@Pan-Islamic-Pakistan
You are correct. Surinam might be geographically part of South America, but culturally it is more Caribbean.
Of those you mentioned I like Saltfish (what we call 'Bakkeljauw', which is from the Portugese word 'Bacelhau').
We usually eat it on bread like this:
Or with fried cassava like this:
This dish is called 'Telo'.
I also like plantains.
We fry plantains in a batter and eat it with peanut sauce like this:
Next to these dishes, the Surinamese cuisine has many types of different dishes.
This of course has to do with the different ethnicities living there.
I will give a couple of (delicious) examples.
Let us start with the Jews.
The Jews have been living in Surinam when it was still a colony of the British (since 1639).
These Jews were Sephardic Jews originally from Portugal, Italy and The Netherlands.
It were the Jews who brought Saltfish (bakkeljauw) and plantains to Surinam.
Later on (1674), the Dutch traded Surinam for New Amsterdam (today known as New York).
Slavery and slave trade was already happening in Surinam (since ~ 1600).
These slaves came from West Africa.
The Dutch, British and the Jews were the slave owners and traders.
During those times, the slave owners instructed the slaves to make them food.
One of those dishes is 'Fiadoe' or 'Fiadu', which is a type of cake.
This cake, which contains raisins and candied fruits, comes originally from the Sephardic Jewish cuisine.
The word 'Fiadu' however has West African origins.
It is what a tribe used to call their capital of their land.
This is Fiadoe:
Lets continue.
The slaves also had their own dishes, like 'Bravoe', which is a soup.
The slaves usually got the leftovers from their slave owners and the best thing to do with leftovers is to make a soup.
This is Bravoe:
Since the slaves needed to cook the recipes which they got from their slave owners, it might have occured that some dishes became different from what they originally were. Some dishes might even have become a mixture of (two dishes from) two types of cuisines.
One of those dishes is 'Pom'.
This dish is a mixture between Jewish and Creole (former slaves) cuisine.
Its main ingredient is pomtayer, which is mashed root of the cassave plant.
This is Pom:
You can eat it with rice, but I think it is the best on bread:
Slavery was abolished in 1863 in The Netherlands.
Around 1853 plantation owners already knew knew that slavery would be abolished in the coming years.
So that is why they decided to import Chinese labourers in 1858.
Most Chinese came from Macau and were Hakka which is a subethnicity of the Han Chinese.
Surinamese Chinese food is not so different from Chinese food in China or in America.
The Chinese used the same herbs, spices and marinades which they also used in China.
This is, for example, Surinamese Chinese fried rice:
I do not think this is that different from other fried rice.
But, even though the dishes are not that different, the Chinese cuisine did have a lasting influence on Suriname.
When a Surinamese person cooks meat (especially chicken and pork), they almost always use some kind of Chinese marinade.
After the Chinese labourers were imported, the Dutch government decided to import British Indians as contract labourers: the Hindustanis.
Surinamese Hindustani cuisine is derived from South Asian cuisine.
One of the dishes is 'Roti'.
In Surinam and The Netherlands we make Roti's stuffed with potato (aloo roti), yellow lentils (dal roti) or nothing (paratha).
We also have many side dishes with the roti such as fried masala egg, masala chicken, masala duck and potatoes with 'kousenband' (I could not find the English word for kousenband).
Below you can see a roti with masala chicken, potatoes and 'kousenband'.
Another dish is 'Bara' which is a fried 'doughnut' made from dough which contains urdi flour (made from mung beans) and tayer leaves:
(I ate Bara today with potato chutney, it was gooood.)
Bara is a dish which is probably derived from the South Indian 'Medu Vada':
Third and last dish from Surinamese Hindustani cuisine I will write about is my favorite: 'Bread roll'.
Bread roll is bread which is covered with breadcrumbs and stuffed with a certain filling, which is then fried.
In India most people probably know the vegetarian kind which i stuffed with a spicey potato filling:
But Hindustanis stuff it with a different filling.
The filling is with chicken and vegetables.
Too bad, I cannot find a picture.
Not many Hindustanis make bread roll like my mom does.
Next time, when she makes it, I will post a picture.
After the Hindustanis came the Javanese (1890) as contract labourers from of course Java, Indonesia.
Surinamese Javanese cuisine also has a lot of delicious dishes and drinks.
One drink I like is 'Dawet' which is the Surinamese Javanese variant of 'Tjendol'.
Dawet is a pink drink which contains and tastes like coconut, but a little bit different. Different in a good way.
Javanese also make fried rice which they and other Indonesians and people from Indonesian descent call 'Nasi goreng'.
Nasi means cooked rice.
If you want fried rice, then you should say 'Nasi goreng'.
But many people in Surinam and The Netherlands only use 'Nasi' to refer to fried rice.
The main difference between Surinamese Javanese 'Nasi' and Surinamese Chinese 'fried rice' is the use of 'Trassi'.
Trassi is shrimp paste.
The same also goes for Javanese and Chinese 'Bami'.
This is Javanese Bami:
Let me wrap this up.
In 1939 the system of contract labourers was abolished.
Many Chinese, Hindustanis and Javanese went back to their home country after their contract period of 5 years.
The rest stayed.
In 1954 Suriname gained autonomy from The Netherlands and in 1975 independence.
After all these years, the dishes you see above and many other dishes have become part of Surinamese cuisine and are enjoyed by everyone.
Well, that was all.
I have shown you a little bit of Surinamese cuisine, which is, to answer your question, my personal favorite.
The End.
