In addition to exploring the wonders of Sri Lanka, we also advise you to get acquainted with the national cuisine of this country. In Sri Lanka, you are sure to find some delicious dish that you like, but usually there are several such dishes at once. Sri Lankan cuisine, like many Asian cuisines, consists of a huge range of colors, flavors and spices. The deliciously delicious and devilishly spicy food is enjoyed by most of the island's guests.
What to try in Sri Lanka? In cafes, restaurants, markets, street stalls and other places you will see a huge variety of dishes. It will be difficult for you to try all the dishes of Sri Lankan cuisine if the duration of your holiday in this country does not exceed 10 days. Therefore, for such cases, we advise you to focus only on the main and most popular dishes of the national cuisine of Sri Lanka, which we will discuss in this article.
Rice and curry in Sri Lanka
Rice and curry are the staple food of most Sri Lankans, young and old, men and women. Rice and curry are served throughout the country in Sri Lanka. It's hard to imagine a cafe or restaurant that doesn't serve similar dishes. Rice and curry in Sri Lanka are considered the cheapest and easiest way to satisfy hunger.
The dish usually consists of a portion of steamed rice and curry with meat. Also, interesting accompaniments are often added to the dish, such as curry yeast, pineapple or vegetables. Sometimes rice and curry are served with sambol, which guarantees extra energy.
Noodles in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankans often eat noodles for breakfast, which are usually steamed and served with various types of curries. As a rule, rice and curry are added to the noodles, although any other meat, seafood (mainly shrimp), vegetables and even fruits can also be added as an addition.
If you want to try noodles in Sri Lanka, then carefully look at what they are served with. We are confident that anyone can choose the option that best suits their taste.
Kottu roti in Sri Lanka
This dish was born on the streets of Sri Lankan villages. Today kottu roti is very popular among locals. It is essentially shredded and fried Sri Lankan roti mixed with an assortment of vegetables and meats. A generous amount of spices and seasonings are meant to add flavor to the dish.
There are several variations of kottu roti in Sri Lanka, including cheese kottu and vegetarian kottu. They are sometimes served with curry.
Vadai in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankans love fried and spicy food, and vadai combines all of these. Vadai consists of mashed potatoes or lentils, highly seasoned and spicy. The resulting mixture is then well fried into a donut or pancake shape.
Vadai is a very tasty dish, but it takes quite a long time to digest. This is why it is often sold as an appetizer or side dish.
If you want to buy vadai from a roadside stall, ask for it to be prepared in front of you. As a last resort, buy only fresh vadai to avoid food poisoning.
Cottage cheese in Sri Lanka
Cottage cheese is a classic Sri Lankan dessert that is a kind of yogurt made from buffalo milk. This creamy yogurt is often consumed with honey or syrup when enjoyed as a dessert. However, nutritious and tasty cottage cheese can be consumed without additional ingredients.
Buffalo curd is consumed in Sri Lanka similar to how we eat yogurt. It can be eaten either as a dessert or as a light breakfast.
Coconut juice in Sri Lanka
Of course, the most popular drink in Sri Lanka is tea. However, coconut juice is also considered a fairly popular drink. If you watch the locals, within a few minutes you can conclude that they really love coconut juice.
Coconut trees can be seen in many households in Sri Lanka. Coconut juice is very refreshing, especially in warm weather, so it is recommended to drink it at lunchtime.
Snacks in Sri Lanka
All small pieces of any food in Sri Lanka are considered snacks. They are served in kiosks and restaurants (sometimes for free), and even if you eat a dozen of these snacks, you will not be able to satisfy your hunger. Locals use the snacks as treats or consume them as a light breakfast.
If you need a quick breakfast, try vegetable roti. These snacks consist of a vegetable curry wrapped in a flatbread. Other variations of this snack may include an egg or meat filling. Also, an egg roll, which is a pancake containing a filling of fish, potatoes and eggs, well fried in oil, is often served as a “quick” snack in Sri Lanka.
Another popular snack in Sri Lanka is coconut roti, a flat bread that also works well for breakfast. This roti, made from desiccated coconut and rice flour, is usually eaten along with curry or flavored with onions and chillies.
Tourists who prefer very spicy dishes should try malu paan in Sri Lanka. This simple bread roll is filled with flavorful fish sambol, onions, almonds and chili peppers.
