Sri Lanka: Here comes the food!

Making of a kottu

Ok, I'm just going to go through all the food photos that I have taken, some might be taken with more effort, others not so because my friend doesn't really do the taking picture of the food thingy...and the first one that came up was rice and curry... so, here goes.

1. Rice and curry
There is no bad rice and curry, and you can get it anywhere in Sri Lanka but the best one according to S was Matey Hut in Ella. So if you find yourself in Ella, do try it at Matey Hut. There were always option of vegetarian or non vegetarian and if you opted for non vegetarian option, the norm choice were chicken curry or fish curry and they would be served with the vegetarian curries as well.

2. Hoppers
Hoppers are Sri Lankan version of thin pancake with crispy edges and thicker middle part. The main ingredients are rice flour and coconut milk. There are also version with egg, just referred to as egg hoppers. They are served with chilli and/or dhal.

This photo is probably the only one I have of vade, definitely need to mention them too as they are delicious.

3. Devilled dishes
We probably had a poor version, none of the food was tasty. Devilled dishes were described as sweet, sour and devilishly hot  but the one we had was a different version of sweet and sour dishes.

4. Kottu
Kottu or kothu is a Sri Lanka dish made from roti chopped into small pieces and stir-fried with vegetables, egg and/or meat and spices. It is easy to hear when kottu was being cook as the chopping of the roti with a blades looking like dough scrapper makes loud clang sound. (See the first photo).

5. String hopper
String hoppers, I think usually sold by 10s and eat with dhal and/or curry, also made with rice flour. I personally much prefer hoppers, not so these stringy ones.

6. Roti
There is the plain coconut roti (or pol roti) that is usually served during breakfast or the ones with fillings. Dewmini Roti Shop in Mirissa does good varieties of roti with filling.

Cheese, egg and prawns roti

Cheese, tomato and avocade roti

Coconut flat bread

7. Red rice
I'm putting this here because it was served as one of our breakfast and I have not had red rice before this. Brown rice yes, but not red rice. It was a simple cooked red rice, served with onion, tomato, cucumber and dhal.

8. Lamprais
It is a Sri Lanka Dutch Burger delicacy and consists of wrapped and baked rice and other components to make up a complete meal. I really enjoyed this, I think it is time to google if I can find this in Melbourne.

Side note: Have you read Marie Kondo books?