Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Surinamese recipes, part of South America. This page provides links to all the Surinamese recipes presented on this site, with 19 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Surinamese recipes added to this site.

Suriname, officially the officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, sometimes considered part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. Suriname is an unitary parliamentary republic with an executive presidency. The capital, and largest city is Paramaribo.

Surinamese cuisine is very diverse, since the population of Suriname came from many countries. Surinamese cuisine is a combination of many international cuisines including Indian/South Asian, West African, Creole, Indonesian (Javanese), Chinese, Dutch, British, French, Jewish, Portuguese, and Amerindian cuisines.

Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname (Republiek Suriname in Dutch), [also Tongo: Sranan, Hindustáni: Sarnam and Surinamese-Javanese] is a country in northern South America, sometimes considered part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a medium level of human development; its economy is heavily dependent on its abundant natural resources, namely bauxite, gold, petroleum, and agricultural products. Suriname is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Organization of American States.

Situated slightly north of the equator, over 90% of its territory is covered by rainforests, the highest proportion of forest cover in the world. Suriname is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, and Brazil to the south. It is the smallest country in South America by both population and territory, with around 612,985 inhabitants in 2021 in an area of approximately 163,820 square kilometers (63,251 square miles). The capital and largest city is Paramaribo, which is home to roughly half the population.

Suriname was inhabited as early as the fourth millennium BC by various indigenous peoples, including the Arawaks, Caribs, and Wayana. Europeans arrived and contested the area in the 16th century, with the Dutch controlling much of the country's current territory by the late 17th century. Under Dutch rule, Suriname was a lucrative plantation colony focused mostly on sugar; its economy was driven by African slave labour until the abolition of slavery in 1863, after which indentured servants were recruited mostly from British India and the Dutch East Indies. In 1954, Suriname became a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On 25 November 1975, it became independent following negotiations with the Dutch government. Suriname continues to maintain close diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties with the Netherlands..

Suriname's culture and society strongly reflect the legacy of Dutch colonial rule. It is the only sovereign nation outside Europe where Dutch is the official and prevailing language of government, business, media, and education; an estimated 60% of the population speaks Dutch as a native language. Sranan Tongo, an English-based creole language, is a widely used lingua franca. Most Surinamese are descendants of slaves and indentured labourers brought from Africa and Asia by the Dutch. Suriname is highly diverse, with no ethnic group forming a majority; proportionally, its Muslim and Hindu populations are some of the largest in the Americas. Most people live along the northern coast, centered around Paramaribo, making Suriname one of the least densely populated countries on Earth.

Etymology: The name Suriname may derive from an indigenous people called Surinen, who inhabited the area at the time of European contact. The suffix -ame, common in Surinamese river and place names (see also the Coppename River), may come from aima or eima, meaning river or creek mouth, in Lokono, an Arawak language spoken in the country

The earliest European sources give variants of 'Suriname' as the name of the river on which colonies were eventually founded. Lawrence Kemys wrote in his Relation of the Second Voyage to Guiana of passing a river called 'Shurinama' as he travelled along the coast. In 1598, a fleet of three Dutch ships visiting the Wild Coast mention passing the river 'Surinamo'. In 1617, a Dutch notary spelled the name of the river on which a Dutch trading post had existed three years earlier as 'Surrenant'.

British settlers, who in 1630 founded the first European colony at Marshall's Creek along the Suriname River, spelled the name 'Surinam'; this would long remain the standard spelling in English. The Dutch navigator David Pietersz. de Vries wrote of travelling up the 'Sername' river in 1634 until he encountered the English colony there; the terminal vowel remained in future Dutch spellings and pronunciations. The river was called Soronama in a 1640 Spanish manuscript entitled 'General Description of All His Majesty's Dominions in America'. In 1653, instructions given to a British fleet sailing to meet Lord Willoughby in Barbados, which at the time was the seat of English colonial government in the region, again spelled the name of the colony Surinam. A 1663 royal charter said the region around the river was 'called Serrinam also Surrinam'.

As a result of the Surrinam spelling, 19th-century British sources offered the folk etymology Surryham, saying it was the name given to the Suriname River by Lord Willoughby in the 1660s in honour of the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Surrey when an English colony was established under a grant from King Charles II. This folk etymology can be found repeated in later English-language sources.

When the territory was taken over by the Dutch, it became part of a group of colonies known as Dutch Guiana. The official spelling of the country's English name was changed from 'Surinam' to 'Suriname' in January 1978, but 'Surinam' can still be found in English, such as Surinam Airways and the Surinam toad. The older English name is reflected in the English pronunciation, /ˈsjʊərɪnæm, -nɑːm/. In Dutch, the official language of Suriname, the pronunciation is [ˌsyːriˈnaːmə], with a schwa terminal vowel and the main stress on the third syllable.

Suriname Cuisine:

Surinamese cuisine is extensive, since the population of Suriname came from many countries. Surinamese cuisine is a combination of many international cuisines including Indian/South Asian, West African, Creole, Indonesian (Javanese), Chinese, Dutch, British, French, Jewish, Portuguese, and Amerindian cuisines. This has ensured that Surinamese cooking has spawned many dishes; the different groups were influenced by each other's dishes and ingredients. This new Surinamese cuisine included roti, nasi goreng, bami, pom, snesi foroe, moksi meti, and losi foroe. Basic foods include rice, plants such as tayer and cassava, and roti. Usually, there is chicken on the menu in many variations of the Chinese snesi foroe, the Indian chicken curry and pom, a very popular party dish of Creole origin. Also, salted meat and stockfish (bakkeljauw) are widely used. Yardlong beans, okra, and eggplant are examples of vegetables in the Surinamese kitchen. For a spicy taste, Madame Jeanette peppers are used.

Besides the casserole pom, roti (often served with a filling of chicken curry, potato and vegetables) is also often served on festive occasions with many guests. Other well known dishes are moksi-alesi (mixed boiled rice with salted meat, shrimp or fish, and any vegetable), rice and beans, peanut soup, battered fried plantain, bara and the original Javanese nasi goreng and mie goreng.

Desserts include boyo, a sweet cake made with coconut and cassava, and fiadu, a cake containing raisins, currants, almonds, and succade. Maizena koek are cornstarch biscuit made with vanilla.