Samosas are also considered a popular snack in Sri Lanka. This snack is ideal for consumption at any time of the day. The crispy buns usually contain curry, a mixture of meat and vegetables.
Seafood dishes in Sri Lanka
Food in Sri Lanka also includes delicious seafood dishes, which are complemented with various sauces. Seafood lovers will find no shortage of dishes, although in the interior of the island the variety of seafood dishes is not as huge as in the coastal resorts.
If you're an early morning riser, you'll likely see crowds of fishermen dragging their catches along the coastline. Seafood in Sri Lanka provides good income for thousands of fishermen families.
Local delicacies in Sri Lanka include squid, lobster, crab and jumbo shrimp. There are many ways to prepare seafood dishes in this country, but tourists often prefer grilled seafood, which is cooked with garlic and served with a delicious sauce of chilli, pepper and ketchup.
Lamprices in Sri Lanka
What else to try in Sri Lanka? National dishes of Sri Lanka also include lamprais. It is a dish prepared using minced meat such as beef, pork or lamb, which has been infused with spices such as cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. These ingredients, along with rice that has been previously cooked in meat broth, are wrapped in banana leaves and then steamed. The result is a flavorful dish that is usually consumed along with curries, sambola and fried eggs.
Apple juice
Southeast Asia has many fruits with intriguing flavors that are considered exotic by many tourists. In countries like Thailand and Malaysia, you will get the opportunity to try the well-known stinky durian. The similar equivalent in Sri Lanka is the tree apple. This fruit has a sharp, unpleasant aroma reminiscent of blue cheese.As you walk past the street food stalls and markets in Sri Lanka, you will likely smell this fruit. Although this fruit can be consumed in a variety of ways, we suggest you first try thick apple juice mixed with additional ingredients.
Buriani
This Sri Lankan dish has little in common with Buryani, a North Indian dish. Buryani is perfect for meat lovers as the dish contains a generous portion of rice, pieces of chicken, a dollop of curry and a boiled egg.
Buryani is considered a less spicy alternative to rice and curry, so if you don't like too much spicy food, you might like Buryani. In any case, you should ask that they prepare a not very spicy dish for you, since the amount of spices may vary depending on the specific restaurant or cafe.
Hello my dear friends.
Today I’m writing a delicious article on the topic - traditional food of Sri Lanka. If you find yourself on this wonderful island, I recommend trying the national dishes and drinks, which I will talk about in this post.
Sri Lankan food is fiery, making you feel hot, but quite interesting and quite edible. Almost every dish contains a set of spices. Seasonings do their job threefold: they give a unique taste, benefit the body and kill a variety of bacteria. In addition, Sri Lankan cuisine is quite unique, and therefore deserves the attention of tourists.
BUT! If possible, ask to adjust the spiciness of the dish when ordering - spicy, medium or note spicy
So, what food should you try in Sri Lanka and not be disappointed?
Sri Lankan cuisine.
1. The first position, naturally, is rice and curry.
Rise&Curry is a symbol of the country. Curry is prepared from anything - fish, seafood, meat, vegetables, fruits, beans. The required composition of curry spices is curry leaves, turmeric, coriander, chili. For some dishes, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, mustard seeds, ginger and others can be additionally used.
For those who want to try making curry on their own, I wrote earlier.
2. Kiribat. Rice with coconut milk.
It has a very delicate taste. It is cut into diamond shapes and is usually served for breakfast. Excellent in combination with onion curry. A neighbor told me that this daily dish is a signature dish for the Sri Lankan New Year.
3. Hoppers or hoppers with egg.
Another breakfast option. It is prepared almost like our pancake, but in a round frying pan. 
4. Sambola.
Coconut flakes, with the addition of crushed onions, garlic, ground Maldivian fish plus chili pepper, lime and salt. 
I have already blogged sambol.
5. Half a roti.
Coconut flatbreads. They're really good. I have cooked them at home in Ukraine more than once. I wrote the recipe. 
6. Roti.
It comes with different fillings - vegetable, meat, fish.
Such triangles are popular as street food. 
This is roughly how they are served in a restaurant. 
7. Ulundu vadai.
Fried and crispy yellow lentils with added spices. Sold on the street and in “bread home delivery” machines. 
8. Fish cutlets.
This is something! One of the best dishes in Sri Lanka in my opinion. Prepared cutlets from fish, potatoes, spices 
9. Gotukola sambola.
Chopped greens with the addition of coconut pulp, red onion and spices. 
