When Kolamba first opened in 2019, many diners who walked into the charming eatery in central London’s Soho district weren’t familiar with Sri Lankan cuisine.
They thought it was just like Indian food, says the restaurant’s co-founder, Aushi Meewella, who grew up in Sri Lanka.
“We felt Sri Lankan food was underrepresented in central London, so we wanted to bring the dishes we grew up on and missed when we moved away,” she tells CNN.
While Sri Lanka is India’s little neighbor, with only 22 million people, its food and culture are quite different.
And now, a new generation of Sri Lankan chefs and entrepreneurs across the world is shining the spotlight on their native cuisine, while embracing the country’s diverse culinary heritage.
The tourism connection
The increased visibility of Sri Lankan cuisine has “been a long time coming,” Meewalla says. “But now, more and more Sri Lankans themselves are willing to take a chance on our own cuisine, open restaurants, and spread our cuisine to the world.”
Meewella credits tourism for the recent surge in interest and support for Sri Lankan food.
Although tourist arrivals were halted by a series of setbacks including a deadly bomb attack, the Covid-19 pandemic, and, more recently, the country’s worst-ever economic crisis, Sri Lanka is back on the tourism radar, already tracking over 800,000 visitors in 2023 as of the first week of August. As Meewella explains it: “People visit, discover our diverse island, and try our food, which they realize is also delicious.”
Chef Dhayanie Williams, a contestant on “MasterChef Australia 2019,” says the rise of social media in the last decade and programs like Masterchef have also helped professional and home chefs promote Sri Lankan food in the international market.
“We’ve seen many participants stick to their roots and create authentic Sri Lankan dishes on these programs,” says the chef, who is known for the Sri Lankan crab curry and chicken curry she cooked on the show.
“This continuous online exposure makes people try out Sri Lankan food in restaurants.”
Diverse influences
Today, more and more Sri Lankan chefs across the world are championing Sri Lankan food while defying common misconceptions about the cuisine.
“It has helped change the global perception that Sri Lankan food is different from Indian food, and it’s not only a lot of curries paired with rice,” Williams says.
For example, despite sharing a name, Sri Lankan roti are smaller, thicker “discs” made of freshly grated coconut and rice flour, unlike the large Indian rotis, which are made of wheat.
Rice, coconut milk, native fruits, vegetables and seafood act as the building blocks of Sri Lankan cuisine.
Meewella explains that it draws inspiration from diverse ethnic cultures and the influences of the Dutch and Portuguese, who once ruled Sri Lanka.
At Kolamba, mains include mutton poriyal, a common preparation in the Tamil-populated northern region of Sri Lanka in which the meat is dry-fried with onions, green chili and lime.
One popular dessert is watalappam, a coconut and palm jaggery custard prepared by Muslims to celebrate Eid.
Meewella points out that Sri Lankan cuisine is also heavily plant-based with many vegan options, which helps the cuisine stand out and resonate with global audiences. “This way of eating is not a fad for us,” she adds.
For centuries, Sri Lankans have made use of wild and organically-grown ingredients like jackfruit, water spinach and yams, blending them with spices and herbs, and frying and currying them to create dishes with unique flavors. Kolamba’s menu pays homage to these plant-based recipes with dishes like breadfruit curry cooked with coconut milk and raw green banana fried with grated coconut.
In Sri Lankan cooking, the white flesh of the coconut is grated and squeezed to prepare rich, creamy coconut milk, which thickens different vegetable and meat-based curries.
Fresh coconut milk is also added to a morning smoothie-like drink called kola kenda, made with herbs and rice. During celebratory events like the New Year or the first day of a job, Sri Lankans also cook coconut milk with rice to prepare a creamy breakfast called kiribath.
“When I hosted brunches at home, I didn’t expect there would be an appetite for dishes like kiribath, but people fell in love with the flavors of my childhood,” says Sam Fore, a Sri Lankan-American chef based in Lexington, Kentucky.
“Eventually, the demand got so great that I set up a tent behind a bar in town to start selling the food I was cooking.”
Within two years, Fore’s pop-up got nationwide attention for spotlighting simple recipes incorporating Sri Lankan elements. Now, Fore is ready to open her first restaurant in Lexington.
Sources: CNN.com
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