The significance of the Sri Lankan way of eating 

You may think eating out in Sri Lanka as the Sri Lankans do is no biggie, but you might be surprised to find yourself quite lost amidst the many little nuances that differentiate Sri Lankan’s and they eating preferences from those of other cultures, especially those belonging to the West. The main difference that you have to get used to, if you truly want to eat like a Sri Lankan, is to put away any misgivings about eating directly with tour hands. Just make sure to thoroughly sanitize your hands, and then dig in!

One thing that most people are happy to hear about when they arrive in the country is that it’s a seafood lover’s paradise. While seafood is considered a delicacy in Sri Lanka as well, it is more so of a staple in a Sri Lankan’s diet than in that of a resident of a European country for example. It can be expensive, but less so than in other countries who aren’t blessed with the warm and plentiful waters of the tropics. Fresh seafood is everywhere on this bountiful island and Negombo restaurants, located less than an hour away from the commercial capital of Colombo, boast their fair share of these tasty hauls, fresh from the ocean. Resorts and hotels in the area such as Amagi Lagoon Resort & Spa Negombo, among many others, offer their guests an array of mouthwatering dishes full of local delicacies such as king prawns, lagoon crab and cuttlefish, which tend to be as fresh on the plate as they were on the day that they were born!

Apart from the seafood, another item that features prominently in Sri Lankan cuisine compared, not to other South and South East Asian cultures, but to cultures from elsewhere in the Asian continent or in the world, is the coconut. The coconut, if you didn’t already know, is actually a fruit, not a nut as its name misleadingly tries to implicate. In Sri Lanka, it is ground, strained and used as a base or thickener for vegetable and meat curries, and its scraped form is used often in the creation of desserts such as coconut. The coconut flesh is quite juicy and sweet, especially when tender, and can lend quite an addictive flavor to the food in which it is used, no matter the form in which it is added to the dish. So get used to the idea of tasting quite a bit of coconut when you eat traditional foods in Sri Lanka.

Catalina Forbes is a travel writer who bases her content on many thrilling escapades experienced across the world. Google+