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When Indonesia’s President Sukarno was once asked by a journalist, where to find the best “Rijsttafel” in Jakarta, he answered, “in The Hague", referring to “De Rijsttafel “as a Dutch invention and just the traditional way to eat in Indonesia or better in many parts of the world. Simply just put a variety of dishes that will match each other in taste.

If interested in Indonesian cooking try the books of Lia Warani, a bit old but to me one of the best books on Indonesian kitchen. Simple, good taste but as with most of this type of cooking there is so much space per family, village or area to differ ingredients. When many Dutch-Indonesian people (Indo’s) came to Holland after 1948 The Hague became the widow of Indonesia. People still wanted to eat their food from "The Islands of Smaragd". Indonesian Tokos started to flourish in Holland and Dutch People were also introduced to the exotic Indonesian cuisine. The Dutch Indo's and Moluccans have adapted their cooking more and less to Dutch standards by lack of fresh ingredients. One thing must be said that in the last years many fresh ingredients have become available.
My favourite way to make Nasi Goreng I learned at home at Indo and Moluccan families.

Just take a pork chop from the shoulder (nice and fat) or any left over meat, or if you want to make it Hallal chicken or beef, shrimps or any kind of meat fish that tickles your fancies,
Some 3 sjalottes,
5 gloves of garlic,
One small can of tomato paste (for colour),
Two table spoons of shrimp paste,
And 4 table spoons of Sambal Oelek,

Cut ingredients up into very small pieces and I mean very small, it must season the rice and we don't have to taste big chunks of meat etc.
Fry the onion on a medium to high heat but don't burn the onions, add the garlic and soon after the pork chop. Fry until lightly coloured and than add the shrimp paste, make sure the paste is totally dissolved. Now your boemboe (Paste) is almost finished. Add the tomato paste, this is just to colour the boemboe, give it a good stir and than at the sambal oelek. Let the whole mixture fry for a little longer but don’t let it burn.

This Boemboe you can use in the following way. Just take a plate of plane white rice or if preferred Pandang or Basmati rice, add one or two table spoons of the boemboe to your rice, BE CAREFULL as this boemboe is very hot and spicy, mix well with the rice and you have a wonderful Nasi Goreng. If you want you can add some vegetables such as white cabbage, peas or bean sprouts, top it with a fried egg (Mata Sapi, meaning, cow’s eye) or just fry an omelette of three beaten eggs, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of sesame oil. Roll the fried omelette up and cut into pieces of 0.5 cm. add the strings of omelette through the rice.

Drape a few slices of cucumber on your plate and fry a few well seasoned (just white pepper and salt) chicken wings (separate the wing from the small drum stick, in this way you have two pieces instead of one) and shallow fry them in some fresh vegetable oil, such as Arachnid or sunflower oil on a medium to high heat.

You can of course freeze the boemboe and just take out a spoonful or two and add to your rice when coming home late.
It's a great treat for yourself or a wonderful late night snack when coming home from a night out in the town.

Enjoy,
Jerry Lampen
Netherlands.