Sri Lanka Travel Guide

The staple diet in Sri Lanka is rice. This is eaten with curry and a variety of chutneys, pickles and sambals. The rice may be boiled and served with curries or it may be cooked with spices and in coconut milk, as yellow rice. It is also baked in meat stock as a Biriyani. Meats, seafood and vegetables are cooked as a curry with a base of coconut milk.

Other special food includes:
Kiribath means 'milk rice' and is a traditional dish for festive or special occasions.
Hoppers (egg and plain) are made of a batter containing coconut milk and palm toddy left overnight to ferment. It is then fried in a bowl shaped metal pan to get the shape. Simply breaking an egg into the centre of the plain hopper makes an egg hopper.
String Hoppers are vermicelli made of rice flour and is steamed over a low fire.
Pittu is prepared with rice flour and shredded coconut and steamed inside a bamboo. It is eaten with a hot sambal and pol hodi (coconut gravy).
Lamprais is a dish of Dutch origin. The rice is boiled in meat stock and then the vegetables and meat are added then slowly baked wrapped in a banana leaf.

Desserts
The wide array of Sri Lankan sweets betrays the sweet tooth of the Sri Lankan.
Buffalo Curd and Treacle (kithul pani which is made from the kithul palm)
Juggery is a hard, brown coloured sweet made out of kitul treacle.
Kalu Dodol is made out of coconut milk, juggery and cashew nuts.
Kavum, Kokis and Athiraha are the traditional Sinhala sweetmeats.
Watalappan is made out of boiled coconut milk and juggery laced with cashew nuts and raisins.
Rasakevili are the sweetmeats found during the festive seasons.
Thalaguli are sesame balls.
Halape are a mixture of coconut and juggery.
Aluwa is a fudge-like sweet.
Puhul Dosi (pumpkin preserves).
Panivalalu are honey bangles.
Bibikkan is a traditional Sinhala cake made from juggery, coconut, cashews and dried fruit.

Fruits
Tropical fruits are plentiful in Sri Lanka. There are various varieties of mangoes, bananas, papaya, pineapple, avocados, guava, melons, passion fruit and pomegranate.

Some special fruit include:
Rambutan is related to the lychee. It is coated with a soft red hairy skin, which is easily peeled to rach the sweet flesh of the fruit.
Mangosteen is a dark purple fruit with luscious translucent segments within. Its flavour may be described as a combination between strawberries and grapes. They are seasonal and are available from July to September.
Durian - although the skin has a strong, sometimes unpleasant aroma, the fruit inside is rich, soft, and yellow custard-like. This is believed to be an aphrodisiac.
Wood Apple is a hard wooden-shelled fruit. This can be made into a tasty drink or a rich pudding with coconut milk.
Jackfruit - this very large fruit may be eaten fresh as a fruit or cooked as a curry. Within the coarse, green skin, there are hundreds of succulent orange/yellow segments.
Babyjack - this watermelon-sized fruit is eaten cooked as a curry.

Fish and Seafood
Being an island surrounded by the ocean, there is naturally a huge selection of seafood.

These include:
Prawns, Tuna, Crabs, Mullet, Shrimp, Shark, Lobster, Skipjack, Large Tiger Prawns, Amberjack, Squid, Seer

There are also a variety of freshwater fish.