Food and Drink in Sri Lanka

In an interview given by Rick Stein to Wanderlust magazine following his Far Eastern Odyssey he was asked Which country’s food surprised you the most? His reply was “Sri Lanka. I had no idea the vegetable and fish curries were there and the best on the Indian sub-continent.  The flavours of fresh curry and pandan leaves, roasted curry spice and cinnamon are a lasting memory”.

The food in Sri Lanka is totally delicious and offers fantastic value for money with dinner for two starting at around £7 including drinks. If you order “rice and curry” here, there will usually be a big pile of rice (their staple food) but also up to 10 varying curries of mainly vegetables and fish/seafood so it is a very healthy diet. Whilst you will recognise some of the vegetables – potato, aubergine, and dhal, there will be some that you do not recognise such as green banana and jackfruit but will be as delicious. The seafood, particularly the prawns, crabs and lobster are exquisite. Having had them here, you will never want them back at home. Coconut milk, dried fish, lemon grass and cashew nuts predominate with lots of spice.

Notable specialities are:-

•    Kiribath – rice cooked in coconut milk  served at breakfast (often served at weddings)
•    Hoppers – a bowl shaped  pancake often eaten with curry at breakfast or as an evening snack
•    String Hoppers – little balls of steamed noodles often eaten with curry at breakfast or lunch in place of rice
•    Pittu – steamed rice and coconut often in a cylindrical shape
•    Lamprais – rice and accompaniments served in plantain leaves (derived from the Dutch)
•    Rotty – a fine doughy pancake
•    Kotthu Rotty – Rotty chopped up and stir-fried with vegetables and meat- a very delicious dish. The noise of the chopping on the hot-plate is very distinctive!

Desserts include:-

•    Buffalo curd eaten with kitul (a sweet syrup from the Kitul Palm)
•    Wattalappam – an egg pudding rather like crème caramel

Sri Lanka has a bewildering variety of delectable fruits:-
•    Pineapples, mangoes, avocados, coconuts, 6 different varieties of banana, papaya, jackfruit (the world’s largest fruit), durian, rambutan, mangosteen, wood apple and gulsambilla to name but a few.

There is also a wonderful selection of snacks, called Short Eats which are:-
Cultlets, Patties, and a variety of buns filled with curry fillings.

Drinks of note:-
Soft drinks

•   The local Ginger Beer made by Elephant House uses natural ginger and so is very good for the digestion and stomach.
•   Cream Soda

Alcohol

•  Lager – try the local brands of Lion and 3 Coins
•  Toddy – comes from the flower of the coconut and when fermented becomes something like cider. It is not easily available.
• Arrack – this is Toddy that has become fermented and refined and becomes about 33 degrees. It is either drunk neat or mixed with coke or lemonade and is also used in cocktails in hotels.

Whatever you eat (or drink) you can be assured you will never go hungry (or thirsty) in Sri Lanka!