Rambles in Java and the Straits in 1852
Ratings1
Average rating3
A quick read - as noted in the preface, this diary was written without the intention of publishing. It was written as a record of the authors travel to Singapore, Java and Penang on a recuperation holiday - as was relatively common at the time the 19th century.
It is a somewhat acerbic book - various situations get a serve from him - the Dutch (in general!), Dutch food, Dutch fashion sense, the state of some hotels, uncomfortable travel and underwhelming cultural sites.
I was going to type out a quote on Dutch food, but it is over a page long! So sorry.
Because of the tone of the book (rather than in spite of it), it was generally an amusing read. It explained some history, usually pertaining to people rather than event based, and it drew plenty of long bows about how different it would all have been under British rule.
Probably not one to seek out specifically, but given the chance it is a quick, amusing read.
3 stars.
OK I relented on the Dutch food quote, but cut it down a bit. It does seem he had an issue with the food!
Dutch cooking would never suit and English stomach; it is not only not wholesome, but it is even worse, it is disgusting, the predominating features of it being acids and rancid butter. In every Dutch dish there is a disagreeable excess of these adjuncts. Another curious feature connected with this is, that, with the exception of the soup, which is served up on the boil, the rest of the dinner is allowed to become quite cold before it is eaten; the amount of caloric that is necessarily diffused over the coats of the stomach, through the introduction of the former, renders it expedient we were told, that the temperature of the other dishes should be proportionally lowered; accordingly, the whole of the viands are invariably set out on the table about half and hour before the dinner is announced, in open flat dishes in order that they may have time to cool before they are handed round...In their mode of eating, the Dutch have never studied refinement; and even at the table of the highest in the land, it is customary for persons of either sex to employ their knifes on offices which with us are normally performed with the spoon or fork...