A quick and easy meal
Preparations in Dutch
“Simple preparation
Remove label. Boil closed can in water for half an hour.
Open the can and put contents in preheated bowl.
Garnish with fried egg, atjar, pickle, onions.
Add sambal to taste.”
A meal that is easy to prepare: cook a can of nasi in water for half an hour, take it out, and serve with some toppings. Nowadays, nobody would even think about preparing nasi from a can, but in the 60s this was the recommended way of preparing this Indonesian dish.
After Indonesia had declared its independence from the Netherlands, a diverse group of people from the region settled in the Netherlands. Partly because of this, Indonesian cooking started influencing the Dutch cuisine.
The Leiden canning factory owned by the family Nieuwenhuizen, called Fabriek voor Verduurzaamde Levensmiddelen, responded well to the hype around these Indonesian dishes, like nasi goreng or bami, by selling them canned. The tin can had become famous for being a quick and easy way to serve a meal. Like the instructions on the can say: just boil the can in water for half an hour.