Tag Archives: Indonesian

Just A Thought

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I’ve noticed something lately while checking my stats and I have been wondering what’s going on. Most of the time when people google for certain things it has to do with TV shows or anything else that’s been recently in the media. What’s interesting in my case is the amount of queries coming from two different continents which is 20% of all queries leading to this website. It has been like this for a few weeks already and these searches make me wonder…

Recent queries:

  • Eurasian faces [4 different searches]
  • Eurasian clothing
  • Eurasian clothes design
  • Eurasian surnames [at least 5 times]
  • Eurasians attractive
  • Eurasian races photos
  • Eurasians pictures
  • Why are mixed blood people attractive
  • Full Asian but look like Eurasian England
  • Common cooking method used in Eurasian meal
  • Are there alot of eurasians in australlia [I left the typos *hehe*]
  • Eurasian faces more attractive
  • Eurasian white baby pictures
  • Mixed blood baby caucasian asian
  • Eurasian ancestory, dutch, english

I read that in 2007 the Malaysian government had plans to reduce the number of Eurasian faces in advertisements which caused a stir among models and presenters. It’s interesting to see how some people seem to feel threatened by the ‘Eurasian look’, if there is one anyway. In parts of Asia, Eurasians carrying traits from both sides, are considered a beauty ideal especially in Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand.

I was adviced to register with model agencies age 16, back then one agency told me I was ‘too dark’. Their clients wanted fair-skinned/haired models so I was sent away, these days, they’re craving the ‘Eurasian look’. I remember I was upset about the discriminating remarks. When I told my dad he said to be always proud of who I am and ignore the narrow-mindedness and ignorance of others; what did they know about my culture[s] after all?

I am proud of who I am and I like my mocha tan, although it always tends to look yellow over wintertime. I’m proud of my exotic background and embrace it but I don’t want people to label me as exotic because I have a lot more to offer. I love to prepare the odd ‘rice table‘ because it’s part of me and not because it seems to be the ‘latest culinary rage -along with Sushi- among the [belanda] expats’ to show off at dinner parties.

I’m proud of my grandfather’s friendship with a headhunting Dayak and the sword that he was given in honour because he saved this Dayak’s life. I feel more Indonesian than Dutch, but I haven’t found a home country nor culture yet. I love a Kopi Toebroek and I wish it was warm enough in London to wear my sarong. I crave Soto Ayam and Rempejeh. I’ve never visited the Pasar Malam in the Hague but that doesn’t make me less Indo.

Despite of what some [Asians] seem to associate ‘Eurasian’ with, I’m not the daughter of a soldier and a pr0st1tvte; my dad was Indonesian and met my mother in the Lowlands, that makes me 50/50. At times I wish people wouldn’t feel the need to put one in a pigeonhole. Then I wouldn’t feel the need to identify myself, I would be ‘just’ me, balancing between two worlds and two cultures, embracing the best of both and be proud of both…

Then there would be less ‘Eurasian’ google searches since the name tag wouldn’t really matter.

Just a thought…

Art Of Cooking

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Whenever I had a not-so-happy phase in life, I had the tendency not to eat and skip meals or eat soup and toast instead of a meal because I was too lazy to cook. I don’t know what triggered it but at some point I realised that I should look after myself no matter what circumstances and whether I’d feel like eating or not: I should have something nutritious. I guess my approach to cooking changed when I realised that I could use cooking to treat myself, be good to me. Buying and preparing nice, good food was like buying a gift for myself. Ever since that moment, years ago, cooking became almost some kind of meditation and/or celebration instead of a daily chore.

Last week I watched a show on BBC4 about the biggest Chinese restaurant in the world situated in the Hunanese town of Changsha [circa 5000 seats]. The owner at some point explained her philosophy of cooking in relation to her chefs which -what I first thought- was quite similar to mine: food is an expression of the soul… I feel that, when you cook something that looks and tastes beautiful, you don’t just feed your body but your soul too. To me cooking is relaxing [most of the time] and I try to take time and not feel rushed by a clock. I developed my own cooking Taoism [nourishment of the body, longevity] combined with some Confucianism too [taste, texture, appearance].

So what I didn’t understand about this show was the owners philosophy and how it was so not applied to their ways in preparing meals which was quite disturbing to me. At some point the 300 chefs were in a competition to show how quickly they could prepare certain dishes. They showed how to descale a live fish with a knife whilst holding it down on a cutting board. Next thing they did was batter the fish and shove the still wriggling body in a wok with smoking hot oil until fried. They then put it on a plate, sprinkled some green over it and served a fresh slowly dying fish to the jury. A similar thing happened to a snake which was skinned but the ‘worst thing’ happened to a duck…

The owner said that to keep her chef’s minds creative so they would come up with new ideas for new menus, she would take them out on a field trip to refresh the spirit. This time she took them to visit the duck farm that supplied their 200 consumed ducks a day. After a tour around the farm, they prepared their own meal and showed how to kill a duck before preparing it. It came down to poking a bamboo stick right through the breast, putting your finger through the hole to pull out the heart of the live duck. All this to keep the good flavours and happy customers… I had to turn my head away in disgust because I already had seen an overdose of animal cruelty during this 45 minutes show.

I was in total shock to see such cold-hearted behaviour. Don’t get me wrong I don’t approve of certain Western ways either but this was just immoral and all done for the sake of making as much money as you can to serve the country’s elite and the communist party… It totally doesn’t make sense to me, none of it. Well I guess my definition of nurturing myself and preparing a beautiful meal to celebrate tradition or simply to give a gift to myself and/or others is a totally different philosophy than the one showed on BBC4 that evening. Storyville: The Biggest Chinese Restaurant In The World, BBC4 broadcasted on Tuesday, 27 May 2008.

My definition would be something like this:

Last Saturday I had the most delicious flower ever… yes a thistle. Some might not realise that a certain ingredient of Mediterranean cuisine is a flower as well, the bud that is… But my thistles were huge and cheap too, only a pound each. And since it’s all about simplicity I boiled them with some garlic, a bay leaf and two slices of lemon. I made a dip of olive oil, lemon juice, some Dutch herbs, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of Lea & Perrins. I was having a most exciting, delicious and finger-licking lunch that day…

Like Mother Pearl…

He loves me… he loves me not…