How to eat like a local in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan Food | Image by Kavinda F via Pixabay
Sri Lanka’s coconut-fringed wet zone, alluring dry zone, salty seas and fertile land contribute to the island nation’s mouth-watering cuisine. You get an abundance of fresh vegetables, luscious tropical fruit, seafood, and meat complimented by spices and herbs. Let’s dig into the delectable Sri Lankan feast.
How to enjoy seafood in Sri Lanka?
The salty, sensual seas enveloping Sri Lanka provide the country with plenty of fruits de mer. They have humongous crabs, lobsters, prawns, calamari, squid, and cuttlefish. As you first enter the country and take your break in Negombo before beginning your journey, add savouring seafood to your list of things to do in Negombo. Sri Lankan people have come up with many ways to cook seafood. You can try some sour fish curry, fried fish, and fish soup along with your typical seafood platter. Hotels like Amagi Aria in Negombo serve up some amazing local seafood dishes. Ask your hotel to recommend some local seafood concoctions like local favourite batter fried cuttlefish (best had with a pint of beer).
What to try for breakfast in Sri Lanka?
Breakfast options in Sri Lanka are plentiful. You can start with milky diamond-shaped ‘kiribath’ (milk rice - made with coconut cream and rice) with some red hot sambol (crushed shallots, chilli flakes, green chilli, flakes of Maldive fish, salt and a generous sprinkle of lime or calamari and spicy chicken curry. If you wish to avoid too much heat, replace the chilli sambol with a fragrant onion fry-up. You can also try some fluffy rice flour hoppers with a hint of creamy goodness. The egg hoppers come with a glistening fried egg in the middle of the bowl-shaped hopper. You can use chilli sambol, onion fry-up, thick chicken curry or sour fish curry to accompany your hoppers. Some love the sweeter versions of hoppers made with treacle or bananas. String hoppers on the other hand appear like a shy collection of angel pasta (made with rice flour) clinging to each strand for protection. You can enjoy these with pleasing yellow ‘kirihodi’ made with thick coconut cream infused with mild spices and loads of herbs. You could go for dhal curry, fish curry and pol sambol (shredded coconut pounded with shallots, garlic, curry leaves, chili, pepper, salt and lime). Sri Lankans love to eat fresh fruit to finish their breakfast and drink copious amounts of milky tea.
What to try for lunch in Sri Lanka?
Rice and curry are the ultimate lunch combination that Sri Lankan people love. A good rice and curry include vegetable curries, fish or meat curry or fry up, some green leaves in the form of a salad or a lightly cooked with onions, green chillies, and shredded coconut, accompanied by chutney or pickles and poppadom. If you opt for rice and curry from the Northern part of Sri Lanka, you’ll get to savour rasam, curd and lots of side chutneys. Then there is lamprais – a legacy of the country’s Dutch Burgher community. This delicately flavoured dish is cooked in meat stock and infused with butter, spices, and onions. Lamprais is then topped with fried brinjal (eggplant) and an egg. It is then wrapped in a banana leaf and baked. The lamprais come out fragrant and delicious.
What street food to try in Sri Lanka?
Sri Lankans all over love to eat ‘kottu.’ This is Sri Lanka’s version of slightly healthier junk food. Kottu is a medley of pieces of flour roti shredded and mixed with plenty of vegetables, meat, fish, sauces and even cheese and then fried to perfection. You eat kottu laced with spicy meat or fish curry. At teatime, try to order some ‘short eats’ – generally spring rolls, spicy buns and fried balls of fish and potatoes covered in a golden crusty ball. Follow up with ginger tea or milky tea.