SRI LANKA GUIDE: COLOMBO TO GALLE : FOOD & CUISINE

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Wednesday, 02nd October
SRI LANKA GUIDE: COLOMBO TO GALLE : FOOD & CUISINE

Everything is here. It’s a Buddhist-Hindu country, reflecting dietary tradition. You have to look hard to find pork or beef. People eat chicken, but not everyone. There’s lots of fish, lots of shellfish. Very little dairy. Sri Lankan red rice. Every fruit and vegetable you can imagine except apples. No bread, really. Street roti. It’s all about curries made with coconut milk. Jackfruit curry, pumpkin curry, green bean curry. Potato curry. A typical dinner is two different types of curry with rice and seven different sides. Eggplant fritters, some fried tuna chunks, a dhal, ground coconut and lime, a little omelet. Local people eat with their hands and use their joined fingers as ‘spoons’ to scoop rice and whatever else is on the plate.

In India, the term prana means energy. The idea with food is the more recently the food has been pulled from the ground, the more energy you’ll receive. The energy in the Sri Lankan diet is like taking an antidepressant…Juices every day – mango, papaya, pineapple, banana, and pomegranate. Everything is incredibly inexpensive by Western standards.

In every big city, there is a supermarket geared towards a Western tourist palette with chocolate, soda, some frozen foods…but really, Sri Lankan food is rich in local tastes-everything is very fresh. The closest you’ll find in New York may be Sigiri, a hole in the wall East Village restaurant serving spicy “deviled” specialties and curries made with cashews and sambol, the most ubiquitous condiment in Sri Lanka (a mix of grated coconut, hot pepper, lime juice and dried fish).

Tea:
Ceylon tea is amazing –will got you off of coffee stat. Not easy to find outside Sri Lanka even though it’s their biggest export. Buy some to bring home if you like it.

Street Food:
Fried chickpeas with hot chili, pickled jackfruit, pineapple, jellied candy; we don’t recommend eating street food – as in the case of going into any new ecosystem.

Advice:
Always carry baby wipes to wipe a fork, wipe a table, or dirty hands. Make sure to be careful with water. There is bottled water available for purchase everywhere. Eat yoghurt the first few days to balance your stomach.

April 2013