5 Top Foods & Dishes You MUST Try in Sri Lanka – A Heavenly explosion of flavours

Being a staple diet of the Sri Lankans, Dhal curry is much loved by the old and the young alike. It can either consumed with bread or rice and gives off a delicious flavour that is attained by the use of mustard seeds, onions, garlic, chilli, pandan, and red lentils. The infusion of turmeric powder is what gives its appealing appearance of a golden-yellow colour. With a few spoonful's of freshly extracted coconut milk, the curry is given its creamy deliciousness. Few tomatoes are added to make the curry more flavoursome when it's almost cooked. The ready to be served curry gives out delicious aromas that would completely entice your taste buds.

Being encapsulated by the sea, it comes as no surprise that seafood frequents the dining tables of most Sri Lankan households. When preparing this dish, an infusion of roasted fenugreek, red onions, ripe chilli and some other ingredients are used along with a sufficient amount of water to boil the prawns. Richly infused coconut milk with mustard seed, turmeric and lime are then added to obtain the rich flavour of this curry. Mostly used as a side dish during lunch or dinner, this toothsome delicacy of Sri Lanka can be consumed with rice or even milk rice and would leave you craving for more.

The delicious mango curry of Sri Lanka is something that one should definitely try from its unique cuisine. While the ripe mangoes give off a sweet and succulent taste, the mango curry presents a contrastingly spicy tang with just a hint at its characteristic sweetness. Green mangoes are cut into long pieces which are made flavourful with roasted curry powder, chilli, turmeric and pepper before being cooked. Green leaves, pandan, chopped red onions, mustard seed and a stick of cinnamon is roasted in a bit of oil to create a palatable base for the curry. Then the mango is added to the mixture, after which coconut milk is poured along with Maldivian dried fish, green chilli, fenugreek, and a dash of salt that transforms the mixture into a piquant dish that would emit enticing aromas which would delight everyone in the vicinity.

Kottu or Kottu Roti is highly popular and constantly demanded street food of the Sri Lanka community. The base ingredient being the tastefully shredded pieces of Sri Lankan Godamba Roti, it is an artful mixture of an assortment of spices and a choice of meat or vegetables. The exciting part of waiting for this scrumptious meal is to listen to the rhythmic pounding of the ingredients using two iron spatula. In Sri Lanka, Kottu is considered to be the equivalent of the American hamburger.

Known as Kiribath in the native language, it is a type of rice that is cooked with freshly extracted coconut milk. It is cooked on special auspicious days and other festivals in Sri Lanka, such as the Sinhala and Tamil new year. Milk Rice is typically eaten along with Lunu Miris, which is a spicy sambol made from onions, chillies, salt and lime juice. If it's too hot, you can opt for a variety of other dishes such as chicken gravy or fish curry which would taste heavenly. Top restaurants in Colombo the likes of Rare Bar + Kitchen Colombo are known to offer this famous Sri Lankan meal in many mouth-watering variations.