The Spicy Goodness of Sri Lanka!

COLOMBO (News 1st): How would you like your food? - Spicy? Sweet? Personally, I prefer eye-tearing spicy food (Yumm!). A good black tea cuppa and a plate of Pol Roti with Lunu Miris or a mouth-watering dish of Isso Wade is all you need to satisfy your taste buds. If that isn’t much satisfying then you must try our Traditional Rice and Curry- there’s no doubt this will leave your eyes teary and mouth watery. When I say Rice and Curry, it isn’t just one curry. It’s a plate full of rice served with a number of curries. This plate of rice is best served with red-rice and is definitely incomplete without the classic ‘Pol Sambol’ (coconut salad) or 'Mallung' (green leafy vegetable salad). If you are a tourist here on vacation, make sure not to miss out on the spicy cuisines Sri Lanka has to offer! Walk into a tiny hut-like restaurant or a luxury five star, anywhere in the country, you are sure to find these curries in the most authentic Sri Lankan style. Here is a list of my favorites and most preferred Curries:

• The Dhal Curry- the most important, favorite and always the 1^st to be served on the plate. There’s not one place that doesn’t serve this amazing curry in Sri Lanka. The look of it would make you want to try it! The perfect spices- fenugreek, garlic, and curry leaves are tempered together with thick coconut milk to make the orange lentils curry- the very famous dhal curry of Sri Lanka!

• Jackfruit Curry- look out for the young jack-fruit to make the perfect curry. Jackfruit is chopped to make thick gravy with coconut milk and other aromatic spices like cumin, mustard seeds, and turmeric. The jackfruit is the best curry option for Vegetarians to enjoy with our traditional rice and curry.

• Beetroot Curry- my personal favorite, not very sweet but a little crunchy. This curry made with all the perfect spices for a vegetable curry is just so right to blend in with the rice and curry dish! The curry could be made with extra chili, and the spicier it is, the better. Beetroot is best served as gravy with thick coconut milk.

• Potato Curry- Potato is an amazing ingredient which could be made in many ways. We Sri Lankans like our potato tempered. Boiled potatoes are cooked with onions, green chilies and a lot of spices like fenugreek and mustard seeds to make the perfect tempered potato.

We also cook potatoes with coconut milk to make it like a curry. This curry is enjoyed during breakfasts with string hoppers- the must-try Sri Lankan food!

• Spicy Brinjal (Eggplant)- this is basically a pickle made using brinjals, green chilies, shallots, and other spices with a touch of vinegar to make it a little sweet and sour but very spicy. A rice and curry plate without a brinjal moju wouldn’t do justice to the traditional meal.

• Chicken Curry- the easiest to find curry of the country- this curry blends with most of the Sri Lankan food. A good spicy chicken curry would include roasted curry powder, curry leaves, lots and lots of chili and other goodies like lemongrass, coriander leaves, and mint. Locals enjoy this curry even with string hoppers, egg roti, paratha, and bread.

• The most loved Fish Curry- Fish is the Sri Lankan favorite, various kinds of fish are available and our locals manage to cook these in the best possible ways. The traditional Fish curry would be the one with coconut milk. This curry is enjoyed with string hoppers and milk rice as well. The fish curry is extremely spicy and contains a lot of flavorful spices.

Another Sri Lankan styled must eat fish curry would be the Black Fish Curry (Maalu Ambul Thiyal). Made using goraka (Garcinia or also known as Indian Tamarind) which gives the black color and thick sour flavor to the gravy, this Fish curry is included in the authentic Sri Lankan Food list. This -finger licking good- dish is found only in Sri Lanka!

So - when you plan a vacation to our amazing country, be sure to experience the food of a lifetime. The Curries are the essentials. If you miss out on these Curries, then you have missed a huge part of Sri Lanka, and one of the best experiences the country has to offer. This blessed island offers the world’s most rare and amazing Spices. These Spices full of flavor are the secret that helps create the traditional Sri Lankan gastronomy- the Spicy Goodness of Sri Lanka!