Every week, brothers Tyler and Sebastian enjoy Grandma's delicious Javanese-Surinamese dishes they grew up with.. In the summer, they spend much of their free time with their retired grandparents at a garden community in Rotterdam. In recent years, a new kampong has formed here, so to speak. As Grandpa describes it, it’s a neighbourhood in the Javanese style – with little huts and gardens, where everyone visits one another without appointment. There’s good food, a shared harvest, and seeds to plant.
To honour Grandma's cooking skills, the brothers join her in the kitchen. With loving curiosity, they ask about the origins of the dishes she makes. The nostalgic effect of smell and taste evokes many memories; piece by piece, each dish reveals a history that was hardly discussed before. In the Netherlands, the brothers find that it’s still relatively unknown that there is a Javanese community from Suriname – despite this group comprising 15% of Suriname’s population, a country with a long history with the Netherlands.
While cooking, the history becomes accessible. While eating, we are proud.
