Savouring Ceylon

With geographical proximity to the Southern peninsular tip of India,Sri Lankan cuisine has much in common with the fare from that region. “Dependence on sea food,use of coconut and pairing with rice are things that you will find in both coastal South India and Sri Lanka. But our food is spicier,” warns Chef Clifford Perrera,who has prepared Chicken Ambulthial (a chicken version of a typical fish dish where the meat is marinated in a paste of spices and then pan-roasted) and white fish curry (fish curry in coconut milk gravy). However,one should not dismiss the chef’s warning as besides the regular chillies,peppercorns are used in the cuisine,due to which the effect of the spice sets in after a few minutes.

What is however surprising is the use of garlic as a vegetable as well as a flavouring agent. One of the chef’s specialties is green beans with whole garlic cloves in light coconut milk gravy. “The use of garlic is due to the sultry weather,and it is a known antioxidant,” points out the chef who didn’t have to carry any ingredients along.

Breads naturally don’t dominate the Sri Lankan palate and the only form chiefly available is rotis,made with,again,coconut. Egg hopper (known as appam in India) too,is a popular dish and considered as street food.

It is the sweets,however,that see more variation. The chef’s dessert menu consisted of popular local dishes like Wood Apple Cream (juice of wood apple cooked with sugar),milk toffee (many will find it similar to the North Indian soan papdi though sweeter and harder),dodol (made from jaggery and coconut juice,it is the same as the popular Goan sweet),bibbikan (more like Christmas plum cake) and athirisa,which is made from honey and green gram flour. Interestingly,the sweets were all muted in flavour. The chef attributes that to the “spicy palate and the fact that the locals prefer to cook their desserts at home”.