Southeast Asian American Food: Indonesian

In the late 1950s, after Indonesian independence, a number of Dutch Indonesians came to America as refugees, settling primarily on the West Coast. Most Indos (Indonesian Europeans) arrived after the 1965 changes in the immigration quota system. Sixty percent of these immigrants live in southern California and San Francisco, and smaller numbers live in New York City, Houston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. During the 1960s, Indonesian restaurants helped maintain a network among immigrants. Between 1980 and 1990 the number of Indonesian immigrants more than tripled. The number remained small, however—only approximately seventy thousand in 2006. Indonesians assimilated quickly, and perhaps that is one reason the cuisine is not a major presence in the United States. One of the dishes commonly thought to be Indonesian, rijsttafel, is actually a Dutch colonial elaboration of a native tradition—a buffet in which a rice dish is surrounded by small condiments of various meats, fish, and vegetables.