FOOD IN SRI LANKA
Overview
Known as Ceylon until 1972, Sri Lanka (“resplendent isle”) is a teardrop-shaped island located in the Indian Ocean approximately 30 miles south of India. Sri Lanka is considered part of the Indian Subcontinent, which also includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan. The country is made up of nine provinces and 25 districts. Besides being Sri Lanka’s capital and largest city, Colombo has served as a major seaport since the fifth century. During the 15th and 16th centuries, foreign traders from the Netherlands, Portugal, and Great Britain brought spices and cooking styles from all over the world to Sri Lanka. As a result, Sri Lankan cuisine reflects these influences, along with aspects of Arab, Malay, and Indian food and cooking techniques.
Language and religion shape Sri Lanka’s ethnic groups. Among the population of 20 million, 73 percent are Sinhalese, 18 percent are Tamils, and 9 percent are Muslims. There are also smaller communities of Veddas, Burghers, Moors, and other ethnic groups. The majority of Sri Lankans follow Buddhism. Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and other religions are also practiced. The common perception is that the prevalence of vegetarian dishes in Sri Lankan cuisine is due to religious reasons. While vegetarianism is more prevalent among Hindus, Sri Lanka’s tropical climate and long history as an agricultural society, along with the rising price of meat, also play a major role in the population’s preference for vegetables.
Food Culture Snapshot
Padma Vaas is a high school student who lives in Colombo with her parents and younger brother. Her family is considered middle class, with both parents employed professionally. On week days, Padma eats a quick breakfast of hoppers (little bowl-shaped rice-flour pancakes), fruit, and hot tea before heading off to classes. For lunch, her mother packs her rice and curry, or she purchases a lunch packet from the street vendor by her school. Padma occasionally picks up a pastry or roti (flat bread) from a short-eats stand after school. Dinner, the most substantial meal of the day, provides an opportunity for the family to catch up and is always eaten together. Padma’s mother starts cooking around 6 P.M., with the family sitting down to eat by 8 P.M. A typical weekday-night dinner for the Vaas family is steamed rice, a fish or chicken curry dish, and two or three vegetable or lentil curry side dishes.
However, it is on the weekends that Padma and her mother really have the opportunity to cook together and talk. The urban home garden they started last year has now flourished, yielding abundant eggplant (brinjal) and chili harvests. The day’s menu is planned the night before, followed by an early-morning trip to Pettah Market, an open-air market in Colombo with a dizzying array of wares, spices, vegetables, dried fish, and fruits. Dried shrimp, goraka (dried fruit for curry dishes), Maldive fish (dried fish), and coconut meat are frequently on the Vaas’s shopping list. Once home, Padma and her mother spend the remainder of the day preparing the dinner meal—which includes a lengthy process of roasting spices and simmering a multitude of curry dishes. On the weekends, up to 12 side dishes may be served, sometimes more if extended family members visit.
Major Foodstuffs
Despite the rise of the manufacturing sector, Sri Lanka remains mainly an agricultural society—tea, rubber, coconut, cacao, and spices are key exports. Tea estates can be found throughout the southern and central regions at altitudes between 3,000 and 8,000 feet. Tea was first commercially produced in Sri Lanka in 1867 by a Scot, James Taylor, and was largely controlled by British companies until 1971, when the Sri Lankan government assumed ownership through the Land Reform Act. The majority of the world’s spices are also produced by Sri Lanka. These include cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, turmeric, and ginger. Two-thirds of the world’s supply of cinnamon is grown in Sri Lanka.
Rice is a main staple of the Sri Lankan diet. Over 15 varieties are grown for local consumption, along with fruits and vegetables. Bowl-shaped, thin pancakes (hoppers) are considered native to Sri Lanka and eaten as a staple for breakfast and lunch. To make stringhoppers, rice flour and salt are formed into a paste and forced through a mortar with a circular opening (ural) onto a steaming tray. They are then steamed for 5–10 minutes and served with sambal (coconut-based chutney) and/or curries. String hoppers can also be purchased ready-made in restaurants and grocery stores. Other types of hoppers include egg, milk, and sweet varieties (vanduappa, paniappa).