10. Kottu.
Popular street food of Sri Lanka. Consists of shredded bread (paratha), spices, filling of your choice - meat, vegetable, egg, cheese. 
11. Papadam.
It's kind of a snack. Papadam is fried in a lot of oil and eaten with curry. We loved eating it with beer. 
12. Manjok. Sweet potato chips.
Tough but unusual sweet potato chips. 
Drinks of Sri Lanka.
Local, palm vodka. It tastes really good too. Arak is not as sweet as, for example, the rum there. Even those who suffer from diabetes drink it, which is quite common in Sri Lanka. 
This alcohol is tasty, but unusually sweet and, in my opinion, completely artificial. It tastes like no other rum and cannot be compared to quality Cuban rum. Still worth a try, just for fun.
3. Beer “LION”.
Basically, all tourists drink this particular Sri Lankan beer. I don’t really like beer and don’t know much about it, but we drank it periodically. In the heat - just right! 
4. Fresh wood apple juice.
It's possible, just be careful. You need to know how to cook it correctly. Or rather, add sugar and coconut pulp to the juice, otherwise you won’t be able to take a sip, it’s so fragrant. 
I know a lot of people who don't like Sri Lankan food. Somewhere I understand them, because I myself am tired of it. I would say that this came from the monotony of the products from which the food is prepared. Almost all dishes are fried, and Sri Lankan bellies have probably been accustomed to this for a long time. You won't last long on a diet like this unless you're Asian.
Read about my gastronomic agonies and the lack of favorite foods that are not available in Sri Lanka. Although, to be honest, since I am now in Ukraine and this is where I am writing a publication about Sri Lankan food, I am salivating and want fish cakes from my warm and distant Sri
Most fish dishes in Sri Lanka are made from tuna. It is quite inexpensive because it is mined in all coastal areas of the island. Tuna meat is dense, tender, without bones. Most often it is stewed with spices and served with rice.
Fish Ambul Thiyal is a traditional Sri Lankan dish. To prepare it, dried fish and sweet and sour spicy sauce are used. The peculiarity of this dish is that it does not spoil within 24 hours when stored at room temperature. The “secret” ingredient is to blame - garcinia. This plant was brought to Sri Lanka from Southeast Asian countries. It adds that piquant sourness that preserves the freshness of the product.
Pol sambol is a fish salad made from dried tuna. Sri Lankans add onion, lemon, chili pepper and coconut flakes as spices.
Umbalakada is a traditional seasoning used to prepare fish curry. Small river fish are dried in the sun and ground into a fine powder.
Restaurant menus include giant jumbo shrimp, lobster and crab, but these dishes are not cheap.
Enemies of diet
Sweets are very popular in Sri Lanka. Their diversity sometimes takes tourists by surprise.
Kyawum are donuts made from rice flour, deep fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar mixed with coconut.
Aluva is a local halwa that is prepared from sunflower seeds and coconut oil.
Asmi - boiled rice noodles, which are eaten with chopsticks, after dipping in sweet molasses.
Halaguli is a confectionery product made from rice flour and coconut oil, generously sprinkled with sesame seeds. It is usually served in the form of small balls.
Jalape is a kind of sweet sauce made from jaggery and flour. It is usually eaten with rice cakes.
Hotels and restaurants offer many varieties of ice cream flavored with chocolate and exotic fruits.
Kottu is one of the most popular types of fast food, which can be purchased at any street stall. It is prepared from finely chopped pieces of unleavened flatbread, sauce and spices, and all seasonings are added at the request of the buyer. Kottu can be meat or vegetarian.
Tosai is a dish that resembles a sandwich. It is prepared from steamed lentils, eggs and shallots. Cumin and dried curry leaves are usually added as spices and served with coconut sauce and cold sambola.
You can also buy fish pieces baked on the grill with vegetables and squid fried in boiling oil on the street.
Sri Lankans often use coconut in their culinary masterpieces. The juice and pulp serve as the basis for preparing delicious sauces, and the shavings are added as a decoration for desserts. In Sri Lanka, some fruits are consumed as vegetables, for example, mangoes are fermented, bananas are fried, and pineapple slices are seasoned with ground black pepper and salt.
Thanks to the hot, humid climate, bananas grow well on the island. They are not as big as we are used to seeing on the shelves of our stores, but they are very sweet.
