There are many reasons to visit the beautiful country of Sri Lanka, with a rich culture, beautiful scenery, palm fringed beaches and extensive National Parks to explore.
Turquoise recently organised an extensive research trip throughout the country, and as well as all of the above we also discovered that the food in Sri Lanka is amazing – especially if you like things hot and spicy!
A great way to start your day is with a Sri Lankan breakfast, and even if you don’t fancy curry instead of cereal you really should give it a try. My biggest regret of our recent visit is that I didn’t sample the local breakfast until the final morning of the trip – as it really does fire you up for the day!
An essential ingredient of the Sri Lankan breakfast are the string hoppers, which are made up from steamed rice flour dough and originally hail from India. The string hoppers are pressed out into a nest like form, so they are great to use as a scoop for your curry and sambol (which are Sri Lankan relishes that complement the curry superbly). The meal is completed with dahl and roti – which is a Sri Lankan flatbread.
After finishing breakfast and spending a few hours negotiating the crazy traffic and visiting some of luxury boutique hotels that we feature in our Sri Lanka programme, it was time for lunch – and without doubt the best meal of my trip.
We enjoyed lunch at Aditya, which has a superb location on the beach near Galle and on requesting curry from the kitchen – could not have been prepared for the feast that arrived 20 minutes later!
It took several waiters to bring all of the dishes to our table, and I ended up with over 12 different dishes in front of me including:
– Beef curry
– Prawn curry
– Pineapple curry
– Beetroot
– Cashew nut curry
– Coconut sambol
– Seeni sambol
– Winged beans
– Potatoes
– Lentils (Dahl)
– Eggplant (Brunjal)
– Green Beans
– Mango Chutney
– Capsicum Cutlet
– Red rice and White rice wrapped in a banana leaf
It was certainly an incredible meal and a superb way to conclude our visit to Sri Lanka. Please do give us a call if you are planning your holiday or honeymoon trip to Sri Lanka – and we find that a week exploring this amazing island makes a fantastic combination with the stunning beaches of the Maldives!
