Sri Lankan foods you need to try- The best of Lankan cuisine

This is the staple of almost every household in Sri Lanka, while some consume it for all three meals. Plain white or red rice is served with a bunch of curries. Sri Lankan curries are usually made from coconut milk and a local spice blend locally called curry powder. Sri Lankan curry powder consists of fennel seeds, cinnamon, cloves, chillies, pepper, coriander powder and cumin seeds. Paired with the sweet and creamy coconut milk it's a match made in heaven for all lovers of curry. Some famous curries include baby jack fruit curry, green beans, pumpkin, beetroot, eggplant fry and the list goes on. However, a word of advice, one has to dig into all this wholesomeness with your right hand, so you can savour and mix the curries better. Every hotel like Aitken Spence Hotels will always offer this dish.

Kottu roti is the equivalent of a burger in this island paradise. Everyone loves kottu roti, which is made from a type of flatbread and is then shredded and mixed with meats, eggs, veggies and curry sauce. All the ingredients then get thoroughly mixed with unique-shaped cleavers to enhance the flavours. There are many varieties of kottu roti, chicken is the most popular, while some get drenched in cheese and milk to make cheese kottu.

Hoppers, called appa in Sinhalese, is a fermented rice crepe made from white rice flour, coconut milk and yeast. The batter is poured into a bowl-like pan which results in a crispy hopper, while the middle stays light and spongy. For egg hoppers, an egg gets cracked and left to cook, while for for milk hoppers the half-done hopper gets drenched in coconut milk. There is also a dessert variety, the pani appa, where kithul jaggery or treacle gets added to the batter. Hoppers are eaten with curries like fish, chicken or potato and condiments like coconut sambol and a sweet caramelised onion fry.

When dining in Sri Lanka, pol sambol, also called coconut sambol is perhaps the most famous and beloved condiment for Sri Lankans. Freshly grated coconut gets mixed with dried chillies, maldive fish chips, red onions, pepper, salt and green chillies. The mixture is then beat together so that all the ingredients mingle to give a sweet and spicy condiment. Pol sambol can be eaten with a lot of dishes -  however, most commonly it is eaten with bread, string hoppers, and hoppers. 

Also called milk rice, this dish is mostly made during important events but is a staple dish eaten every day as well. Rice is cooked with thick coconut milk, which forms a sweet and sticky rice dish. Kiribath is eaten with lunu miris, a red onion and a chilli-infused side dish, and, with a curry like chicken or fish.

Another everyday meal for Sri Lankans is the string hopper. A dough mixture of rice flour and water is pressed into a mould with noodle-like openings and is steamed until it's set. String hoppers are typically eaten for breakfast or dinner. One has to pair and thoroughly mix the string hoppers with a curry like a potato or fish and condiments like pol sambol for an explosion of flavour.