Sun, sea and truly scrumptious food in Sri lanka

A holiday to Sri Lanka gives me a perfect chance to explore the local cuisines and savor exotic dishes to my hearts content….Join me on yet another Foodie Trail and discover why good food is salvation on the serene island of Sri Lanka.

Begin your day in this tropical paradise with some spicy, tangy flavours to tickle your palate. Breakfast is a bit similar to the South Indian dishes especially all the coconut based curries and steamed rice preparations called Hoppers(the anglicized name thats commonly used in Sri Lanka ) ….similar to Appams! The plain hoppers are dome-shaped rice pancakes made out of rice flour and coconut milk and the string hoppers are very fine spaghetti ones (like idiappams).Coconut (pol) Roti is thick and dense with coconut and that was totally different from anything I had ever had before though! These hoppers  come with various toppings as well: egg, cheese, vegetables, buffalo curd, trickle (palm sugar syrup) and are commonly found as street food everywhere you go.

Pol Sambol

This traditional Sri Lankan dish like a chutney made from coconut,onions,red chilli and garlic is the mostly commonly used accompaniment with rice, string hoppers and other hoppers. Katta sambol is a Sri Lankan chili paste thats is really hot! So only for those brave enough to try it….I did ..and survived !

Sri Lankan curries

Fish has to be the staple diet of the Sri Lankan people as they are surrounded by water on all sides, obviously they feast on the “fruits of the sea”!

Other distinctive curries you must try are :

Polos (green jackfruit curry)

Wambatu moju (eggplant/brinjals pickle)

Gotu kola sambol (pennywort salad)

Fish ambul thiyal (sour fish curry).

A trip to Sri Lanka is not complete without an evening at the iconic “Ministry of crab ” Restaurant owned by Kumar Sangakara,Mahela Jayawardene and Dharshan Munidase.They have created this as a celebration of Sri Lanka’s seafood, particularly of her wonderful crabs.

And believe me the crabs come in all shapes and sizes  and flavours here ! and all other kinds of seafood and mean as well, some Japanese dishes too.Vegetarians stay away!

So many different curries to chose from. The chilli crab with kade (traditional wood fired ) bread or ghee garlic rice…is to die for !

An absolute must do when in Colombo- great food and ambience, excellent service and so much fun !! Dont I look so very happy and contented ??? I will definitely come back here for some more ..and so should you !

As narrated and pics posted by Kalpana Xavier !