Though Sri Lankan food has parallels to South Indian food, yet it remains distinctly its own form of cuisine.
Throughout years of colonization and influence from other countries, Sri Lanka has adapted its food culture into a blend of different curry concoctions and tasty dishes.
A few things about Sri Lankan food can be said with certainty: Sri Lankans thoroughly love spices, they love food that explodes with flavor, and many enjoy deep fried, and very tasty, snacks. Whatever you choose to eat in Sri Lanka, your mouth is going to rejoice with happiness.
Sri Lanka, being an island with a tropical climate, coconuts and fish are two of the most influential components of Sri Lankan cuisine. Fish is made into curries, and coconut in some form or another, is a dominant ingredient in cooking.
Rice and curry is the Sri Lankan staple, though various kinds of bread, both roti style flatbreads and even loaves of bread, are very common.
Go ahead and grab yourself a paratha and sit back to check out these 40 foods you can’t miss when you’re in Sri Lanka!
1. Fish Curry and Mixed Rice
There’s nothing more common to eat as Sri Lankan food than a nutritious plate of rice and curry. You normally get a plate of rice piled with a few of the daily vegetable curries and a choice of fish curry as well.
A plate like the one above cost me 120 LKR ($1.09), but without fish it would have even been less.
2. Deviled Sweet and Sour Fish Curry
There are a lot of different deviled dishes in Sri Lanka. This fish was deep fried and smothered in a lovely sweet and sour sauce and lightly fried again with red onions and banana peppers. It was excellent with fried rice and a flatbread paratha on the side.
3. Chili Fish Curry
This particular fish curry in Sri Lanka reminded me of the Burmese foodcurry that I also highly enjoyed, except it was often a bit heavier on the spice blend, which I loved.
The fish curry in Sri Lanka was extremely fragrant, oily, and the sauce was marvelous with a giant plate of rice.
4. Sri Lankan Dhal Curry (Parippu)
Dhal curry is one of the most commonly consumed staple dishes in Sri Lankan cuisine.
The dhal, usually masoor dhal which are red lentils, are often cooked in a beautiful blend of spices, and then a few spoons of coconut milk are added to create a rich stew.
Dhal curry is omnipresent in Sri Lanka, and it’s consumed with all forms of rice and bread.
5. Young Jackfruit Curry (Polos)
Sri Lankan food is famous for its curries – and “polos“, or young jackfruit curry, is one of my personal favorites.
Jackfruit is eaten in a number of different ripeness stages in Sri Lanka, but for preparing polos, the young, unripe jackfruit is used. The fruit is cut into chunks and simmered in a blend of rich spices.
This particular version (brown dish above) was so delicious, I couldn’t stop eating it. The pieces of jackfruit were tender, and tasted almost like a juicier version of a potato, and they were filled with the beautiful flavor spices.
Polos is so good, it could almost pass for chunks of tender beef!
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