The Best Food Menu in Sri Lanka
This is a Guest post from Angela from Rockyontheroad Blog where she shares her food experience while living in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is definitely a country full of flavor. This country boasts many things, beautiful scenery, amazing wildlife, spectacular surf, and hot climates, but one that keeps you wanting more is the amazing culinary delights on offer.
And we’re not just talking curry, although that’s obviously a must for any visitor, it’s all the small side dishes that go with it. There is a lot of food which you have to try in Sri Lanka so let’s see some of the famous dishes.
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If you’re lucky enough to be cooked for by a local you’ll find yourself staring at a table full of all kinds of different dishes and Sri Lankan recipes, like fish curry, dhal, coconut sambol, gotukola salad, eggplant bitter gourd, and brinjal moju.
Read more about Best places to stay in Sri Lanka.
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Sri Lankan Breakfast
Let’s start with breakfast.
Sri Lankan Hoppers
There’s only one word for breakfast in Sri Lanka, and that’s hoppers! Made with love the batter is formed into a bowl shape and an egg added to the middle. Then it’s up to you to add maybe dhal curry, coconut sambol and onion sambol and feast on all the delicious flavours in your very own ‘egg hopper’.
Sri Lankan Tea
Milk rice is a favourite with the kids, and of course, eating with your hands is a must. And what goes better with breakfast than tea?
And the Sri Lankans know how to do tea. We travelled on one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world through acres and acres of tea plantations, the scenery was incredible. When visiting the tea plantations you get to know just how delicate an art form it is to produce the perfect cup of tea.
Sri Lankan Lunch and Dinner Menu
Curry is one of the main Sri Lankan recipes and its definitely on the menu for lunch and dinner again, along with some little fish that have been fried so much then you can eat them whole, bones n’all. Salty and delicious.
The base ingredients for most Sri Lankan recipes are turmeric, mustard seed powder, curry powder, curry leaves, onion, garlic, chilli and ginger, and of course coconut milk, which in Sri Lanka is always produced fresh, by hand.
Start a curry with these ingredients and your halfway there. And as already mentioned, the array of side dishes like coconut sambol which consists of freshly ground coconut mixed with onion, lime juice, and chilli, lots of chilli.
If you want to know more about all types of Sri Lankan sambol you should read this post.
And another favourite of mine; gotukola salad. Finely chopped gotukola leaves, coconut, chilli, tomatoes, onion and lime juice.
As mentioned above we travel with our toddler, and don’t think for a second that he eats all these weird and wonderful foods, he’s a toddler after all, but he got by eating rice, and the hand-pulled roti bread covered in peanut butter always went down a treat. And we, of course, had to add in a few western options for him, maybe one day when he’s older he’ll be trying everything on the menu but for now, he’s keeping it simple!
Looking for other amazing experiences in Sri Lanka?We learnt so much about Sri Lankan food and flavours during our 7 months there. We urge anyone who’s thinking of visiting to go and immerse yourself in Sri Lankan culture for a while, its a very special place.
Check here the 10 days Sri Lanka Travel Itinerary and discover more about this amazing country.
Are you travelling to Sri Lanka?Check this ultimate Lonely Planet Sri Lanka Guide!
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About us: Rocky on the Road
Our family of 3 includes myself, my partner Ian, and our toddler, known here as Rocky. We’ve always travelled a lot with him, right from being a baby. He had 5 stamps in his passport by the time he was 1. So we decided to take a year out and travel some more, while he was still young and before we were tied down by school term times.
Our blog rockyontheroad.com follows Rocky and his travels around the world, currently in Portugal. We’re 9 months in and even when the year is over we don’t intend to stop travelling. We love immersing ourselves in different cultures.
One of our favourite places has to be Sri Lanka, and we’re even heading back there very soon because we love it so much.
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[…] which dates thousands of years. No matter where you choose to explore, make sure to devour as much food in Sri Lanka as possible; dishes are flavorful and […]