Joanna James
Be it on holiday, on a business trip or simply out on a drive, have you noticed that having good food not only provides a treat to your senses, but is also immensely satisfying? Here are a few dishes that you need to keep an eye out for when in Sri Lanka's commercial capital of Colombo.
A concoction of traditional rice and creamy coconut milk cooked thoroughly until soft and solid where the rice grains are combined together. Milk rice is usually cut into diamond shapes and served with a red-hot side dish known as "lunu miris". Those who are not fans of spice can opt to have it with mouth-watering "kitul jaggery", a sweet made by harvesting treacle off the kitul palm. This is a firm favourite across Sri Lanka during all kinds of ceremonial events or simply as breakfast at many restaurants.
A distant cousin of fried rice, but made out of godamba roti (a type of flat roti, cut into strips) instead of the usual rice, this dish is a great comfort food. It is highly customisable and can include a variety of vegetables, meat or sea food, egg and even cheese. The preparation of this meal involves a loud clanking on a heated steel stove to mix the ingredients in well. The multitude of variations of a kottu roti can be found at many restaurants in Wattala.
Influenced by the Dutch who colonised Sri Lanka, "Lamprais" or "lomprijst" in Dutch, means a packet of rice. This unique culinary creation is made of short grained rice cooked in meat stock, accompanied by diced meat cooked in coconut curry lovingly spiced by garlic, fenugreek, ginger, cinnamon, lemongrass and cardamoms; onion mix, sometimes a dash of cashew curry and brinjal pahi. The uniqueness is in the heavenly aroma that awakens the taste buds upon opening the steamed tightly wrapped banana leaf packet revealing the "lamprais" with accompaniments.
This fluffy and light, round and stringy easily digested wonder which is the size of your palm is made out of rice flour and steamed. Referred to as "Idiyappa" by the locals, these are a quintessential part of breakfast and dinner buffets at many hotels such as Pegasus Reef. Served with creamy and fragrant potato curry made with thick coconut milk, fish or meat curry and colourful "pol sambol"; a spicy and moderately hot preparation of grated coconut, "idiyappa" can be addictive.
Hoppers can be found at most restaurants that serve kottu roti and is a gastronomical delight. Its milky crunch makes it consumable on its own with a bit of a dip in a spicy lunu miris or with a spoonful of treacle. It is seen at both breakfast and dinner buffets and some eateries start preparing them from early evening as locals enjoy having a hopper with their cup of tea. When hoppers are eaten as a meal, a spicy fish or chicken curry's gravy is loaded onto the plate and both the crunchy edges and the soft centre of the hopper are soaked in the delicious gravy and consumed.
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