Sri Lanka’s year-round tropical climate offers a fruit paradise with many varieties: mangoes, papayas, durians, bananas, passion fruit, mangosteens, and rambutans, among others. Besides being used for refreshing drinks, fruit is a central ingredient for producing chutneys, cordials, syrups, jams, and marmalades. Seafood factors heavily into the Sri Lankan diet, with fishing connected to the country’s two monsoon seasons. Cattle are mainly used for milk and farmwork. Though some Sri Lankan dishes incorporate beef as an ingredient, Hindus highly revere cows and do not eat beef. Most Buddhists also refrain from beef consumption.
The most popular non-alcoholic beverage in Sri Lanka is tea sweetened with sugar or milk. Coffee is rarely drunk, though available in more upscale urban areas. Popular drinks on a hot tropical day are tambili (water from orange coconuts) and kurumba (water from young coconuts)—both are believed to bring health benefits. The most popular alcoholic drink is arrack, which is distilled from fermented coconut-palm or palmyra-tree sap (toddy). Toddy tappers travel between treetops using rope walkways high above ground to collect sap, “tapping” up to 100 trees a day.
Popular snacks include a deep-fried patty made of lentils and flour (vadai) and a soft tortilla filled with different mixtures such as meat, vegetables, and chili peppers (rotty). Two sweets commonly consumed in Sri Lanka are kavun and wattalapan. Made of rice flour and treacle, kavun is deep-fried until golden brown. Wattalapan, first introduced by the Malays, is a steamed pudding cake made of coconut milk, eggs, and jaggery (refined sugar from palm-tree sap). Most sweets are of South Indian (Tamil Nadu) origin and are served during New Year celebrations.
Cooking
Globalization has heralded an influx of fast-food options such as McDonald’s and Pizza Hut in Sri Lanka. However, most meals are still traditionally cooked, though exact recipes are seldom followed and preparation can be labor-intensive. Cooking in middle-and-upper-class families may be handled by cooks or servants. In households without servants, women are responsible for housework and meal preparation. However, gender roles are shifting, especially in urban households where both the husband and wife may be employed outside of the home. Due to the smokiness associated with Sri Lankan cooking, the traditional kitchen is located either at the back of the main house or in a detached structure. An open fireplace (lipa) is common, with coconut frond stems serving as fuel for the fire. A brick or iron oven with a door handle and fi re pit is also frequently found in rural homes.
However, since many aspects of the traditional kitchen are impractical, the two-burner propane stove has now replaced the lipa in most modern kitchens.
Many Sri Lankan dishes appear similar to those of South India, though two distinguishing hallmarks are the use of extremely hot spices and local ingredients. Sri Lankan dishes are considered among the spiciest in the world. Hot chilies, such as amu miris, kochchii miris, and maalu miris (capsicum), are frequently incorporated into dishes, along with coconut milk.
Unique fresh herb-and-spice-preparation methods (roasting, pounding, tempering) also distinguish the cuisine from others. Traditional kitchens often have a chili stone (mirisgala) made of granite (or another hard stone) that serves as a hard surface for grinding chilies and whole spices. A mortar and pestle (vangediya) is used for ingredients that cannot be eff ectively pounded on the mirisgala. The cylinder-shaped mortar is also made of a hard stone and can reach heights and widths of up to 12 inches. Pestles may be up to fi ve feet long and are generally made of kitul wood. In modern times, spice preparation involves heating spices in a dry pan until fragrant, then grinding them in an electric grinder once cool.
Regional availability of fresh ingredients largely defines the variances in dishes served. The north is known for the palmyra tree, while rice, fi sh, and jackfruit appear frequently in dishes from the south. In the central region, also hill country, vegetables and mutton are the mainstays, with fish and spices used less intensely. Maldive fish (dried fish) is another local ingredient often used to thicken and flavor dishes, especially vegetable curries.
The two most prevalent frying techniques are tempering and sautéing, with the fi rst being more common. Whereas sautéing is a gentler form of cooking ingredients in a flat-bottomed skillet until translucent, tempered ingredients are fried over very high heat until they are fragrant and golden brown. Following tempering, the ingredients are then simmered on low heat with a partially closed lid. Seasonings are adjusted just before the food is served. Clay pots are the preferred cooking vessel—older pots flavor food more intensely and function similar to cast iron skillets in Western cooking.
Typical Meals
A simple Sinhalese greeting literally translates into “Have you eaten rice?” The typical Sri Lankan meal (also called “rice and curry”) is not divided into separate courses, such as appetizers and entrées. Instead, all dishes are served at the same time, with rice being the central mainstay, accompanied by curry-based side dishes. Lighter fare (called short eats) may be served fi rst at social events, though. After everyone has been served, meals are traditionally eaten using the fi ngertips of the right hand to form small balls of rice and curry.
