A short guide to Curagao

What's cooking on Curagao

Almost everything eaten on the island has been caught in the surrounding ocean or imported. The nearest sources are the Venezuelan farms on the coast of South America. Every morning boats from Venezuela tie up along the docks of Willemstad and offer fruit, vegetables and fish. The floating market has been a shopping area for well over a hundred years.

At the same time that the Dutch West Indies Company was busy doing business in the Caribbean, the Dutch East Indies Company was busy in the Pacific. A major center for their activities was Indonesia, and the internal business between the Dutch east and the Dutch west led to an Indonesian influence on Curagao. And some great Indonesian food.

The Rysttafel Restaurant in Willemstad takes its name from the fact that at both lunch and dinner it serves a traditional Indonesian Rijst-Tafel, which means "rice table." This was the phrase used by Dutch colonists to describe a meal at which a bowl of rice was surrounded by 20 or more dishes of meat, fish, vegetables, noodles, eggs and condiments -- the diners choosing what they liked in buffet style. During the 300 years of contact between the Dutch and Indonesians, the Rijst-Tafel became an extravagant institution with servants carrying in one dish after another. In essence, it is an extension of the Indonesian family dinner, which consists of rice and five or six additional dishes.

(As long as we are working our way through the Far Eastern kitchens of Curagao, I should point out that the island has a large Chinese community and dozens of Chinese restaurants too.)

The Avila Beach Hotel

In the interest of seeing the authentic and the traditional, I stayed at the Avila Beach Hotel. The original structure dates back to 1776, when it was the residence of the colonial governor. It is also where the great liberator of South America, Simon Bolivar, lived during his years of exile. For a while it was a private school. Then a private hospital. And finally, it was renovated into a beachfront hotel with two private cove beaches.

The property has a quiet, elegant and unpretentious style; many of the guests are families and businesspeople from Holland. There's a pier with a restaurant and live jazz -- the Dutch have been lovers of American jazz since the 1920s. The hotel has such a respected position in the community that the government issued three Avila Beach Hotel stamps to help celebrate its 50th birthday.

Music and dance

Curagao's music is a blend of European, Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. influences, but for me the most interesting part of its heritage is African, particularly a form called tambu.

Tambu was born in the slave communities as a release from oppression. The drum known as the tambu and the chapi, a type of field hoe, are played against the other in a complicated rhythm.

The singing is a series of set calls and responses. Both the music and the dance are part of an ancient African tradition. The social comment inherent in the lyrics and the erotic tension of the dance were more than the government and the Catholic Church could stand and for years they mounted an aggressive campaign to suppress tambu. Even today, a government ordinance limits public tambu parties to a few weeks before and after the end of the year.

Carnival

The great national festival of Curagao is a combination of African and European traditions that begins in January and lasts six weeks. For four days and much of the nights composers, singers and bands compete for the honor of having their music selected as the official march of the New Year's carnival. A king and queen are chosen. On opening day of the carnival, also in January, the participants put on their costumes and dance through the streets. Over the next few weeks, parties called "jump ups" are organized. On the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the Grand March takes place and the old social year comes to an end. Which also brings us to the end of this guide.

Names and numbers

Avila Beach Hotel
P.O. Box 791
Curagao, Netherlands Antilles
Telephone: 011-599-9-461-4377
E-mail: info@avilahotel.com
Tone Moller, general manager

Rysttafel Indonesian Restaurant
Mercuriusstraat 13-15
Curagao, Netherlands Antilles
Telephone: 011-599-9-461-2606

Jaanchie's Restaurant
Westpunt 15,
Curagao, Netherlands Antilles
Telephone: 011-599-9-560-3154

Curagao Tourism Development Bureau
Pietermaai 19, P. O. Box 3266
Curagao, Netherlands Antilles
Telephone: 011-599-9-461-600
E-mail: ctdbcur@ctdb.com

Curagao Tourist Board
475 Park Avenue South
Suite 2000
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (800) 270-3350
Email: ctdbny@ctdb.com

Kura Hulanda Museum
Klipstraat 9, Willemstad
Curagao, Netherlands Antilles
Email: kurahulanda@interneeds.net

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