Leçon en classe · Food · 🇸🇷 Suriname

Pom

Suriname's national dish - chicken baked in a cassava root crust

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

Qu'est-ce que c'est ?

Pom is the dish that almost every Surinamese family makes for celebrations, birthdays, and big family gatherings. It is made from chicken slow-cooked with tomatoes, onions, celery and citrus juice, then mixed with grated pomtajer - a special root vegetable similar to cassava - and baked in the oven until golden and delicious. It is savoury, hearty and completely unique to Suriname.

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The star ingredient is pomtajer, sometimes called taro. You grate it into shreds, then mix it with the spiced chicken and pour it all into a big baking dish. In the oven it soaks up all the juices from the meat and the tomatoes, turning into something halfway between a gratin and a dumpling - soft inside, slightly crispy on top.

Pom arrived in Suriname with the Sephardic Jewish community, who came from the Netherlands and Portugal hundreds of years ago and adapted their traditional recipes to the ingredients they found in South America. Today it is eaten by Surinamese families of every background, and is the first dish many people think of when they think of home.

Making pom takes time - grating the pomtajer is hard work, and the dish needs a long, slow bake. In Surinamese families it is often made together, with grandparents and grandchildren grating side by side in the kitchen. That makes it not just a meal, but an event.

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Pistes de discussion

  1. 01Pom was created when one community's recipes met new ingredients in a new country. Can you think of a food from your country that was created by mixing different traditions?
  2. 02In Suriname, making pom is a family event, not just cooking. Does your family have a food that everyone helps to make?
  3. 03Pom is eaten at celebrations. What special food does your family eat when something important is happening?
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