The Taste of Suriname

The Taste of Suriname isn’t just another Surinamese cookbook. It is not only the first Surinamese cookbook especially written for English-speaking audiences, it also contains an unique collection of 100 today popular, never published and long-forgotten recipes, seasoned with a good sprinkle of historical culinary anecdotes. In this book you will find recipes which are passed down orally from generation to generation and are now finally set into permanent form. For example: Amerindian Peprewatra, Roasted Giant Toad legs and Cassava bread, Afro-Surinamese Afingi, Pinda Alesi, Asogrie and Sukr’irtji, Chinese Fachong and Lebanese Mehsmi Malfouf. Off course recipes for today popular dishes such as Roti, Saoto Soup, Peanut Soup, Pom, Brown Beans with Rice and Chicken Pasty are also inserted. And many more!

Don’t expect in this book culinary arts à la Urbain Dubois that you can impress your family or guests with. French Haute cuisine didn’t quite make it all the way up into Suriname. What you will find are recipes for  wonderful dishes that have been created and tested by the home cooks of Surinamese origin. Thanks to them, you’ll now be able to prepare and taste them yourself. To meet the request of many, this book also contains some translated recipes from the Groot Surinaams Kookboek, also known as the Suriname Cook-bible. Together they will take you on an unforgettable culinary trip through colonial history up until the present day.

Sources of the material for compiling The Taste of Suriname include the author’s private collection of recipes. Many of the recipes were presented to her by Surinamese relatives and friends; others she gathered from Surinamese men and women that she met in Suriname or Holland. Other sources are old travelogues, novels and diaries, of which some date back from as early as the sixteenth and seventeenth century, as well as more recent published novels from Surinamese writers. They all mention about food and drinks in everyday’s life and dish up a wealth of culinary images, whom make you long for a good introduction into the Surinamese cuisine: which this book certainly is!

The Taste of Suriname is a cookbook for people who remember with nostalgia the dishes from their childhood, as well for people who want to learn (more) about the Suriname cuisine.