The flavours of Ceylon

But it is in the capital city of Colombo that one sees the wave of modern Sri Lankan cuisine, with young chefs experimenting with the traditional dishes and giving them a more modern and global twist
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After all the rules and regulations that the government imposed on residents of Delhi NCR to curb the pollution levels from rising even further, the greys seem to be giving way to the blues, slowly. The temperature is surely going down by the day, while Instagram seems to be flooded with pictures of winter foods from across communities – saag and makki ki roti, bajre ki raab, gajar ka halwa, matar ka nimona and more such warming comfort foods.

I escaped the wrath of Delhi’s pollution ridden air and spent the whole of last week down south in Sri Lanka. What struck me the most on landing in our neighbouring country was how clean it was – the air and the vicinity. The sky was a cerulean blue that my eyes had not witnessed in a while and the pristine blue Indian ocean ran along the length of the road as we travelled – fifty shades of blue as far as the eyes could see. Post the Covid-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka has seen an uptick in its tourism industry with many tourists from across the globe flocking to the tropical island. The one thing that I absolutely took to instantly was the Sri Lankan cuisine.

It bears a slot of similarity to Indian cuisine in terms of its produce and spices, but that is not it – like India, their cuisine and the narrative around it also varies from region to region and communities. While the cuisine in Jaffna - which is up north, is similar to the cuisine of Tamil Nadu because of them sharing common cultures and borders, the cuisine down south is very coconut rich because of the abundance of the fruit in the region. Meanwhile if one goes to Kandy, then they can taste a much richer and nuanced version of their cuisine as that is where the royals resided back in the day. But it is in the capital city of Colombo that one sees the wave of modern Sri Lankan cuisine with young chefs experimenting with the traditional dishes and giving them a more modern and global twist.

In fact, just a month ago Delhi got to witness some of the finest modern Sri Lankan dishes as chef Yahvin Siriwardhana, the executive chef of Nadodi in Kuala Lumpur hosted his first pop-up in India, in collaboration with New Delhi’s Indian Accent.

Siriwardhana is a second-generation Malaysian with Sri Lankan and Malayali roots, and leads Nadodi’s kitchen with a deep passion for preserving the authentic tastes of his heritage while infusing them with innovative techniques. Some of the dishes that we tasted included curry in a glass, which was a combination of Jaffna crab curry, crab salad, spiced coconut rice, banana blossoms, curried carrots, and paal poriyal.

Before having tasted Chef Siriwardhana’s take on Sri Lankan cuisine, I got to taste the more traditional home style version of it a few years ago when chef Ruchira Hoon, a resident of Delhi, had hosted a take-away pop-up where dishes like dhal, pumpkin and potato curry, coconut sambol were on offer. I took to the cuisine like fish to water. Its delicate yet robust flavours spoke to me and I was keen ever since then to visit our neighbours and take a deep dive into their cuisine.

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Last week I had two contrasting experiences of the same cuisine – one, a traditional village style Sri Lankan meal where I got to learn and cook from a local lady at my resort in Anantara Peace Haven in Tangalle and the other a modern Sri Lankan meal at Gini in Colombo. In the village style experience I not only got to observe ‘amma’ as she cooked, but also helped her pick vegetables straight from the garden, make pol (coconut) sambol from scratch and also learn how to cook around 5 varieties of seasonal produce in true south Sri Lankan style.

Meanwhile at Gini, which is helmed by Nadishka Dayawansa and his young team, the food is cooked on open fire - also called gini in Sinhalese, and served in a fancy avatar but the flavours that one gets to taste are not unfamiliar. What is common between both the experiences though is their drive to preserve traditional cuisine and celebrate the local produce of their country and its regions.

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