Surinamese cuisine 101: how to cook Surinamese food at home

At a Surinamese birthday party, everything is served together: roti with chicken, a dish of bami, pom that has just come out of the oven, moksi meti and a jar of zuur that everyone takes a spoonful from. Indigenous Surinamese people and the descendants of enslaved Africans, Creoles and Maroons laid the foundation. Later, Hindustani, Javanese and Chinese contract labourers brought their own spices and pans, and the Dutch colonial era also left its mark on the plate. What grew from this is one cuisine with many homes, held together by rice, Madame Jeanette and the habit of sharing. For us as a family business with Hakka-Chinese roots via Suriname, this is the cuisine that feels closest to home in our toko in Amsterdam.

What is Surinamese cuisine, really?

Masala, ketjap and a whole Madame Jeanette in the same cuisine: Surinamese cuisine is what happens when a handful of food cultures cook side by side every day and borrow from one another.

A Hindustani family can just as easily make bami as a Javanese family eats roti. Yet you can still taste where each dish comes from: the masala in the roti, the ketjap and trassi in the nasi, the oyster sauce in the tjauw min. Many names come from Sranantongo, the language everyone in Suriname shares, such as moksi alesi, mixed rice, and moksi meti, mixed meat.

Which cuisines can you find in Surinamese cuisine?

In Surinamese cuisine, you can find four major cuisines side by side, with the older layers of Indigenous and Maroon cuisines beneath them.

Hindustani-Surinamese: roti, dahl, masala and bara

Roti kip masala, yellow split peas and urdi form the basis of Hindustani-Surinamese cuisine, which came with the contract labourers from British India. Roti here is the thin sheet with a layer of ground split peas inside, and also the dish with a filling of chicken, potato and string beans in masala. You also cook dahl from split peas, fry bara from urdi and phulauri from split peas, and potato masala with string beans is served when you don't eat meat. You can read all about it in Roti, masala and dahl.

Creole: pom, brown beans, heri heri and peanut soup

Piccalilly in the pom, peanut butter in the soup and salt meat in the beans: Creole cuisine is hearty, salty and generous. Pom is the casserole of grated pom, chicken fillet, orange juice and ketjap, and the dish that revolves around a party. Brown beans with salt meat and moksi alesi are everyday food, and peanut soup with chicken drumsticks and tom tom is a whole meal in a bowl. Salted mackerel, salted herring, you eat stewed with tomato and onion or in heri heri with cassava, sweet potato and fried plantain, the dish of July 1, when the abolition of slavery is commemorated.

Javanese-Surinamese: bami, nasi, saoto and petjel

Pindasambal, ketjap and trassi are the building blocks of Javanese-Surinamese cuisine, which came with contract labourers from Java and took on its own flavour in Suriname. Surinamese bami and nasi are darker and sweeter than Indonesian, because quite a lot of ketjap goes into them. Saoto is clear chicken soup with celery, bean sprouts and fried potato, petjel is vegetables under a thick peanut sauce, and dawet is the pink coconut drink for a warm afternoon. Read more in Javanese-Surinamese cooking.

Chinese-Surinamese: moksi meti, tjauw min and tjap tjoy

Mixed pickles, oyster sauce and a pinch of Ve-Tsin belong to Chinese-Surinamese cuisine, where many Hakka families stood at the stove and still do. Moksi meti is a plate of rice with tjauw sieuw of pork neck, crispy sieuw joek of pork belly and roasted chicken, tjauw min is light fried noodles with chicken fillet and pork loin, and tjap tjoy is a dish of vegetables with chicken in a glossy sauce. In Chinese-Surinamese cooking you also read about kiem tjiem kip, kau yuk and lo han jai, and how it comes to our table at home, see in Tjin’s family recipe for chicken stew.

Indigenous and Maroon

The cuisines of the Indigenous Surinamese and the Maroons in the interior are less commonly encountered in the Netherlands, but you can taste them in cassava, which was already grown in Suriname long before the other groups arrived and is still in many dishes.

What binds all Surinamese food together?

Ground Madame Jeanette, rice, salt meat, ketjap and a jar of zuur bind the Surinamese cuisines together, however different they may be otherwise.

• Madame Jeanette: the yellow, fragrant pepper goes whole in the pan or comes ground to the table. You get Madame Jeanette fresh or frozen in the toko, and everything about peppers and pepper sauce you read in Caribbean hot sauce.
• Rice: Surinamese rice is the long grain that almost every dish is served on or beside. Which rice you use for what is in our rice guide.
• Salt meat: salted beef that you first boil briefly and that afterwards seasons the beans, the moksi alesi and bitawiri.
• Ketjap: not only for bami and nasi, but also in pom, brown beans and bakkeljauw goes a dash of ketjap manis. The difference between manis, sedang and asin you read in Ketjap explained.
• Sour on the table: cucumber zuur, piccalilly, mango chutney and mixed pickles make a plate complete. Which sour belongs with which dish, you read in Sour, chutney and pepper sauce.

View all Surinamese spices and flavourings →

Where can you eat Surinamese food?

