• The basis is rice, coconut and spices

• The island reportedly grows 15 varieties of rice and is used in the kitchen as an addition to curry or desserts. Rice is in the form of rice flour, as well

• Coconut in the form of fresh chips or coconut milk is added to countless dishes

• Coconut oil as vegetable fat

• “Kithul Treacle”— is palm syrup, “Jaggery” — unrefined palm sugar

• The characteristic spaces include fresh curry and pandan leaves, garlic, shallots, ginger, chillies, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and a special curry blends or masala blends.

• Lentils, mainly red to lentil curry (dhal) and vadai cutlets

• Roti are different types of eaten pancakes, widely eaten with a curry.

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Sri Lanka is a beautiful island off the southeast coast of India, yet despite the close links, Sri Lankan food is quite different to that found in India in some ways, and similar in others. The Sri Lankan traditional diet revolves around rice and curry, but there are plenty more facts about Sri Lankan food that I can share here.

Sri Lankan curries really are hot, seafood is abundant and varied, restaurants and eating out aren’t as common as in most other south Asian countries and Sri Lanka has its own unique dishes.

String hoppers or plain hoppers are unique to Sri Lanka and southern India along with a group of foods called short eats or just shorties. This term normally refers to baked goods and snacks.  In south Asia, spicy or hot food often comes tempered down for a western palate, in Sri Lanka this normally doesn’t happen. In Sri Lanka, if you tell your waiter you are happy to have spicy food you’d better really mean it. Yet here the depth of flavour and heat go hand in hand to make a delicious complete dish.  You’ll see similar ingredients to those used in Indian curries but with both pepper and chilli to give your food an extra kick. Of course, you can find reduced heat curries in the tourist areas, if you ask for them.  The most common blend of curry powder in Sri Lanka is made with chilli, coriander, fenugreek, cumin, fennel seed, curry leaves, turmeric, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon. There are a few variations on this base with black curry powder being made without chillies so that the dish is less red, more black from the pepper. Another variation is Jaffna curry powder which again uses different ingredients such as coriander, cumin and fennel seeds as the major ingredients and lacks the chillies that the Sri Lankan curry base has.

 

Unsurprisingly, being an island and with an abundance of seafood on their doorstep, Sri Lankans obtain a large portion of their diet from the ocean.  Walk along any of the beaches at night and you will see that each restaurant has an ice-covered table packed with the day’s catch. Everything from parrotfish to squid and octopus abounds and you can pick the fish you want and how you’d like it cooked. Perfect for seafood lovers. 

A word of warning, if it isn’t the busy season and if the fish isn’t sold that night there is a good chance it will come out again the next night. Double-check the freshness and do your research on what is and isn’t a sign of fresh fish. Sunken and glassy eyes along with strong odour are to be avoided, for instance. 

Egg hoppers are made in a special little frying pan that looks more like a mini wok with a lid. 

The resulting pancake takes the shape of the pan. For an egg hopper, the egg is cracked into the centre of the pancake and the lid put on to allow it to cook.

These are best eaten freshly cooked from the roadside food stalls.