Sri Lankan food is sometimes compared to the food available in South India but actually it has a distinct cuisine of its own. The people in Sri Lanka love spicy food and they have a fetish for deep-fried snacks. Though the staple food is rice and curry, there are some other dishes which have made Sri Lankan famous the world over. The top 5 local dishes are
1) Fish Curry and Mixed Rice
2) Chili Fish Curry
3) Jackfruit Curry
4) Beetroot Curry
5) Egg Kottu
Food in Sri Lanka tends to be very hot but nowadays milder dishes are available to cater to the growing global demands. The Sri Lankan cuisine use a lot of coconut milk and spices such as nutmeg, cloves and cardamoms are used in abundance. It is said that the country boasts of as many as 40 unique dishes but here we present the 5 most popular ones.
1) Fish Curry & Mixed Rice
This is probably the most common dish available in the island nation but it is definitely nutritious. You will get a plate full of rice accompanied by a daily vegetable curry and a choice of fish curry. The curry tastes awesome with the magic concoction of all the spices but you can ask the cook to make it milder to suit your palate.
2) Chili Fish Curry
Many of you who have traveled a lot in this part of the world will say that this dish is very similar to a Burmese curry. But the similarity ends there only proving that food in Sri Lanka is really very unique. This dish is a little bit oily bit it has a great fragrance and the sauce tastes simply marvelous. You need to have this dish with a plate full of rice to enjoy it as the locals do.
3) Jackfruit Curry
Sri Lankan food is all about curries and Jackfruit curry is one of them. The chunky pieces of Jackfruit are curried and the dish looks a bit brownish in color. The whole dish looks more like chutney and the pieces are so succulent and soft that you may feel that you are having tender pieces of beef.
4) Beetroot Curry
Well, food in Sri Lanka is all about rice and curry in Sri Lanka. The beetroot curry is a unique dish and it is very popular here. The beets are diced and then cooked for a long time with a number of spices like cinnamon and curry leaves. This red vegetable curry tastes awesome with rice and is very filling.
5) Egg Kottu
Kottu is a very popular street food in Sri Lanka. It is known as the ‘hamburger’ of Sri Lanka and it is so tasty that it is very hard to resist a second helping. Kottu is actually shredded pieces of paratha bread. These pieces are stir fried with a good variety of spices and other vegetarian or non-vegetarian ingredients. In Egg Kottu the vegetables that are used are cabbage, leek and onions. To give the dish a rich taste, the paratha is lathered with egg. Kottu is a very popular food in Sri Lanka and all tourists must have at least one variety to get a taste of real Sri Lankan food.
Sri Lanka is often referred to as the culinary playground of South Asia for its amazing variety of dishes. The average price of a meal is only $1.5 and food is so delicious and full of spices that your taste buds will simply fall in love with Sri Lankan food.
This article was written by Indie Travels . Read the original here.
*Image of fish curry via Shutterstock
