Moluccan food with Yannic
8 January - 22 February 2026
Moluccans in Rotterdam: a story that began on Katendrecht
In 1951, the ships Kota Inten and Skaubryn docked at the Lloydkade in Rotterdam, close to Katendrecht. On board were hundreds of Moluccan KNIL soldiers and their families, who were abruptly and forcibly transferred to the Netherlands after Indonesian independence. What seemed temporary became permanent. Moluccan families were housed in former concentration camps and military barracks to prevent integration into society. From these difficult circumstances, close-knit Moluccan communities emerged. Food became a way to soothe homesickness, to offer comfort, and to hold on to culture and identity in a world that had completely changed.
The Moluccan kitchen
Moluccan cuisine comes from an archipelago in eastern Indonesia and is known for its warm, fresh, spicy and aromatic flavours. For centuries, the islands formed the heart of the global spice trade, embedding flavours such as clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace and coriander seed deeply in everyday cooking. Moluccan food is rich in taste: bright acids, plenty of chilli, ripe tomato, coconut, ginger, garlic and, of course, fish, because almost every island lives with and from the sea.
Many Moluccan men who served in the KNIL married women from other parts of the Indonesian archipelago, such as Java, Ambon, Minahassa/Manado and Sumatra. These women brought their own cooking traditions with them and travelled through Indonesia before settling in the Moluccas or later in the Netherlands. In this way, Javanese, Sumatran, Minahassian and Ambonese flavours blended with the Moluccan tradition. Dishes such as rendang, nasi goreng, bami goreng, bakso and soto are not specifically Moluccan, but gained their own character in the Moluccas through local combinations of spices and cooking techniques.
That is why, in Moluccan families, you often taste a combination of traditional Moluccan dishes and dishes that travelled through the Indonesian archipelago and took on a Moluccan twist through bumbu, acids and spices. Food, meals and laughter are shared. And chef Yannic brings exactly that sense of comfort and vitality to Plein.
About Mooncake
Mooncake.nl is the platform of food journalist and writer Jonneke de Zeeuw. She celebrates the flavours of the street, the city and the world – and shines a light on food cultures and the stories behind them through videos, TV segments, books, essays and articles. Her work reveals just how rich, surprising and super-diverse the culinary landscape of the Netherlands has become.
Mooncake's Jonneke de Zeeuw © Mitchell van Voorbergen
