Taste Sri Lanka
ශ්රී ලංකාව
An island whose food runs on coconut, rice, chilli and fish, with spices it has exported for two thousand years.
Rice and curry is the national meal: a mound of rice with several small curries, a dhal, a sambol and a mallung of shredded greens. Coconut milk is in most of it, and roasted curry powder darker than any Indian blend. Breakfast might be hoppers, string hoppers or milk rice with a fierce chilli sambol. The coast eats tuna, prawns and crab; the hill country eats more vegetables; Jaffna in the north has a Tamil kitchen of its own with crab curry and dry-roasted spice. Kottu roti is the nation's late-night food.
6 recipes · 1 cuisine
All dishes 6
- 40 min
Kottu roti
කොත්තු රොටී
Sri Lanka's chopped roti stir-fry: shredded flatbread, egg, vegetables and chicken curry beaten together on a hot griddle.
EasyHot
- 4 hr 55 min
Egg hoppers
බිත්තර ආප්ප
Bowl-shaped fermented rice and coconut pancakes with lacy crisp edges and an egg cooked into the soft centre.
Medium
- 10 min
Pol sambol
පොල් සම්බෝල
Sri Lanka's fresh coconut relish: grated coconut pounded with chilli, shallot, lime and Maldive fish. Goes with everything.
Very easyHot
- 40 min
Parippu
පරිප්පු
Sri Lankan red lentil curry cooked in coconut milk with turmeric, curry leaves and pandan, finished with a mustard seed temper.
Very easy
- 1 hr 25 min
Fish ambul thiyal
මාළු අඹුල් තියල්
Dry, sour, black-pepper tuna curry from Sri Lanka's south coast, soured with goraka and cooked until the pieces hold their shape.
EasyHot
- 4 hr 5 min
Watalappan
වටලප්පන්
Sri Lankan Malay steamed custard of coconut milk, jaggery, eggs and cardamom, topped with cashews.
Easy
Regional cuisines
Think you know Sri Lanka food?
6 quiz dishes. Optional — Passport stamps still come from cooking.
Take the Sri Lanka food quizFood history
Cinnamon grew wild on the island and drew Arab, Portuguese, Dutch and British traders in turn. Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamil kitchens developed side by side, sharing coconut and rice. The Portuguese left chilli and sweet pastries; the Dutch left lamprais and Malay soldiers who brought sambol and watalappan; the British left tea estates and short eats. Maldive fish arrived through Indian Ocean trade. Twentieth-century urbanisation turned roti into kottu and made Colombo bakeries a national institution.
Common ingredients
Techniques
- roasting curry powder dark
- tempering in coconut oil
- fermenting rice batters
- pounding sambols
- slow dry cooking in clay