Durian is an exotic fruit, very revered by the local population. It can weigh up to 10 kilograms. But the cost of durian is quite high, so only wealthy Sri Lankans can afford it. In addition, tropical fruits such as pomelo, lychee, rambutan, longan and other exotic plants that the fertile Sri Lankan soil is so rich in are used in cooking.
Beverages
Topping the list of the most popular drinks on the island is Ceylon tea. The leaves are mixed with fruits and herbs, creating unique aromatic blends. The special tradition of tea cultivation, the favorable climate and the peculiarities of preparing this drink have made it world famous and popular.
Tambili is the second most popular soft drink. It is prepared from royal coconut. Tourists can take part in preparing this cocktail with street vendors. With amazing sleight of hand, they crack the coconut and offer you to enjoy the fresh juice right in the shell.
Among the alcoholic drinks, local barracks suggest trying palm vodka - arak. You can consume it neat, with ice, or add it to various cocktails with tropical fruit juices. In stores, the assortment of alcohol always includes several types of wine, beer, gin, as well as cognac, which is familiar to tourists from Europe.
On Poya Day, when the full moon occurs, it is prohibited to sell or consume any alcoholic beverages in public places. It is allowed to taste alcohol in your hotel room.
The diversity and uniqueness of Sri Lankan cuisine is explained by the influence of various culinary traditions inspired by the historical eras of the island. At one time, the table of the average Sri Lankan was complemented by dishes of English, Arabic, Portuguese and Malay cuisine. The Buriyani dish, which resembles pilaf, came here from Islamic cuisine. Only here local spices are used, as well as kebabs. The most tender meat cooked in black bean sauce was borrowed from the Chinese.
Most hotels in Sri Lanka take into account the preferences of tourists and offer both national and European cuisine. Clay pots containing spicy curries are usually placed on a separate table. At buffets, all spicy dishes are marked with a red pepper icon.
The name of the country, located on the island of the same name, translates as “blessed land.” This was confirmed at different times by Rabindranath Tagore, who called the island the pearl of the Indian Ocean, and A.P. Chekhov, who was sure that he was in heaven.
A tropical island with eternal summer and a riot of colors is attractive with hundreds of kilometers of beaches, a unique underwater world and many historical attractions. And also an interesting history and rich traditions. After all, Ceylon, as it was called until 1972, is one of the oldest countries in the world. The remains of the ancient independent kingdom, ancient cities, temples and other historical treasures can still be seen today. Sri Lanka is deservedly considered the world center of Buddhism; the island is famous for its large-scale sculptural composition: three huge Buddha statues are carved into the rocks.
The main asset of the island is its fabulously beautiful nature, four national parks and a wealth of fauna. And, of course, the famous Ceylon tea, which is grown in picturesque green valleys. But what, besides tea, can you try in Sri Lanka?
Food in Sri Lanka
The cuisine is reminiscent of the neighboring kitchen, but much richer in taste and variety of ingredients. All the peoples who left their mark on the history of the island influenced Sri Lankan cuisine. It was formed under the influence of Arab, Portuguese, Dutch, English, Chinese and Malay culinary traditions. Moreover, the Sri Lankans very creatively reworked and expanded the recipes of other cuisines, creating their own, exotic and unique cuisine of Sri Lanka.
Its main features are related to climate or religion. The latter considers the cow a sacred animal, which is why there are practically no beef dishes on the island. And, since part of the population professes Islam, pork is also rare. This is compensated by the abundance of fish and seafood, especially in coastal areas. The abundance of spicy dishes is associated with the climate, as in all hot countries - hot spices have antimicrobial properties and contribute to the preservation of food. The main product, as in all Asian countries, is rice.
Restaurants at seaside resorts are aimed at tourists, and their national dishes are adapted to European consumers. Therefore, you can safely try them.
Top 10 Sri Lankan dishes
Here this can be the name for any dish with spices. The number of variations is almost endless, the most popular ingredients: curry bush leaves, chili and black pepper, turmeric, ginger, garlic, cinnamon and coriander, cumin, mustard seeds. The basis of the cuisine is a combination of various curries with rice.
Sri Lankan cuisine is almost vegetarian, so the main curry here is considered to be vegetable. It is followed by fish curry, also with rice. The only meat consumed by the local population is chicken. That's why you should try the chicken curry. There is squid curry, shrimp curry.
