Sri Lanka Foods ~ Travel Pictures in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan Curries served at lunch and dinner

Curries for lunch and dinner. Even at breakfast, you will be offered tasty dhal (lentil stew) and crispy, delicate wafers called papadums that, along with fragrant Basmati rice, are the mainstays.

This meal tasted as good as it looks! To alleviate the burn of of overly-hot and spicy curries, I was told to immediately eat a spoonful or two of the plain, grated, fresh coconut, which was offered at every meal. It works!

Traditionally, many people would eat food with their fingers, first pinching up a bit of rice, then using the rice to scoop curry or meats into their mouth.

More Srilankan food curries and condiments

It doesn't matter if you don't know their names when they appear on your plate! All these foods tasted great.

Many Sri Lankans are vegetarian, as about 85 per cent of the citizens practice Buddhism, and many of the rest practice Hinduism. Many curries are fiery hot, so test out a small portion first. The earthen bowls are traditional SriLankan.

Egg Hoppers

Egg hoppers are made to order much as omelettes. The chef prepares these ones at the outdoor buffet at the Colombo's Hilton Hotel.

Egg hoppers are basically egg-filled crepes made from rice flour and coconut milk batter. A ladleful of batter is swirled in the small, lidded wok they are cooked in to give the distinctive shape, then a whole raw egg is placed in the centre of the cooking crepe. Another ladle of batter covers the egg, and the whole hopper is then cooked until the egg is set.

Names of Sri Lanka Vegetables and Fruits in English

Names of foods don't translate well from one language to another. The name of the long, green vegetable, in English, was 'chicken bones', we were told.

It tastes similar to okra, but had thin, brittle strings. They were the 'chicken bones', I gather, and were needle-sharp and inedible. Cashews were sold roasted and spiced, as snacks, or raw, to be made into dishes like Cashew Curry.

String Hoppers

Prepared by the chefs at the Hilton, string hoppers are the fluffy balls pictured here.

The unusal name -- hoppers -- comes from the English mis-hearing the SriLankan word for rice -- appe (Ah Pay).

While Egg Hoppers are considered a special treat (more difficult to make) the string hoppers are available in many restaurants.

String hoppers are made from a pounded, steamed rice noodle, similar to vermicelli.

Fresh Coconut Water

Cut off the top of the coconut, insert a straw, and you have a cooling drink. The 'mug' -- the shell meat -- is edible, too. That was what this fellow did at a roadside stand just outside Colombo on the road to Kandy.

As we were happily sipping the sweet 'water', our guide mentioned that coconut water acts as a diuretic; the women (on the washroom-free bus) stopped drinking.

Coconuts grow at elevations up to 700 metres (2100 feet). The green or brown ones are used for their milk and cream; these yellow ones are a source of water.

Pineapples Market

Pineapples at a roadside market on the road to Kandy. The vendor peeled and cored a few of the juicy fresh fruits, which went down very well in the heat of the day.

I believe there are seven varieties of pineapple grown on the island, and some one hundred varieties of fruits overall. Most of the large fruit plantations are in the north, in the area around Jaffna.

Arica palms grow here. They are used to make Arack, the strong Srilanka liquor. Try it over ice, with lots of fresh-squeezed lime juice.

Indian Ocean Lobster

Ready for dinner at the Hilton Colombo.

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