Traditional Sri Lankan Cuisine is spicy and is guaranteed to tantalize the taste buds. Sri Lankans are proud of their culinary heritage and ever eager to promote it. Visitors to the island acclaim Sri Lankan cuisine and often request it. Bentota, a southwestern coastal city is a major tourist destination and restaurants in Bentota are well geared to serve local menus. For those seeking Sri Lankan cuisine at upmarket level Fine Dining by Saman Villas would be an excellent option.
Rice is the staple in the Sri Lankan diet and is eaten with curries, sambols and mallums. Rice cooked in thick milk rice is called Kiribath (milk rice) and is the central dish in festive fare. Yellow rice is another festive favorite. Rice & accompaniments wrapped and baked in banana leaves is called lamprais- originally believed to be introduced by the Dutch and a national favorite today. Sri Lankan curries are in a class by themselves, be they be from vegetables, greens, lentils, tubers and yams, fish, seafood, meat, poultry and game. Curries are prepared with thin and thick coconut milk, chilies, spices, salt and some lime juice at times. Among vegetable dishes the murunga or drumstick (morinaga) curry is an all-time favorite. The seasonal jakfruit and breadfruit curries are top choices while spicy devilled potatoes are always welcome. A southern Sri Lankan speciality, Ambulthiyal, is a dry, spicy and sour fish curry. Spicy chicken curry and the black pork curry take pride of place in meat and poultry preparations. Sambols are spicy and are made with ingredients like coconut, onions, chillies, cucumber, snake gourd, winged beans (dambala) etc. Mallums are generally made by lightly roasting greens mixed with scraped coconut kernel and condiments.
The pancake-like hopper is a great breakfast/dinner favorite and also string hoppers, pittu and roti. Thosai, iddly and uppama are also on the list of the typical Sri Lankan breakfast & dinner. Curd and treacle is a standard dessert while many sweetmeats are made of flour, coconut milk and kithul or coconut treacle like kavums and pani walalu.
Auburn Silver is a travel writer who has a passion for fashion and a deep interest in admiring new and exotic attractions around the world. Google+