Suriname

Suriname may have the world's most diverse cuisine per capita, fusing Javanese, Indian, Creole, Chinese, and Dutch traditions. Roti, pom, and bami reflect a remarkable culinary crossroads on the South American coast.

Pom is credited to Portuguese-Jewish plantation families, who substituted the indigenous pomtajer root for the potato they could not get, and it is defined as much by the bitter-orange juice poured through it as by the chicken. The local saying is that without pom there are no birthdays, and it is a claim about occasions rather than about frequency.

The Javanese layer arrived by contract. Between 1890 and 1939 roughly thirty-three thousand labourers were brought from the Dutch East Indies to Surinamese plantations, and most stayed; their descendants' cooking is now standard national food, including saoto soup served with fried potato strings and a Madame Jeanette pepper soy sauce. Hindostani indenture had begun earlier, from 1873.

Suriname's one-pot mixed rice, chicken and salted beef browned with tomato and allspice, then steamed with rice and coconut milk until every grain is savoury.