Dutch Chinese food

As an American, I’m used to the “American Chinese food.” I’m talking about Orange Chicken and Kung Pow Chicken on top of fried rice or fried noodles. But Dutch Chinese food is a whole different ball game. When Sander’s dad asked me for my order, I didn’t know. None of the names were familiar and there were no photos to look at. My Dutch wasn’t too good at the time either so I decided to pick whatever was spicy. I learned later that dishes are more influenced by Indonesian culture instead of Chinese.

A Typical Meal
A staple is Nasi or Bami. Nasi meals are fried rice, while Bami meals are the noodle dishes. It’s easy to make either meal. All one needs is packet of spices, a bag of Asian type vegetables, and a meat of choice. Fried Ham and eggs dress up the meal as an extra bonus. The take out place we frequent doesn’t add extra meat to their dishes but there are many things to order from. Sander’s family usually gets chicken in satésaus, which is a thick, rich peanut sauce. This sauce is common and even non Asian restaurants serve it. Satésaus and chicken is actually Sander’s favorite meal when we go out.

Interesting Flavors
For my first meal, I ended up ordering the Boemboe Bali sauce with rice. It was actually pretty good! It wasn’t spicy though and I had to add sambal sauce, This is the Dutch version of sriracha. The Boemboe Bali was light in flavor but also very savory. The pieces of chicken and veggies in it were delicious as well and even though it was a simple meal, I took seconds!

Seconds Please
What’s awesome about ordering out, is that there’s so much food! We can eat for a few days from one order so it helps to order a little extra sometimes! While Dutch Chinese food has some interesting flavors, try a little bit of everything because it’s amazing.