March 27, 2019 – Colombo, Sri Lanka (Shree Lanka)
We arrived at 6 am this morning as scheduled. We have a cooking class scheduled and Nim has been my contact. He is sending someone to pick us up near the port. We decided that in front of the Hotel Oriental would be perfect.
Ranga arrived in a car at 7:20. We were lucky. It was a nice van with AC as it was already in the upper 80s and humid. Most of the transportation around town is by Tuk Tuk.
I was surprised by how modern the city was and also by the traffic. It took about 40 mins to get to a small restaurant where we met Nim. We were there to wait for the market next store to open. We had some tea, (Coke for me) and chatted about Sri Lanka. Nim was 29 and had spent time as a chef at a restaurant. He also went out in the “field” to learn what traditional Sri Lankan cooking was since no recipes were written down. He said he spend about a month in different villages to learn the traditional ways. We were fascinated and couldn’t wait to get started.
We finished our drinks and walked over to the market. Reminded me of Eastern Market on a Saturday. Nim pointed out all kinds of vegetables and fruit that we have never seen or heard of. Oranges that have green skin and are white on the inside? Many different kinds of rice. Dried fish. There was also a collection of fruit and vegetables that we could easily identify. Not Sri Lankan – from Europe, said Nim.
Nim gave us a shopping list and some money. We browsed through the market and made our purchases.
One of the most interesting fruits was the wood apple. Looks like a coconut but once opened it smelled like apple.
King coconuts are purchased for their coconut milk. They are really not very palatable. Before leaving the market with our goods, we purchased three. This gentlemen cut the tops with a few wacks of his popeil pocket machete, added a straw and handed them to us.
Not a whole lot of taste but refreshing on a hot day. Nim hailed a Tuk Tuk taxi and we were off to his home. Riding in a Tux Tuk is not for the faint of heart. The horn is the most important part of the vehicle.. People are driving everywhere on the road. No one gets angry, people just except the way that it is. They would never make it in New York or Detroit where the middle finger is the most important part.
This is our menu. Yellow rice, Sri Lankan Chicken Curry, Sri Lankan Dahl Curry, Coconut Sambol, Papadam and for desert, Buffalo Curd with Kithul Treacle.
We started with the coconut sambol. Nim showed me how to crack the coconut with a heavy metal tool. Once in half, we each took half over to a tool that had a round piece of metal with small prongs. It was mounted to the table and it made scraping the coconut out of the shell very easy. Nim took us to a large mortar and pestle. In it we put Maldive fish, red chili flakes, green chili, onion, and salt. We spent a few minutes pounding away at this and then added the coconut. A few minutes more and it was done. We stored it back in the coconut shells while we went on to the next dish.
The chicken Curry was next. We cooked this in clay pots over a gas flame. First some coconut oil and then the chicken. The chicken was cut into pieces, bones and all. Some curry leaves, curry, chili powder, coconut vinegar and coconut milk. We let simmer for 7 minutes. Nim said the clays pots allow Sri Lankan to store the food longer without refrigeration.
The yellow rice was the simplest. Sri Lankans do not prepare sticky rice. To prepare it they rinse it three times or so. When the water is clear, the starch on the surface is gone. Turmeric was the spice that provided the yellow color and salt was the other ingredient. A rice cooker is used. Sri Lankans eat rice everyday and a rice cooker is foolproof.
Dahl Curry was next. We rinsed the orange lentils from the market and put them in a clay pot with water and then heated. When most of the water was absorbed, coconut milk was added and some curry leaves, green chilis, tomato, and onion. This took about 5 minutes cooking time.
Papadam was made by deep frying tortilla like half circles made from black gram flour. Easy.
We were ready for lunch and Nim brought us a tray that had the yellow rice we prepared with some raisins added. We took some of each of what we prepared and had a seat at the table. I had a ginger beer and Terri had a regular beer. The rice was on a large elephant leaf that is used as a way to cover the woven mat that was used as our plate. Sri Lankans eat with their hands, we used knife and fork.
The food was delicious and nothing like I expected. Originally I thought the food would taste like Indian food. No chance. Everything was very fresh and tasty. Nim prepared the desert. Buffalo Curd which is yogurt made from the milk of buffalo topped with the treacle syrup. Fantastic. Already checked Amazon to see if we can get this at home. Yes!
We called an Uber and left Nim’s home about 2:30 pm. Still some time to do some shopping.
We stopped at 2 shopping centers. We saw some cool things but nothing we purchased.
We did stop at the Tap House and had a beer and glass of wine.
Everything was quite inexpensive. The beer and wine cost us about $6 us. The beer towers in this photo went for $2300 Sri Lankan Rupees and held about 10 mugs of beer. $13 USD
