaap's picture

How about Belgian beers?

They had a nice selection of Belgium beers but smaller than Whole Foods.

No Grimbergen. They did sells Kwak glasses though.

Lucky you...I have to travel 2 hours to get that kind of stuff...or order it online of course.
They do have good Belgian beers at our local import store though, including Westmalle Dubbel, my favorite.

We have a Dutch store almost right around the corner and they sell ketjap manis and all the "boemboes" from the Koningsvogel brand. I'm glad I have to visit the Netherlands at least twice a year, so I can buy a lot of Indonesian ingredients over there. I miss the "satésaus" so much! And the thai saté is just not the same...

Hi Houstonwehaveproblem, nice to see that you found my site. In which city do you live? Do you live in Houston?

Tonight we cooked nasi with the package I bought and it was delicious.

A recipe I found called for "nasi vlees" or "nasi meat", which is available in butcher stores in Holland but not here. Instead I used small chunks of chicken and that worked out nice. I added an egg and mixed some green peas (doperwten) through the fried rice.

I'm sooooooo jealous I wish we had a store like that, here is only Gouda Kaas what I can get. Man you are so lucky.!

Jaap's picture

For Dizzymisslizzy/houstonwehaveaproblem and others:

satesaus:
put peanut butter, water, sambal, some ketjap (sweet) together. add some gingember powder.
heat slowly, keep stirring.
some people add coconut butter .
This is just one of the possible ways to make a satesaus.
Goes fine with BBQ
Jaap

This is how I found your website :) I am drooling now. Oh how I can't wait when I go back and go shopping in Albert Heijn oftewel Appie Hein :)

what meat did you grill to use with satesaus?

here in indonesia, especially in central java, sometimes sate kambing (goat meat sate) are eaten only with mix of ketjap, sliced green small chili (sorry i dont know the english word for that, the indonesian is: cabe rawit), and sliced onion as the sauce. and dont forget to add some sliced fresh tomato and cabbage.

chicken and goat sate booth are only 500 meters away from my home, and i've just eat those last night. mmm.. no need to cook, and tastes so great..

indonesia has many delicious choice in cuisine. sambal, sate, nasi goreng, is only several cuisine from java island. from sumatra island, you can find many other delicious cuisine mainly from Padang city. rendang is one type of cuisine origins from padang. but most of padang (minang) cuisine is high on cholesterol, so you have to be careful eating that if you've already keep big amount of fat under your skin :-) and there's also other sate type came from padang which use grilled cow meat, it called "sate padang". the sauce for that is more complex in ingridients, but also tastes great.

man, talking about food really make me hungry.

Ariandy
Bandung, Indonesia

Wow, I am very lucky to live in Indonesia and be able to taste Indonesian food everyday.
If there are so many fans of Indonesian condiments, I wonder how many industries there have trying to produce
Indonesian instant seasoning.
I don't know what is satesaus? is it some kind of sate like Ariandy said or something else?
Guus if you have a flowchart for the making of hagelslag, please end it to me. Thank you.

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