Creole
Moksi alesi: everything in one pot
Moksi alesi is a Surinamese Creole one-pot dish of rice with chicken, salted meat, long bean and beans, its name meaning literally "mixed rice" in Sranan Tongo. A plate in a Paramaribo Creole eating house typically costs SRD 90 to SRD 180.
Flavour and texture
Full and salty, with a sweet edge from coconut milk. Often richer than you expect.
Street price, indicative SRD 90–180
Moksi alesi is what you cook when you are feeding whoever turns up. Everything goes into one pot: rice, chicken, salt meat or smoked chicken, long bean, brown beans or black-eyed peas, and coconut milk.
The dish comes out of plantation cooking, where a lot had to be made from little, which is why salted meat and dried beans still carry it. These days it is simply Sunday food.
More precisely: on the plantations, enslaved people ate rations of rice and salted fish or meat, supplemented by whatever grew on a provision plot they worked themselves. One pot on one fire, holding everything available that day, is the form that stayed once the reason for it was gone. The coconut milk and the black-eyed peas point back to West Africa, the name to the Sranan Tongo that formed on those same plantations.
After the abolition of slavery on 1 July 1863, and after the state supervision that ran until 1873, much of the Creole population moved to Paramaribo. Moksi alesi went into the city with them, into the eating houses and the hot food section of the market, where a plate now costs SRD 90 to SRD 180.
Every family makes it differently, and that is a genuine argument rather than a cliché: with or without coconut milk, brown beans or black-eyed, and whether the long bean goes in or beside.
Frequently asked questions
What does moksi alesi mean?
Moksi alesi literally means "mixed rice" in Sranan Tongo, the Surinamese lingua franca. It describes exactly what it is: rice with everything through it, from one pot.
What is in moksi alesi?
Rice with chicken, salted or smoked meat, long bean and brown beans or black-eyed peas, often with coconut milk. The exact make-up varies by family.
Where does moksi alesi come from?
From plantation cooking in Suriname, where enslaved people made one pot from ration rice, salted meat or fish and vegetables they grew themselves. The name is Sranan Tongo, and after the abolition of slavery in 1863 the dish moved into the city.
Can you get moksi alesi vegetarian?
Rarely ready-made: the salt meat or smoked chicken is the flavour base. A version with coconut milk, black-eyed peas and long bean is possible, but ask for it explicitly in a Creole eating house. Petjil, at SRD 50 to SRD 120, is the easier vegetarian order in Paramaribo.
What do you eat with moksi alesi?
Usually nothing: it is a complete plate of rice, meat and vegetables from one pot, at SRD 90 to SRD 180. At most sambal or a spoon of pickle comes alongside.