Wait for the crunch

Kroepoek truly is a very crispy food. In the Oxford Dictionary of Food and Nutrition we see the term 'krupuk' explained as: crackers made from fish or seafood mixed with rice or sago flour, dried, then deep-fried. The English language has adopted the word from Indonesian, but what about the Dutch language?

Kroepoek is no typical Dutch word. The word 'kroepoek' is derived from the Indonesian word 'kerupuk or krupuk', which refers to relatively large crackers. This Indonesian word phonetically resembles the cracking sounds of crispy snacks. Due to the crispiness of the food, the eater will naturally produce a cracking sound, and this sound produced the name. Kroepoek is thus an onomatopoeia which has entered the Dutch language through its colonial past with Indonesia.See article on Kompasiana

What about the smaller variant of kroepoek? Well, kripik, which refers to smaller sized crisps and crackers, is also said to be an onomatopoeia. The words truly are fascinating! Before you’re off to another stop on the Chin-Ind route, the longread below tells you about a linguistic struggle that I had personally when working in my family’s restaurant.