Famous Dishes You Can Try in Sri Lanka – Foods that Would Tantalize and Delight

When dining on rice and curry in Sri Lanka – the customary form of dining for locals – you would typically be presented with a selection of delicious curries. Some of them are likely to be vegetable curries which would be a staple of the local cuisine. You will find that vegetable curries could take a variety of forms, including carrot, jackfruit, pumpkin, and potato curries. Generally, these curries would accompany a plentiful serving of rice, which in turn could be white, red, or brown.

Another much-loved local food would be hoppers which could be described as a Sri Lankan form of the pancake. Hoppers would be bowl-shaped with a crunchy outer section and a softer middle. You would find hoppers practically wherever you go in Sri Lanka, being available in restaurants as well as roadside stalls. A popular variation would be egg hoppers, which as the name indicates would have an egg cooked into them. Typically, egg hoppers would be eaten with a zesty sambol, and would be a great choice for breakfast or dinner.

A distinctive Sri Lankan dish that would delight the food lover would be the delicious lamprais. Having originated with the Dutch burgher community (the descendants of Dutch colonialists), lamprais would often be enjoyed for lunch. It would include several elements including a special curry made from three meats with cardamom and cinnamon, seeni sambol (an onion relish) and frikkadels or meatballs in the Dutch style. All of these would be added to rice cooked in a flavourful stock, wrapped in banana leaf, and baked in an oven.

Your sampling of the local dishes wouldn't be complete without trying out the very popular ambul thiyal which may be described as a sour fish curry. To make this dish, a firm variety of fish (often tuna) would be cooked with a selection of spices such as black pepper, turmeric, garlic, curry leaves and cinnamon. However, the vital ingredient would be dried goraka which happens to be a fruit that provides the dish's distinctive flavour. An accommodation choice to consider from which you could visit restaurants in Marawila and enjoy such Sri Lankan foods would be Amagi Beach which features onsite dining options too.

The tasty kiribath or milk rice would be a dish that is often prepared for special occasions. To prepare kiribath, rice would be cooked with coconut milk with a small quantity of salt till the grains would be sticky and soft. The rice would then be shaped into a cake and sliced into pieces. Kiribath could be enjoyed with curries, a spicy relish or with jaggery, a sweet made from palm sugar.

One of the much-admired Sri Lankan desserts would be the local love cake, which would be a moist, dense cake featuring plentiful amounts of coconut milk and fragrant spices. Love cake would include many special ingredients such as nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom which contribute to its unique flavour. Often the delectable love cake would be prepared for weddings as well as other celebrations.