Sranan Dei (Suriname Day)

SURINAME

[UPDATE DECEMBER 2016: For a full event photo set, please check out the gallery on Facebook]

In the past, interested New York City diners could hop on the A train and take it to the Lefferts Boulevard terminus to enjoy the beautifully complicated cuisine of Suriname. Both restaurants that I have eaten at (Warung Kario, Caribbean Suriname Restaurant) have shuttered, leaving a void for the country. Once a year though, seemingly all the expats from the country here in New York gather in Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans, Queens, so it seemed only duty for me to make sure there was at least one surviving chance on the website.

Sranan Dei, or Suriname Day, is just that, a festival that celebrates the country. Better yet, it is not just an opportunity to see various parts of their culture through food and people, it is a fantastic event well worth the time and effort it takes to get to St. Albans.

There were two main food vendors that gathered very long, slow-moving lines and were clearly popular chefs by all in attendance. I arrived about an hour after the opening time of the festival and these lines only grew in length despite a couple other tents beginning to serve, so it is definitely recommended to be on the early side and get in line as soon as you know what you want. Talk to the people in line around you, who will be happy to tell you everything about their country's cuisine and what each vendor is best at.

Suriname is a country of collisions between cultures and history, a fact celebrated by its citizens. The festival matched suit as bodybuilders, drunks, busy chefs, running children, and some stragglers all mixed to enjoy their afternoon.

To read more about the country of Suriname and its collisions, please read the links above and check out a cool article by Ethnojunkie, who I ran into and shared food with at this event. He talks more about pom, the festival dish that inspired a former roommate of mine to create a Surinamese-flavored Thanksgiving meal after our dinner at Caribbean Suriname Restaurant.

[UPDATE DECEMBER 2016: Here are the photos of the foods we ate, courtesy of Andrea Ruggeri]

ST. ALBANS, Queens

Roy Wilkins Park

[CLOSED] Caribbean Suriname Restaurant

SURINAME 🇸🇷

[UPDATE: CLOSED, keeping on page as only example of Suriname food]

When I heard of the closing of Warung Kario, the city's only Surinamese food, I was deeply saddened because not only was it unique, it was also extremely delicious. Luckily a new restaurant with owners from the same country stepped in to fill the gap. The friendly man running the show now tells me "it would be very sad if the country did not have a restaurant in the city." I could not agree more.

The previous owner was of Indonesian-Surinamese origin and her menu took that bent. The new incarnation seems more broad, taking in all the influences in the country and more general fare. The menu has definitely expanded, and it is worth asking what is good and ready on any particular visit, as we found many items on the menu were not ready, and many other specialties that were not listed could be ordered.

I arrived before the rest of my group, and the place was empty, so I decided to talk to the amazingly friendly woman running the shop. I told her we did not know much and wanted all her best recommendations for a well-rounded meal to sample the best they had to offer. She put together a perfect presentation of appetizers, a soup, and a combination of entrees that would end up stuffing us beyond capacity.

Our first item was the crispy fried fish cake ($2.75 each, above), which apparently is not the one on the menu. The center is soft, not too fishy, and comes served with an orange-yellow sauce that should be generously applied to this and other items if you do not run out.

The bakabana ($2, below, two portions shown) came next, banana fritters still soft, served with a peanut sauce. The combination really made me feel like a fancy, foreign Elvis. The fritters are just a bit on the greasy side, but the peanut sauce is so good I went for seconds.

Our third appetizer was the pasteitjes ($2 each, below), a chicken pastry with a dough thick and crispy like that of a pie. The combination of these three together with different tastes, alternating salty and sweet, made for a perfect first round. None of them were weak, and as we calmed our intense hunger, all of us shared approving glances around the table with each bite.

We completely changed gears with the soup round. Unfortunately the saoto was not cooked today, the soup I glowingly wrote about in the review of the previous restaurant. Instead we were served the Chinese tayer ($6, above, small portion), recommended again by her and not on the menu. You can certainly taste Chinese influences, but the broth is interestingly more creamy than anything you would find in China. It's a trick though, the Chinese influence is null. "Chinese tayer" is just a local translation of taro root. The dish is intensely but satisfyingly rich, and served with rice to battle that. The chicken falls off the bone just as tender as can be.

We had to jump up from the table when we saw her preparing a full plate entree for each of us during the next round. We were already at a certain level of comfort and knew it was too much, so as she was shoveling the third of four, we asked that only two full plates came out for us to share. What she did bring was a half portion of bamie, an Indonesian-influenced stir-fried noodle with roasted chicken, and a half portion of nasie goreng, their version of fried rice. The plates are $9 each, and come as a mountain. She asked me before whether everyone wanted pepper, and this was code for if we wanted it blazingly hot. I am glad I said yes.

No Surinamese meal is complete apparently without the inclusion of pom ($3 per portion, below), a dish usually cooked for festive occasions. According to Wikipedia "Without pom there is no birthday" is a popular Surinamese expression. At any rate, it is incredibly unique and much unlike anything I have tasted before. The root of the plant locally called tayer is baked with citrus juices and chicken (hidden underneath the mash). The crispy top and soft chewy interior create a wonderful texture for the country's unofficial national dish.

The menu is rounded out by a full complement of desserts if you are still hungry. They also have $2.50 beers and plenty of juices to wash it all down.

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SOUTH RICHMOND HILL Queens

128-12 Liberty Avenue

Map of Eat the World NYC:

[CLOSED] Warung Kario

SURINAME 🇸🇷
INDONESIA 🇮🇩

[UPDATE: NOW CLOSED - see Caribbean Suriname Restaurant]

It's still a 10-minute walk after you get off the last A train stop at Lefferts Boulevard, but what an enjoyable stroll with all the sights and smells of India's influence in the southern Caribbean. Past at least one Trini restaurant and a heap of Guyanese, my stomach is already talking loud enough to be heard. I am headed this day to a different, isolated taste in the south Caribbean, to a restaurant of Surinamese origin. There was a recent flurry of reviewing of this unique place (first in the NY Times, then by Sietsema), so I am sort of hopping the bandwagon down Liberty Avenue, but I cannot help myself.

Three doors down from a Hindu temple sits Warung Kario, a "Indonesian Surinamese" halal restaurant. After the Dutch in Suriname officially banned the importing of slaves from Africa, contract workers were brought in from the Indonesian island of Java, and many people from the country trace their heritage to here. Happily it also gave birth to a restaurant here in New York City.

I am the only diner at lunch on a Friday afternoon on this day, and get the attention of the owner/cook all to myself. She is happy to see me I think, and not surprised by my selection of saoto ($6, below), the soup I had read about in both recent articles. It takes a good five minutes to prepare in the back (everything else seemed visible on the steam table in the front), and is delivered still beautiful despite being on a plastic tray.

It comes accompanied by a dark brown sauce that looked harmless, so I take a good amount on a small spoon to taste it, and immediately feel the kick. The sauce is like nothing I have tasted before, both very spicy and tangy. As I scoop the rest in the bowl of soup, the owner warns me "That is spicy!" before offering me more if necessary.

The bowl is filled with shredded chicken, potatoes, sprouts, peppers, cilantro, onion, and a hard-boiled egg. The tastes are all very subtle, but together with the sauce the soup puts about as much flavor into your mouth as possible. Judging by only this, I will have to assemble a larger party soon to dive deeper into the menu here. By the time I finished my meal, only a couple of coworkers and another solo man had wandered in, hopefully not a sign of the lifespan of this fine restaurant.

🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩
SOUTH RICHMOND HILL Queens
128-12 Liberty Avenue