Monday 19 March 2018

Two Rijstaffels

At a tea house in the mountain city of Gunung Utara on Unan Baser, Dominic Flandry and his single young guest sit under large red parasols on a ledge above a cloud-filled ravine and are entertained by strolling dancers.

Flandry orders:

tea;
a jug of arrack;
two rijstaffels to begin with;
sherbet;
more tea and arrack;
another jug of arrack.

We are told that a single rijstaffel takes a couple of hours to eat.

Here, Flandry is the match of Nicholas van Rijn and of some of SM Stirling's characters. See the Food Thread.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I looked up "rijstaffel" and I can certainly see why it would take two hours to prepare. A serving of rice accompanied by forty or more small side dishes (meats, fishes, vegetables, condiments, etc.).

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Note that while virtually all the dishes in the rijstaffel are Indonesian, the banquet itself is of Dutch origin. Dutch people living in the East Indies developed it as a way of sampling all their favorites from the extremely varied regional cuisines.

There are some common elements, but what they eat in Sumatra isn't much like what they eat on Lombok. Balinese cuisine is another matter too -- the Balinese eat pork, for instance.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

Even allowing for SMALL portions being served, I'm not sure I could totally eat ONE rijstaffel! (Smiles)

Sean