Sri Lankan Cuisine

Good food is found in abundance in Sri Lanka, with a wide range of cuisines to choose from. The Portuguese, Dutch and British invaders as well as the Indian, Arab, Malay and Moor traders have all contributed to the Sri Lankan cuisine. Their cuisine ranges from mild and subtly flavoured dishes to hot and spicy ones. Their food is flavoured with a variety of herbs and spices, garlic, ginger, lemon grass etc. and curry powder. Rice, which is usually consumed daily, can be found at any special occasion, while spicy curries are favourite dishes for dinner and lunch. Sri Lankan rice and curry usually includes a variety of small curry dishes made of vegetable, meat, and fish. A typical meal must have an accompaniment such as parripu (red lentil dhal), mullung (ripped green leaves with spices, lightly stir- fried) and sambol (a mixture of grated coconut, chilly, and spice). Like all the people of coastal regions, the Sri Lankans are also expert in preparing fish dishes. Apart from  mullung and sambol, Lamprais, Buriyani and Polos Pehi are some popular dishes of Sri Lanka. A very popular alcoholic drink is toddy, made from palm tree sap. Arrack is the de-facto distilled national drink. The Sri Lankan food is very similar to food from South India. Owing to its tropical nature, variety of fruits is available in Sri Lanka. Major among them are: Mangoes, papayas, bananas, jackfruits, durians, rambutans, and mangosteens. Sri Lankan cuisine offers a wide variety of desserts.

 

 

Breakfast

The most popular breakfast dishes in Sri Lanka are the hoppers (appa). These wafer thin, cup-shaped pancakes are made from a fermented batter of rice flour, coconut milk and a dash of palm toddy. A hopper, crisp on the outside, yet soft and spongy in the centre, is best eaten with curries and sambols while still streaming hot. There are many types of hoppers: plain hoppers, egg hoppers, milk hoppers, and sweeter varieties like vanduappa and paniappa. Another popular breakfast dish is a rice preparation known as indi-appa or string hoppers. These are small spaghetti-like strings of rice-flour dough squeezed through a sieve onto small woven trays, which are steamed one atop the other. Light and lacy, string hoppers make a mouth-watering meal with curry and sambol.

 

Meals

Boiled rice with curried vegetable, fish and/or meat laced with Sri Lankan spices is the typical Sri Lankan main meal, a gourmet’s delight. It is served for both lunch and dinner and some do have it for breakfast too. Boiled or steamed rice with a variety of curries, salads, sambols, pappadam and chutney form the meal. Spices are added to make the dishes more delectable. The unaccustomed may sometimes find the curries too hot but, this is easily controlled by reducing the quantities of spices used, specially chilli and pepper, to suit the different tastes. Everything is brought to the table at once and there are no separate courses as in a Western style meal. It is perfectly correct to take a little of everything and taste it against the neutral rice.

Curry : Curry accompanies the dishes of meat, vegetables or fish. Number of spices, all roasted and then stone-ground come together to prepare these curries. Coconut milk forms the base of this curry. Fresh herbs and garnishes flavour these curries. Basic items like chicken, beef, mutton, eggs or vegetables are cooked in a thick sauce of coconut milk with all the ingredient spices. There is plenty of variety in fish curries across the region. The Sri Lankans have their own distinctive style of preparing fish curries. Southern ambul thiyal or sour fish curry is very famous. Vegetarian curries are prepared from very available fruit or vegetable like brinjals, beans, beetroot, carrot, banana flower, pumpkin etc. Curries in Sri Lanka are very hot. However, adjustments are made to suit the foreign palate. Ingredients of curries include chilli powder, fresh chillies, cinnamon, tumeric, curry powder, curry leaves, onions, garlic, ginger and coconut milk. Rice : Rice is the staple food of the Sri Lankans. Almost every household in Sri Lanka takes rice and curry as its main meal. Rice too comes in plenty of variety. Samba is a pearly rice consumed on special occasions. On festivals yellow rice is cooked on the base of coconut milk and delicately flavoured by spices. Kiribath or milk-rice is a popular festive dish. Large grained milchard variety of rice gives a slightly pungent smell when cooked. It is served garnished with cashews raisins, and hard-boiled eggs. Pittu : probably came to Sri Lanka with the Malay regiments of the European colonial period. It is however completely naturalized now and is a staple of Sri Lankan cuisine. Pittu is a mixture of fresh rice meal, every lightly roasted and mixed with fresh grated coconut, then steamed in a bamboo mould. It has a soft crumbly texture and is eaten with fresh coconut 'milk' and a hot chilli relish or curry.

 

Short eats

Short eats are savoury bite-sized pastries or rolls and can be quick, easy and fun. There's always a dish of sambol available if you really want to set your mouth on fire. Short eats such as chinese rolls (a pancake with a beef, fish, chicken or vegetable filling and fried), cutlets, patties, pastries, hot dogs, ham burgers etc. are freely available.The fish cutlets made from mashed tuna spliced with curry spices are delightfully tasty, while the squids hidden in a bed of onions fried to the very bone seem unusually crispy. But still, the taste of the flesh is intact.

 

Desserts

Some of the popular dessert dishes are: Kiribath- Kiribath (milk rice) is a ceremonial specific and included in all special occasion menus. Kiribath is translated in to "milk rice". The rice is cooked in thick coconut cream for this un sweetened rice-pudding which is accompanied by a sharp chilli relish called "Lunumiris" or with a coconut and treacle confection called "Panipol" - a sweet made with grated jaggery coconut and touch of vanilla. Wattalappam-an egg and rich pudding made with jaggery, fudge from the Kitul palm treacle and Kiri Peni-made of curd and honey.