Food Adventures of Sri Lanka

My recent travels have been less about buying anything and more about seeing STUFF. Weird stuff, authentic stuff, unique stuff. Included in that is local food and beverage. Every culture has their own subset of unique things that are only available (generally) in their home. So it is with Sri Lanka, the little distilled Indian-like island in the bay of Bengal.

I went in search of several things, found them, and found a few more to boot.
1) Arrack: This is basically coconut brandy. Sri Lanka is one of the world's leading producers of coconuts (5th I believe by raw output) and it isn't such a huge population. What then should they do with all these coconuts? Of course, my answers would be, find new ways to cook with them and find ways to turn them into alcohol. South India has done both, but Sri Lanka has taken a slightly different approach to both. Coconut chutney is widely popular in South India, but I didn't come across it much in Sri Lanka. Perhaps it exists there, I just didn't see it. The alcoholic beverages are Toddy (palm wine or coconut wine) and Arrack. I actually found toddy, but when I went to a local bar in Kandy I was derided as drinking the poor man's drink. They told me that whisky is 1st class, beer 2nd class, etc... and Toddy is 5th class.
Hell, it wasn't THAT bad. It has a sort of unusual flavor, but I'd drink it often if given the chance. It's not highly alcoholic because they only let the yeast work a few days before drinking it. Given that, there is yeast in it and that small amount of yeast is actually good for your stomach and your digestion if taken in reasonable quantities. If your drink too much, you'll have the runs...
So it was, I moved onto Arrack. I had several varieties. Old Arrack, probably my least favorite, but an island wide favorite. I had some 12 yr old thing, whose name I can't remember, but was really delicious served on the rocks. I also had two "white" arracks served with club soda. They, not shockingly, had the feel of vodka, but a wonderful wisp of a coconut aftertaste. Especially with the soda to cut down the burn of the alcohol. All in all, I'd drink Arrack again in a flash if served correctly.

2) Kothu Rotty: This is a Sri Lankan favorite. You see little shops everywhere with guys in the front chopping away. They take Roti, Paratha (types of breads), chiles, some veg, sometimes meat, and an egg, and cook it all on a flat grill and chop it up like mad. They use two long metal plates and chop directly onto the grill. The whole experience really involves a lot of noise, but adds to the pleasure of it. You have to go through a small annoyance at first to get good food, but the food makes you forget all that commotion. Served with sweet and sour sauce (surprisingly a good combo) and some "gravy" which has a strong flavor of black pepper makes it really great. Usually you can buy it at a little hole in the wall for around $2-$3 per plate. I wish it were widely available in Chennai!

3) Hoppers: This is something I'd not really heard of, but saw a few times. I actually had my only hopper experience at a hotel brunch. I don't usually go for such things, but the hotel included a fantastic brunch in the room price. The room was $81 and without the room the brunch was $15, so I figured I'd go for it. It was a good call, with all the fresh papaya I could eat (and some smoked duck!). Anyway, hoppers are very similar to dosas. If I haven't made it abundantly clear how much I love dosas (the south indian staple) let me do so now. I LOVE DOSAS! Hoppers are a slightly different take in that they don't make crepes out of rice flour and lentils (which are slightly fermented). They use rice flour, a little milk, salt, and a pinch of sugar. Pour the thin batter into a semispherical bowl and cook it into a bowl shaped crepe-like delicious breakfast item. MOREOVER, for breakfast sometimes they crack an egg into the center of the bowl. That concoction is called, you guessed it, egg-hopper. They serve it with spicy chiles or sweet and spicy sambal. I highly recommend the sambal. I loves me some spicy food, but the sambal just has a better flavor (if done well) than the chopped chiles. All in all, a good find.

4) Black Curry, elusive, as I mentioned. I haven't had it yet, but I expect to cook up some black curried potatoes, and perhaps jackfruit... or maybe I'll stay simple and cook chicken and rice, and add in the curry as per usual.

5) Fresh Jackfruit: Jackfruit is known for a few things. It is the largest tree grown fruit in the world (jackfruits are often found to be over 100 lbs when ripe), and also often mistaken for it's cousins the durian. I sadly didn't find any durian, but I saw lots and lots and lots of jackfruit trees growing everywhere. If you haven't had it, I suggest you go get some. It's like durian, except that it has a much stronger pineapple flavor, and is not malodorous. It really doesn't smell that bad.

6) Beef: I hadn't realized Sri Lanka is so strongly buddhist, so I broke my no beef streak by eating a "swiss burger" at the hotel suisse in kandy. I'm not sure I can classify it as a food adventure, but I've been very cautious to not eat beef while in India. In any case, it was a small burger with a fried egg on top. Oh man, I love fried eggs on top of things.

7) Tea: Everyone knows, Sri Lanka is world famous for tea. Actually, ceylon tea is everywhere you go, so I drank it a few times. The black tea is really rich. Richer than I'd expected. But in the end it was tea and nice to have Sri Lanka's tea in Sri Lanka.

All told, Sri Lanka fed my culinary appetite very well. Good place to visit, great place to eat.