Sri Lankan Cuisine

For some reason this morning I woke up craving Sri Lankan food. I don’t know much about it, other than the memory of a few dishes lovingly prepared for us by the Sri Lankan caretaker at the Italian agriturismo place we stayed at a few years ago. Amitha was always gracious and ever-helpful, but though we talked a lot about food I quite forgot to ask her to define exactly what makes Sri Lankan food different from Indian food — all I remember is her lamb stews and vegetable curries (along with several Italian dishes that she has mastered remarkably!). No, she did not make us hoppers:(. We’ve lost touch or I’d call her to ask my questions — maybe I *should* track her down! — but I did find Priya Wickramasinghe’s site that says something about Maldive fish being used in Sri Lankan cuisine. Maldive fish is prepared in a similar fashion to the Japanese katsuobushi. Hmm…

I don’t have a Sri Lankan cookbook per se and have mainly trusted in other Asian cookbooks to give me a glimpse of this country cuisine’s, but I did find a few links today to satisfy my craving temporarily, at least until I find a local friend or restaurant to give me more.

Sri Lankan recipes from Lakmali Hewa
From Priya Wickramasinghe, Sri Lankan author from the UK. She co-authored
. Priya Wickramasinghe also wrote Spicy and delicious: Exotic and tasty recipes from India and Sri Lanka and .
Mary Anne Mohanraj’s site. Mary Anne is the author of
There’s another lesser known cookbook that’s reputedly very good: Fire and Spice: The Cuisine of Sri Lanka.
Lanka Library’s Food Section, an excellent introduction to Sri Lankan cuisine.
Chandra’ge.com, run by Chandra Wimalasiri who teaches cooking in Sri Lanka. Chandra has lived in the US and her site contains US restaurant reviews as well.