Through material, fragrance, taste, texture, and sound, objects carry narratives and histories. We invite you to discover the heritage of Suriname through the five senses by exploring the social practice of cooking and eating together.

This is an event in collaboration with SAC Art Amsterdam, a continuation of our Chai and conversations series, but this time in a typical Tasty Talks way. We have artist Razia Barsatie sharing her heritage with us through a Dish.

ABOUT THE EVENT

SAC Art’s current exhibition, Come Eat With Us?, presents provocative works that invite visitors to a shared table—one of food, empowerment, struggle, memory, and history. Against the backdrop of this exhibition, contemporary artist Razia Barsatie will share Djarpesi Moksi Alesi, a dish she learned to cook in Paramaribo alongside her mother, aunts, and grandmother.

“In this workshop, Djarpesi Moksi Alesi – Food as a Living Archive is approached as a sensory archive. The dish is not treated as food alone, but as history. Moksi alesi, meaning ‘mixed rice’ in Sranan Tongo, emerged within Afro-Surinamese communities during the colonial plantation era, where available ingredients were combined into nourishing one-pot meals. The dish carries traces of African culinary traditions, Indigenous knowledge, and later migrations that shaped Suriname’s multicultural society. Djarpesi (black-eyed peas), a key ingredient in this version, has deep roots in West African food cultures and travelled across the Atlantic through histories of displacement, survival, and cultural continuity.

Moksi alesi is therefore more than a meal; it is a convergence of Creole, Javanese, Hindustani, Chinese, and other influences that came together in Suriname in a single pot. Through smell, touch, and the act of combining ingredients, participants are invited to experience memory rather than describe it. Each ingredient carries fragments of migration, labour, resilience, and adaptation, without fixing these narratives into a single interpretation.

In this workshop, we will smell, write, remember, cook, eat, and create new memories with the ingredients that make up moksi alesi. These memories collectively form a temporary archive in which differences remain visible, and where history unfolds not as a linear story, but as a layered dish.”

— Razia Barsatie, contemporary artist (Suriname / Netherlands)

Participants will then be guided to express these memories through a medium of their choice—whether a drawing, a poem, a sculpture, or another creative response.

Suriname is a meeting place of many cultures and histories. As an Indian, I knew very little about the country and the journeys of the Indian migrants who arrived there after 1873, among many other communities that shaped Suriname. Through conversations with Razia over the past year, and through learning from Surinamese artists living in the Netherlands, I have discovered chapters of history that were largely absent from my own education while growing up.

I cannot think of a better way to explore art, culture, and people than through hospitality and food.

— Tasneem Hatimbhai, Founder, SAC Art Amsterdam

Join us for a Hands on workshop – not just about cooking but exploring the dish as a living archive. We will also have Snacks for the participants to munch on along with a cake baked by Tasneem. After cooking together, we will sit and enjoy the dish together.

27th June, 2026

Time – 11.30am to 2 PM

Price – 35 Euros pp