Food of Sri Lanka. Wendy Hutton

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Food of Sri Lanka - Wendy Hutton


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      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

      Distributed by

      North America and Europe

       Tuttle Publishing

       Distribution Center

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       [email protected] www.tuttlepublishing.com

      Japan

       Tuttle Publishing

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       Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd.

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       Tel: (65) 280-1330

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       Email: [email protected] Web site: www.periplus.com

      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),


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