Published by Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
with editorial offices at
364 Innovation Drive,
North Clarendon, VT 05759 U.S.A. and
61 Tai Seng Avenue, #02-12
Singapore 534167
Copyright © 2001
Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 962-593-998-9
ISBN 978-1-4629-0718-2 (ebook)
Library of Congress
Card Number: 00-107033
Publisher: Eric Oey
Associate Publisher: Christina Ong
Editor: Philip Tatham
Recipe testing: Devagi Sanmugam
Production: Violet Wong
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North America and Europe
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First edition
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
06 05 04 03 02 01
PRINTED IN SINGAPORE
Photo credits
All food and location photography by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni. Additional photos by Jill Gocher, p. 9; and Dominic Sansoni, pp. 3 (above), 4, 8, 10-15, 20, 25.
The beginning of a wedding procession in the south of Sri Lanka is reenacted by cultural dancers.
Contents
PART ONE: FOOD IN SRI LANKA
Introduction
Gustatory Geography
One Land, Many Peoples
Colonial Tastes
Spice and Other Things Nice
Banking on Tea
Dining in Sri Lanka
PART TWO: COOKING IN SRI LANKA
The Sri Lankan Kitchen
Cooking Methods
Sri Lankan Ingredients
PART THREE: THE RECIPES
Basic Recipes
Snacks and Appetizers
Rice & Bread
Soups
Fish & Shellfish
Meat & Poultry
Vegetables
Desserts
Drinks
Additional Recipes
Acknowledgments
Index
A festive display of Sri Lankan rice, sambols, and fish curries.
Part One: Food in Sri Lanka
Cinnamon, cloves; and other spices are the island’s culinary gemstones
Douglas Bullis
Sri Lanka, the fabled island of sapphires, rubies, and other precious stones, is home to one of the least known Asian cuisines. Rarely found in restaurants outside the island itself, Sri Lankan fare is often mistaken for yet another Indian regional cuisine. To the culinary explorer, however, Sri Lankan food is as intriguing and unique as the many other customs of this island paradise.
Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is located off India's southeast coast. The rugged terrain of the central highlands—characterized by high mountains and plateaus, steep river gorges, and swathes of tea plantations—dominates much of the island. This falls away to sandy lowlands, rice paddies, and long stretches of palm-fringed beaches.
The ancestors of today's Sinhalese peoples arrived some 2,500 years ago from Northern India. They named themselves after a mythic ancestor who was born of a sinha (lion) and a princess. After conquering the local Yakshas, a succession of kingdoms—Sinhalese in the center and south, and Tamil in the Jaffna Peninsula—rose and fell over the centuries. The first Portuguese ships chanced upon Sri Lanka in the early sixteenth century and set about trading in cinnamon and other spices. There followed four hundred years of Western presence in the form of Portuguese, Dutch, and finally the British before Sri Lanka regained her independence in 1948.
Such diverse influences may be tasted in dishes of Arab biryani (yellow rice with meat and nuts), Malay nasi kuning (turmeric rice), Portuguese love cakes, and Dutch breuders (dough cakes) and lampries (savory rice and meat packets).
Sri Lankan cuisine, which is based upon rice with vegetable, fish, or meat curries, and a variety of side dishes and condiments, reflects the geographical and ethnic differences of the land. Seafood dishes, such as seer fish stew, ambulthiyal (sour claypot fish),