For food lovers, Sri Lanka has cuisines that appeal to all senses, making Lankan food a feast for travelers! In addition to the natural landscape variety, the variety of authentic Lankan food is icing on the cake for making Sri Lankan holidays perfect.
Here are a few Sri Lankan foods you just cannot leave without trying.
1. Dhal curry
Comfort food in Sri Lanka is the authentic rice and curry. Dhal is made from red lentils which are cooked in coconut milk. Initially, a sauté is done with onions, tomatoes and fresh green chilies and tempered spices are then mixed in. cumin seeds, fenugreek, mustard seeds, turmeric and curry leaves are the spices that go into the mix of onions and tomatoes. The soaked lentils and coconut milk is then added. Dhal curry turns out even more authentic when cooked in clay pots.
2. Gotu Kola Salad
Mallung is the Sri Lankan style of green salads which are an important part of the Lankan diet. Gotu Kola is one type of a mallung salad along with Mukunuwenna, Kankun and other green leaves. These greens deliver a great dose of vitamins that add to a meal full of cars and protein. The gotu kola mallung, just like other mallungs is finely chopped and mixed with green chilies (also finely chopped), along with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a handful of fresh grated coconut.
3. Kottu Roti
Walk among the streets of a busy city or town during your tour in Sri Lanka and you are sure to come across the rhythmic clank of the kottu maker from one of the roadside hotels. This dish is the ultimate Sri Lankan street food. Paratha or roti is chopped into pieces and stir fried together with shredded vegetables, meat, a touch of soya sauce, ginger, garlic, and spices. All this is places on a flat iron skillet and roughly mixed with two metal cleavers attached to wooden handles. Found only and only in Sri Lanka, Kottu Roti is a must try!
4. Lamprais
The authentic flavor of Lamprais comes when cooked by the Burgher community in Sri Lanka, who descend from the colonial Europeans. Lamprais is a Dutch word for ‘parcel of food’ and it consists of a good portion of rice, boiled egg, eggplant curry, meat balls, and onion salad. These contents are organized onto a banana leaf, wrapped up and placed in an oven to be baked at low temperature for at least an hour. The banana leaf aroma gets into the food, giving it a one of a kind flavor indeed.
5. Hoppers (Aappa) with sambol
Hoppers are the traditional version of thin pancakes which must have crispy edges. Produced in the shape of bowls, hoppers are made from fermented rice flour, sugar, coconut milk and coconut water. These crepes like Aappa can either be eaten plain with coconut or onion sambol or are also preferred with an egg in the middle, cooked while the hopper is being cooked.
6. Wood Apple Juice
Wood Apple is a very healthy South Asian fruit found in almost every fruits and vegetables market in Sri Lanka. The brown paste inside the hard shell of the wood apple is extracted and blended with jaggery and water to make a delicious juice.
7. Ambul Thiyal curry
This dish is created from Tuna fish and is a method of preserving fish in South Sri Lanka. Tuna fish is cut into cubes, sautéed with authentic Sri Lankan spices such as cinnamon, turmeric, garlic, black pepper and curry powder. An important ingredient that gives a unique taste to this curry is dried goraka, which is a tamarind-like like fruit that gives a distinctive tart flavor to the fish. The ingredients are then cooked in a little bit of water to make a dry curry.
8. Watalappan
Influenced from the Malaysian culture, Sri Lankan Muslims are very fond of Watalappan, often made during religious festivals. This pudding is made with a mixture of egg custard, jaggery, coconut milk, cinnamon and cardamom, and them steamed until the ingredients are cooked.
Our team at Blue Lanka Tours is dedicated towards providing tourists with the best possible memories of their holiday in Sri Lanka. We work hard in making sure our customers have a comfortable and luxurious holiday and do not leave without trying out these mouthwatering Lankan foods.