Products from the Dutch East Indies at the World Exhibition in Amsterdam 1883
A catalogue dealing with objects from the Dutch colonies gives insight in the diversity of agricultural products in the Indonesian archipelago at that time. It mentions 104 varieties of rice, 10 varieties of vegetable oils, 40 varieties of flour, 12 bottles of arrowroot from successive years, dried meat (deng deng) from different animals, tropical fruits (nam-nam, madoe, salak and blimbing), ‘Turkish wheat’ (which is probably the same as bulghur), dried shrimp for preparing kroepoek and dried belindjo nuts for making emping. As special delicacies are mentioned: pasiran (sea turtle), mimi (a kind of lobster), troeboek (shad) and other ingredients you’ll never find in a Dutch-Indonesian rijsttafel. To be sure, this variety of products never reached the European market. Meanwhile most of them probably disappeared from local markets as well.
In the catalogue tuna fish is described as not suitable for the European palate because ‘the meat, although tasty and healthy, doesn’t taste like fish’. Special attention is given to Chinese delicacies: dried shark fins, bird’s nests, ebbi (crayfish) and trepang (sea cucumber). It doesn’t forget to mention that the Chinese are willing to pay a lot for an amorphous mollusk that crawls over the ocean floor.
References:
Catalogus der afdeeling Nederlandsche kolonien van de Internationale Koloniale- en Uitvoerhandel tentoonstelling te Amsterdam. Leiden, Brill 1883.
Linda Roodenburg: Eten op Aarde. Madame Jeanet Publishers, Rotterdam 2007
