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More than 120 years ago, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, National Geographic magazine’s first female writer, photographer and board member, chronicled her travels through colonial Indonesia in her book “Java: The Garden of the East.”
She was particularly fascinated by a feast known as the rijsttafel (rice table), a multi-dish banquet that was served in the grand Hotel de Nederlanden in Batavia, as Jakarta was known then.
Scidmore vividly recalled a “conglomerate mountain” of food, including bits of fish, duck, chicken, beef, omelettes and onions piled alongside steaks, salads, curries, chutneys, spices and tropical fruits.
The sumptuous spread had something to satisfy everyone amongst the 100 or so guests that filled the grand dining hall — even the “squeamish folk, unseasoned tourists and well-starched Britons with a small sense of humor.”
