5 Most Popular Sri Lankan Dishes – Exotic Flavours

Lunu miris is a type of onion salsa. And it's made with onions, chilli, lime, and salt. The ingredients are pounded together to form a sort of moist red paste, which tastes amazing as a side dish. You will most likely eat lunu miris with milk rice, hoppers, or a Sri Lankan delicacy called pittu.

Rice and curry is a staple meal on the island, especially as an afternoon meal. And no Sri Lankan worth his salt will ever forgo a plate of rice and curry for lunch. Since the island produces rice, there are different varieties used in rice and curry. You can choose between the traditional 'country rice' or the red rice option deemed the healthier variety. Or you can choose from a range of white rice, which can be basmati, samba, or the par-boiled Nadu, which too is thought to be popular as a healthier version. The curries normally consist of at least two vegetables, a green salad or mallung and meat, fish, dry fish, or an egg. Vegetables will vary according to the season or region in which you live. A hotel in Tangalle, for instance, will offer a variety of low-country vegetables cooked to that region's specifications and places like Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle Resort are ideal to enjoy sultry island vibes and the best Sri Lankan cuisine.

Now, this one you cannot miss savouring. Crab curry in Sri Lanka is extremely popular and a very tasty dish. While sea crabs are often cooked, the best crab curry is made with the big fat lagoon crabs or mud crabs. The crabs are cooked in an exotic concoction of thick coconut milk infused with tropical herbs, spices, onions, garlic, curry leaves, moringa leaves, and lime juice. The crabs are cooked until the curry boils down to a thick reddish-yellow gravy, to be mopped up with bread, roti, or soaked in rice.

A typical Dutch-Burgher dish, lamprais is flavoursome rice wrapped in a banana leaf. The rice is cooked in broth and then served with a cutlet, a meat curry (chicken, fish or beef), wambatu moju which is eggplant, ash-plantains fried and cooked, a shrimp paste, boiled and fried egg, and meatballs – all wrapped up in a banana leaf to seal in the flavours.

Kiribath is a traditional breakfast dish which symbolises good luck. Hence, it is often cooked in the morning to mark special occasions such as New Year, weddings, birthdays, the start of a new venture, and even the first day of the month. This is a lovely rice pudding dish made by cooking the rice in thick coconut milk and flavoured with salt. Once the rice cooks down to a thick paste, it's spread on a platter and cut in diamond shapes, which are left to harden. There are many accompaniments to kiribath but the most common and traditional is the lunumiris or onion salsa. Kiribath also tastes great with traditional Sri Lankan chicken or fish curry too!