Appa
Traditional pancakes of Sri Lankan cuisine are unusual for Europeans. Firstly, the shape is in the form of a hemisphere, a kind of edible container. Secondly, the taste: rice dough with coconut milk ferments for at least six hours, so the pancakes turn out sour. Thirdly, the pancake is crispy on the outside, but retains its traditional tenderness only on the inside. Filling is placed in this delicate inner cavity - egg, yogurt, jam. Typically, appa is eaten for breakfast on the island. If they dine on pancakes, the filling will always be curry.
A bright representative of a large family of dairy products. They are in abundance here, but Kurd is the most popular. It's curdled buffalo milk, or yogurt - whatever you like. It is sold in rough earthenware bowls. And this is not a marketing ploy. Kurd is prepared in such heavy, thick-walled containers. During the technological process, the porous clay surface removes excess moisture from the milk. The yogurt turns out incredibly thick. But that's not all. Thick walls prevent the finished product from spoiling for quite a long time without any refrigerator. But the most important thing is the taste, it is excellent. Once you've tried Kurd, it's hard to go back to regular yogurt.
Sambol
Often the name sounds like half sambol. Chili based sauce with various seasonings. The recipe came from, and was further developed on local soil. There is a sauce where grated coconut, onion, garlic, pepper and any type of curry are mixed. Sambol is very tasty, where chili is combined with coconut pulp, lime juice and red onion. The skill of Sri Lankan chefs is that they accurately determine the amount of different components needed for a particular type of sauce. And it is cooked like curry in a cast iron pot (chatti). Shrimp sambol is a must-try for both those who love seafood and those who are looking for new tastes. The heat of the chili is combined with the aroma of shrimp, the result is a very memorable dish, the first to disappear from the table.
This is white rice stewed in coconut milk. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but you have to try it – as a must-have dish in Sri Lankan festive cuisine. This dish is mentioned in the historical chronicles of the country; kings treated Buddhist priests to it. Kiribath is still of cultural value today. It is served at weddings, New Year's feasts, during all important ceremonies, family and state. It can be enjoyed in any restaurant, usually for breakfast. The dish consists of white diamonds. The taste is delicate, but not for everyone.
There are options. Kiribat with palm nectar and coconut flakes is a dessert, with katta sambola sauce is an appetizer, with vegetables and meat is the main dish.
Flatbread
Paratha is considered a traditional flat bread in Indian cuisine. In Sri Lanka, it was transformed into fatty, delicious flatbreads with fillings - potatoes, cabbage, herbs, and any finely chopped vegetables. The flatbreads melt in your mouth, and the paratha with curry is absolutely delicious.
Roti is made from grated coconut meat with flour and water. They are thicker than parathas but not as greasy. Roti is often folded into triangles with different fillings - vegetable, meat or fish. The soya roti is worth trying. The filling in it is just soy protein, but it is prepared in such a way that the taste is no different from pork with egg.
There is also samosa, also a pastry, often in the form of triangular pies, with a very peppery filling. They are deeply fried until crispy. Even a well-fed person will not pass by this.
Translated from Sinhala as “chopped”. It’s impossible to be on the island and not try kota. The dish is served in every restaurant and sold at every street stall. Kottu is based on finely chopped national bread, paratha, made yesterday. This is a local version of waste-free food production. Shredded stale bread is mixed with either vegetables or meat - your choice, thoroughly fried and all sorts of spices are added. Instead of paratha, rotu flatbread is used, this is called kottu roti. Additives also include eggs, cheese - whatever the cook’s imagination dictates. The dish is so popular that you can’t beat it. You'll still have to try it, but you won't regret it.
Exotic drinks
You should definitely try the royal coconut, or rather, the juice from it. This yellow-orange fruit is considered drinkable. Not to be confused with green coconut, it is used for butter, milk and nut. King coconut liquid (not milk!) is sweet and nutritious. Street vendors cut off the top, insert a straw and immediately offer it for consumption. But it’s difficult to appreciate when it’s warm. It is delicious when drunk chilled.
Fruit juices here are always freshly squeezed. Most tourists prefer fresh passion fruit. Not everyone dares to try the juice of diwul (wooden apple) or durian - the smell is deterrent. If you try not to smell, the taste will make up for your efforts. Extremely tasty and healthy.
