Abstract

This chapter examines how the legacy of colonization has influenced the construction of identity and gender through the medium of food in Indonesia, applying textual and ethnographic analyses. Particular ingredients, dishes, and methods of cooking became symbols of race and class, differentiating colonizer and colonized. When Indonesia gained independence in 1945, Indonesians started tearing down the culinary barriers and attempted to consume foods and other food practices deemed only appropriate to the colonizers.