Pom

Pom is a layered baked dish. The base and top are raw grated pomtajer, the root of the plant Xanthosoma sagittifolium, mixed with citrus juice and with a sauce of oil or margarine, onion, tomato, salt, pepper and nutmeg. In the middle go pieces of sautéed chicken. The dish is baked until the surface turns golden.

The name comes from the root itself, called pomtajer or pongtaya in Suriname, the “tajer of the pom.” Of the three main ingredients — chicken, citrus and pomtajer — only the root is native to the region. Among Surinamese people, both in the country and in the Netherlands, pom is the best-known festive dish.

The origin is told in more than one way. Within the Surinamese community, pom is described sometimes as a Creole dish and sometimes as a Jewish dish. One common version says that Portuguese Jewish plantation owners made a baked dish with potato, and because potatoes were not cultivated locally and had to be imported, pomtajer took their place. This is a hypothesis, not a proven origin. A published description appears in the Encyclopedie van Nederlandsch West-Indië (1914–1917), which already mentions the grated root with bitter orange juice, baked with chicken or fish.

Preparing pom used to be a social event. In the past, families paid to have the dish baked in the neighborhood oven. Today the dish appears at parties and gatherings, and there is also a quick form, the broodje pom, pom served inside a small roll.

In 2007, Imagine IC, Amsterdam’s cultural heritage center, dedicated an exhibition to pom, and the dish began to be studied as intangible heritage shared between Suriname and Surinamese people living abroad.