Smoothies based on seasonal fruits with ice and milk are also popular. But it’s more interesting to try lassi, another borrowing from Indian cuisine. It's yogurt with sugar, local fruit and ice. In addition to being delicious, it also quenches thirst.
Exotic fruits
Like all tropical countries, Sri Lanka has an abundance of fruits all year round. In addition to the well-known mangoes, bananas, watermelons, limes, pineapples and papaya, there are fruits that can only be tasted here. Sapodilla is a perishable fruit and is not exported. Its unusual taste can be appreciated in two ways. When chilled it’s ice cream topped with caramel, when warm it’s coffee with chocolate and a slight hint of persimmon. At the same time, the fruit is unsightly in appearance, reminiscent of potatoes.
Rambutan grows on trees in beautiful red clusters. About the size of an average peach, but covered in a much thicker coat of green hairs. Tasty, sweet and healthy. Lychee is less sweet, but the taste is exquisite. It is also red in color and also grows in clusters. Only without hair and smaller size.
There are so many fruits that it’s easier to say which ones are not on the island. Even the ordinary ones here have unique taste qualities: it is well known that Sri Lankan pineapple is the most delicious.
Sweets
The choice is large, always based on coconut milk, coconut flakes, nuts and palm nectar. The Sri Lankan pittu cakes are a must-try. They are crumbly, tube-shaped, sprinkled with coconut flakes. The composition is classic for local cuisine: rice flour and coconut pulp. In the traditional recipe, pitta is steamed in bamboo. Now the bamboo has been replaced with round metal tubes, this has not affected the taste. Pittu is good with sweetened coconut milk.
There is also kyavum - something like donuts, only made from rice dough. Coquis, an openwork brushwood similar to our cookies, is fried from the same dough.
Many people enjoy eating local ice cream, halva, and jam.
We have already talked about almost everything we knew, but there is still one important untouched topic, and therefore today we will talk about food, or rather the kitchen. If we are asked to describe the local cuisine in a nutshell, then these words will undoubtedly be rice and curry. It is these two products that are the whales on which the Sri Lankan food tradition rests, this is largely due to the strong influence, but still, long centuries of colonization and the tropical status of the island have brought their own unique notes to the local cuisine. Please remove hungry people and people with rapid salivation from the screens, we are starting.
Here, for example, is the menu of an average Sri Lankan restaurant:
The most popular dish in Sri Lanka, as we have already said, is rice and curry. Well, everything is clear with rice, it’s rice in Sri Lanka. But curry can be called any food prepared with the addition of a mixture of spices. Moreover, there is no exact recipe for this mixture, so the number of combinations is almost endless; the most popular ingredients include black pepper, chili pepper, coriander, cinnamon, mustard seeds, cumin, turmeric, ginger, garlic and curry bush leaves.
If you order rice and curry at a restaurant, they will most likely serve you vegetable curry, so do not forget to check the details.
Next come various combinations of rice and all kinds of curries. Lankan cuisine can be considered vegetarian; they practically do not eat meat here (except maybe chicken), so rice with fish curry comes in second place. Buddha himself ordered Sri Lankans to love seafood; there is plenty of this goodness in the coastal waters.
Let's take out the fish, add jackfruit and we'll get a new dish - rice with jackfruit curry.
Let's replace the jackfruit with beets and again a new dish:
Curry can be added to the rice itself or served separately, usually in small bowls. For example, like this fish curry with buttery sauce:
The chicken curry breathes in the back of the fish curry:
Squid curry:
Shrimp curry:
Lentil curry, or daal, is made from lentils and coconut milk and is most often served as a sauce for rice. The widespread use of coconut is one of the distinctive features of Sri Lankan cuisine; coconut in one form or another is found in almost every dish:
One of our favorite dishes is pol sambol. It is a mixture of coconut meat, chili powder, lime juice, red onion and salt. Sambola is perfect as a side dish for rice (yes, a side dish for a side dish, in Sri Lanka this is not ironic), or you can simply spread it on bread.
If you don’t particularly like rice as a main dish, you can replace it, for example, with fried rice. We liked the taste better.
Fried rice, like its boiled friend, can be vegetarian, with chicken or, say, with an egg:
You can’t visit Sri Lanka and not try kottu, it’s not a tourist cliche, you literally can’t do it. Kottu is prepared/sold on every corner and in every restaurant and is the most popular fast food on the island, like a Sri Lankan hamburger, shawarma and hot dog combined. The main ingredients are shredded Sri Lankan paratha bread, spices, meat or vegetables of your choice.
