The Curious Culinarian: Livin' la vida Lanka

The promise of two weeks of the best curries and the fact that you are encouraged to delve into dishes with nothing but your right hand was more than enough to attract this curious culinarian to the land of the lion (not that are even any lions still around).

The Fiance and I were Sri Lanka-bound and couldn't have been more excited to experience the sights, and tastes, of a country that very few tourists have been lucky enough to venture to. (I can't say that our holiday-eve engagement didn't have just a little to do with our excitement also though).

Prior to our travels, we researched the food fare we would be likely to experience (thanks Food Safari!) and found that rice and curry is pretty much the meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But this isn't just some chicken sitting in a semi-spiced liquid with a ball of rice. This is deliciously creamy curry, rich in spices and chicken, beef or fish and served with an array of accompaniments such as dhal, spiced pumpkin or potato, jackfruit, coconut sambol and kale, as well as crispy pappadoms or parathas (something like an indian roti bread).

Chicken curry, vegetable curry, kale and coconut salad, spicy bean curry and dhal

Fresh fish curry (straight from the lake at Tissa), chilli, cucumber salad, dhal, spiced potato and pumpkin curry.

Chicken curry, spiced jackfruit, eggplant, coconut sambol and dhal.

Fresh fish (from the stick fisherman at Mirissa), cripsy fried pappadoms, potato curry, coconut sambol, bean curry, rice and salad

Chicken curry, chillis, dhal, pumpkin curry and kale and coconut salad.

These curries are spectacularly flavoursome, and the fact that you eat them with your hands just enhances the flavours even further. However, the best part about a good rice and curry is that the whole dish costs about 150 Rs ($1.10). At hotels or guest houses, you'll find slightly more expensive varieties, but they still only cost about 650 Rs ($5). Although this is seen as the staple, there are many other dishes that excited our senses, as you will see below.

As you drive through the townships set up all over Sri Lanka, you find thousands of roadside stalls selling the freshest and widest variety of fruit and vegetables I have seen in a developing country. Everything from beans to avocados to eggplants to bananas and watermelons to pumpkins and potatoes. One other thing you can buy is king coconuts. These cost around 40 Rs ($0.20) and are cut up fresh in front of you. Once you have finished off the juice, the coconut is halved, a coconut spoon is cut for you and you can scoop out the juicy flesh. As well as three coconuts, I also bought 2 kilos of bananas at this stall and the whole thing cost me less than $2!!

King coconuts being sold on the side of the road.

Another dish that is very popular in Sri Lanka is Kottu Roti, a street food composed of shredded pieces of roti bread mixed with vegetables, egg, spices and your choice of meat. As you walk past these street vendors, you can hear the tell-tale sounds of the metal spatula hitting the hot plate and mixing your meal, and you know you're in for a good feed.


Kottu chicken

Breakfast curries, although similar in flavour to the dinner varieties, tend to be a little different in terms of side dishes. Breakfast consists of string hoppers and/or egg hoppers - both of which are made with rice flour and steamed (string hoppers) or fried in a small wok (egg hoppers) - as well as a vegetable curry and sambol. This is a great way to kick start the day, but much more filling than the standard eggs or museli that I usually go for.


Sri Lankan breakfast - string hoppers, egg hoppers, curry and coconut sambol.

Another great thing about Sri Lanka is the coast, and the abundance of fresh (and cheap) seafood that can be found at any of the coastal towns. Our beach-side stop off was Mirissa (South), and offered us a variety of choice for restaurants. However we settled on the one that we saw bringing in a fresh catch straight from the ocean. Coconut prawns, lemon butterfish and two grilled lobster were our choices and couldn't have been more delicious! This meal cost us about 6000 Rs ($45), including a tip and cocktails... Bargain!

Lemon Butterfish

Grilled lobster

Lastly, if you're heading to Sri Lanka (and I don't know why you wouldn't be jumping online to buy a ticket after seeing all this delicious food), I would recommend checking out the Galle Face Hotel for the sunset, cocktails and the seafood buffet - at 1890 Rs ($15) per person, you really can't go wrong!