Outside the home you eat Surinamese food at the warung, the roti shop and the Chinese-Surinamese toko or restaurant, and each of those places has its own menu.

In Suriname a warung is a simple eatery, often run by a Javanese-Surinamese family, where you get saoto, bami, nasi, petjel and a glass of dawet, and in the Netherlands such places are also simply called warungs. At the roti shop you order roti with chicken or potato masala, with bara and phulauri on the side, and at the Chinese-Surinamese shop you get moksi meti, tjauw min or tjap tjoy. A pom sandwich or a bakkeljauw sandwich is Surinamese street food that you come across everywhere.

Which products do you need for Surinamese cuisine?

Surinamese rice, masala, split peas, ketjap, pepper sauce and a jar of zuur: with the products below you cook most of the dishes in this guide. We stock the brands that Surinamese families in the Netherlands have been cooking with for generations, such as Lekker Bekkie for pepper sauce, chutney and piccalilly, Nandan for masala, and for the Chinese-Surinamese pan the sauces, pickles and flavourings from Lee Kum Kee, Mee Chun and Ve-Tsin.

Surinamese rice alesiLong grain for almost everythingMasala Surinamese masalaFor chicken masala and potato masalaRoti chicken masala for the roti fillingChicken, potato and string beans in masalaYellow split peas for dahlFor dahl, phulauri and in the rotiUrdi urid dalGround for the bara batterKetjap manis sweet soy sauceFor bami, nasi, pom and brown beansSe-oen mung bean glass noodlesIn the saoto bowlPindasambal for petjelOver blanched vegetablesSurinamese peanut butter spicyFor peanut soup with tom tomGround pepper Madame JeanetteA pinch on your plate, with everythingPiccalilly with Madame JeanetteIn the pom and next to the riceMango chutney sweet and spicyWith roti, bara and phulauriMixed pickles sweet and sourNext to moksi meti and tjauw minVe-Tsin flavor enhancerA pinch in tjauw min and tjap tjoyDawet essence pink and fragrantFor the coconut drink dawet

Pomtajer, salt meat, bakkeljauw and cassava, and fresh vegetables such as string beans, antroewa, bitawiri and sopropo, you can get fresh or frozen in the toko. For shelf life, follow the label.

View all Surinamese rice, beans and legumes →

Which Surinamese dishes do you cook at home?

Roti with chicken, pom, saoto and moksi meti are among the best-known Surinamese dishes, and with the eight recipes below you can cook something from every cuisine at home.

Roti with chickenChicken thigh fillet with potato and string beans in a thick masala sauce.BaraLight fried bread made from urdi, with a dab of sambal.PomGrated pomtajer with chicken thigh fillet, orange juice and piccalilly from the oven.Brown beans with salt meatA thick pan of beans with salt meat, tomato and ketjap, with rice.Saoto soupClear chicken soup with se-oen, taugé, egg and fried potato.Surinamese bamiDark fried noodles with chicken thigh fillet, cabbage and lots of ketjap.Moksi metiTjauw sieuw from pork neck, crispy pork belly and roasted chicken thigh on rice.Tjauw minLight fried noodles with chicken thigh fillet, pork loin and Chinese cabbage.

If you want more, try kiem tjiem kip, antroewa with bakkeljauw or sopropo with egg. All the recipes are together in our Surinamese recipes.

Where can you find Surinamese products by category?

You can find Surinamese products with us by category, from masala and pepper sauce to rice, beans, marinades, snacks and syrups.

Everything Surinamese the entire rangeFrom masala to pepper sauce, zuur and dawetShop nowSpices and flavourings masala and pepperMasala, ketjap, sambal, chutney and zuurShop nowRice and beans alesi and beansSurinamese rice, brown beans and split peasShop nowMarinades for meat and chickenMarinades for the pan and the barbecueShop nowSnacks to nibble onBanana chips, biscuits and prunesShop nowDrinks syrupsDawet, orgeade and bottled susuroosShop now

Read more about Surinamese cuisine

Roti, masala and dahlHindustani-Surinamese cuisine: roti, masala, dahl, bara and phulauri.Javanese-Surinamese cookingKetjap, se-oen, bami, nasi, petjel, trassi, saoto and dawet.Chinese-Surinamese cookingMoksi meti, tjauw min, tjap tjoy, Ve-Tsin and dried goods.Zuur, chutney and pepper sauceTable zuur, piccalilly, chutney and atjar, and what goes with them.Caribbean hot sauceScotch bonnet and Surinamese pepper sauce.

Frequently asked questions

The best way to get to know Surinamese cuisine is to simply start with one pan, a dahl on a weekday evening or a dish of bami when people come over, because after a few times you'll naturally find yourself adding another dash of ketjap and removing the pepper in time. If you are standing in our toko in Amsterdam among the Lekker Bekkie pepper sauces, Nandan masala and Mee Chun mixed pickles that have been staples in Surinamese kitchens in the Netherlands for so long and are not sure what to choose, feel free to ask us, because this cuisine is close to our hearts and we are happy to help. All the recipes are together in our Surinamese recipes, and you can find the full range in Discover Surinamese Cuisine.