Vegetarian Kottu:
Egg kottu:
There is also cheese kottu, not the traditional village cheese, more like cottage cheese. All kottu are very spicy, like most Sri Lankan dishes, so bring plenty of water.
Sri Lankan breakfasts deserve a separate discussion. Traditionally, they drink tea for breakfast and eat it with some kind of flour products.
If you order the same breakfast, they will bring you a whole mountain of different buns, don’t be alarmed, you don’t have to eat everything, and the tariff is only for incoming ones.
Advanced restaurants may serve sausage in pastry or pie with fried eggs.
And this is hoppers (left):
Hoppers (appa) are another iconic street food.
Basically, these are ordinary pancakes made from coconut milk dough, cooked in a deep round frying pan, hence the shape.
And this is rotti. The food is not as popular as hoppers, but no less tasty. You can buy ready-made triangular rotti stuffed with fish or vegetables.
But it’s more interesting to take a “build it yourself” kit, which usually includes rotti flatbread and sambola or potato curry.
Paratha, a flatbread wrapped in newspaper, is more common in the northern part of the island. Very high-calorie and fatty foods. By the way, wrapping food in newspaper is a fairly common practice; we do not recommend buying such food, the yellow press is harmful to digestion.
Uludu wade is a small pancake with spices, deep fried.
And this is bond, ala bonda:
Muv kewum (mun kewum) is one of the many sweets; we didn’t see it in restaurants, but hospitable hostesses often served it.
Samosa is a popular snack that originated from India. Can be with meat or vegetarian.
Sri Lankan tube cake pittu is a combination of rice flour, fresh coconut pulp and desiccated coconut. Traditionally, the cake is steamed and wrapped in bamboo, but now round metal molds are more often used.
Chips made from cassava, a perennial evergreen plant. The potato-like root is used for food. The dish is a completely natural product, no chemicals: cassava root vegetable, water, salt, oil for frying.
Lankan omelettes are very nutritious, but a bit greasy. Local spices such as cumin and curry powder are added and then simmered in a layer of coconut oil.
Among dairy products, one can note Sri Lankan cottage cheese, sold mainly in clay pots.
The place where cottage cheese is sold can be determined by the abundance of the same pots on the “showcase”.
The curd is usually mixed with a syrup made from jaggery, the resulting substance is somewhat reminiscent of yogurt. The more you use, the more it reminds you.
As for alcohol, in Sri Lanka it is sold only in special stores or by moonshiners.
The most popular local beer is called Lion. By the way, empty bottles in Sri Lanka are a good source of income; often the cost of a bottle is half the cost of the entire product. An additional argument is the illegibility of container receivers; you can hand over containers of any shape, transparency and safety.
Of the strong alcoholic drinks, perhaps the most popular is arrack, coconut moonshine (30-40% alcohol, rating on the Hangover scale - 7.5/10). According to science, this is a distillation product of fermented coconut palm sap, which is called “toddy” or “palm wine”, which in itself is also a self-sufficient low-alcohol drink. Among the wealthy population of Sri Lanka, rum and whiskey are popular.
Those who like soft drinks can try the ginger carbonated drink, which is called ginger beer here. The taste is similar to our kvass, but a little sweeter:
In Sri Lanka there are no problems with fruits and you can pamper yourself with all kinds of fresh juices from freshly squeezed mango, papaya, orange, etc. The only thing is, do not put ice in the drink, unless, of course, you have frozen it yourself and know what kind of water it is from.
Woodapple juice stands out. A very original drink with a sweetish astringent taste. Be sure to try it. Of course, this can be done in other countries of Southeast Asia, but Sri Lanka is considered the birthplace of this plant.
And finally, a couple of tips. Don’t worry, in Sri Lanka you won’t have problems with food, there are small restaurants, cafes, stalls, shops, etc. found everywhere. If you don’t trust local cuisine, then in resort areas you can even find restaurants of large international chains such as KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds. But if you still decide to eat local, then choose restaurants where locals eat, firstly, there is a greater chance that you will not eat something inedible, and secondly, it is really cheaper there. A large lunch for one will cost about $1-2.
Don't forget to wash your hands and don't talk while eating!