In rural homes, meals are consumed while seated on leaf mats on the fl oor; in urban settings, the dining room table is the site of social activity and meals. While multigenerational households are fairly common throughout Sri Lanka, the number of nuclear families is on the rise with the infl uences of westernization and urbanization. Most Sri Lankans consume three meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Traditional breakfasts, especially in rural homes, consist of tea and rice-based dishes, including hoppers, a steamed rice/coconut mixture (pittu), panfried soft bread (rotis), milk rice (kiri buth), and leftover rice, curries, and sambals. City dwellers may have bread, fruit, and eggs during weekdays and a more substantial, traditional breakfast on the weekends. Steamed rice and curry form the staples of lunch and dinner meals and are consumed almost daily.
Dinner, usually eaten around 8 p.m., is considered the heaviest meal of the day. The typical meal consists
of a main curry, made with fi sh or meat, and several vegetable-, fruit-, or lentil-based curries (dhal). Depending on the spices and seasonings used, curries can be white, brown, black, or red. Coconut is frequently incorporated as a base in many dishes. Up to 12 side dishes can be served; these include pickles, chutneys, and spicy chili-based condiments or sauces (sambals).
Sambals tend to be spicy hot and are served as a condiment or relish alongside rice and curry dishes. There are many variations of sambals—sugar (seeni) sambals are the most traditional. Typical sambals use different combinations of chilies, vegetables, and spices.
Serves 2
¼ lb eggplant, diced
¼ tsp ground turmeric (optional)
½ tsp salt
1½ tbsp canola or vegetable oil
1–2 chilies, chopped
¼ c yellow onions, chopped
½ lime, juiced
1½ tbsp coconut milk
Salt to taste
Wash and dice eggplant. Season with turmeric (if using) and salt. Heat oil and fry eggplant until browned. Remove from pan and drain on a paper towel. Mix chilies, onions, lime juice, and coconut milk. Combine with eggplant, and add salt as needed.
Most meals end with a serving of fruit, which is readily available on this tropical island. Desserts are reserved for special occasions and teatime.
Eating Out
Special Occasions
Sri Lankans embrace a strong connection between food and festivities—food embodies much more than just a means for survival. As a symbol of life and fertility, rice is frequently incorporated into celebrations. For example, milk rice (kiri buth) is served at almost all major ceremonial festivities, including as a baby’s first solid food, the fi rst food a new bride and groom serve each other, and a food eaten during the New Year. For the Sinhalese, milk rice boiling over the pot is considered to be a good-luck omen during New Year celebrations. Alcoholic beverages are not included as part of any formal ceremonial festivities.
There are over 30 public Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian holidays celebrated annually—many which correspond to the full moon (poya) and lunar calendar. The Buddhist and Hindu Sri Lankan New Year (Aurudu) occurs on April 14, which aligns with the end of the harvest season and beginning of the southwestern monsoon season. Special foods enjoyed during these festivities include plantains, oil cake (kaung), and sweetmeat (kokis).
The beginning of the harvest (Thai Pongal) is celebrated by Hindus in January with boiled milk, rice, and jaggery (pongal) off ered to the sun god. In honor of Ramadan, Muslims fast until Eid al-Fitr, when dates, steamed pudding (vatalappan), and rice porridge (congee) with a spicy meat-rice dish (biryani) are shared and eaten.
Diet and Health
Ayurveda, an ancient medicinal system that views the five elements (air, earth, light, water, ether) as connected with the fi ve senses and an individual’s biological, psychological, and physiological life forces (doshas), is popular in Sri Lanka. The premise is that when doshas are out of balance, disease and illness may prevail. Almost all foods are classifi ed into a “hot” or “cold” framework, whereby over- or underconsumption may contribute to health issues.
Herbs, roots, spices, and dietary changes are often prescribed to address unbalanced doshas. For example, when consumed in moderation, tea is believed to have medicinal properties, ranging from improved digestion to prevention of heart disease. Gotu kola, another leafy green plant commonly used in Sri Lankan dishes (mallung), is also believed to possess health benefits as a diuretic and mild anti-inflammatory and antibacterial, among other functions.
By Mary Gee in the book 'Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia'- Ken Albala, editor.Greenwood- (An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC) Santa Barbara, California U.S.A, 2011, 3rd. volume, p.247-252. Edited and adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.
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