Tasting Suriname

While in the Netherlands we managed to meet up with a friend who we knew from Dubai 20 years ago. She invited us to her home to have a traditional meal from Suriname, a small country in South America. We were happy to have been invited and gladly accepted the invitation. We took a 2-hour train ride from Amsterdam to a city called Almere.

We were excited to be there and was so happy when they prepared a pool for the kids to swim in. They even baked a cake and had balloons for the kids to play, Jaf asked, “Whose birthday is it?” Since it was Anthony’s (their 16 year old son) birthday a week ago we decided to celebrate it again.

We were starving and the food spread was making it even worse! 🙂

There was a bowl of plantain chips, which think we must have ate it all in just minutes.

We had a spaghetti that was almost like the traditional burnt butter pasta, but a bit called “bami”.

Here is “nasi a rice dish that was served with chicken marinated with a “ketjap” sauce called kip ketjap. We also had a chicken served with chinese mushrooms in soy sauce. The string beans are called “kouseband” and the chinese cabbage or “kool” in Dutch was served on the side as veggies.

Everything was eaten with a peanut sauce called “pindasaus”.

To finish it all off we had cake that was like a sponge cake, very light and fluffy called Eksi Koekoe (which means egg cake in Surinamse).

The kids ate very large pieces and then shortly we found out the cake had rum! (oops) LOL

Lou Lou and Jaf got a history lesson today and had an opportunity to try Surinamese food. 🙂 Jaf’s fave was the bami and Lou Lou loved the pindasaus that was on everything. “It takes just like peanut butter Mom!” (it’s actually very similar to the thai peanut sauce they use for satay).

We hung out with Suyay, Anthony and Anthony Jr. until sunset and then hey graciously offered to drive us back to Amsterdam (45 minute drive).

They will be going to Spain in August for a holiday and we hope we’ll be able to meet up with them again soon.