{"id":1213,"date":"2017-12-26T21:36:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T05:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/?p=1213"},"modified":"2018-01-01T20:47:58","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T04:47:58","slug":"rice-and-curry-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/?p=1213","title":{"rendered":"Rice and Curry Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

The national dish of Sri Lanka, by which I mean you can literally have it for every meal, is rice and curry. It’s basically a pile of rice and then a spread of different kinds of curries, all prepared separately, for you to create your own masterpiece. Chicken curry, dhal curry, aubergine (eggplant) curry, bananaflower curry, pumpkin curry (my favorite), fish curry… those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. We ate a LOT of rice and curry, but because of the variety of curries available at every table, it took a while for us to tire of it. This remarkable little place was a roadside stop with fantastic rice and curry lunch, where we had heaps of food for maybe two or three dollars.<\/p>\n

\"This <\/a>
This is the view out the door, so I can’t really give you directions there. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"If <\/a>
If you’re cruising through Sri Lanka and see this place, stop and eat!! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6935\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Rice <\/a>
Rice and curry <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"These <\/a>
These woven palm roofs are quite common- they last about two years before needing to be replaced. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ok, <\/a>
Ok, I will! <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I love the buffet style, where we can all take what we’re interested in and control the spice level (sort of). <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ajith also took us for a walk through a commercial fruit and vegetable market, which was awesome. They all knew him and were tolerant of us ooohing and ahhing over their giant piles of food, while Ajith picked up examples of all kinds of produce and told us what it was.<\/p>\n

\"Holy <\/a>
Holy Scotch Bonnets! I think I’m starting to sweat already. <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7167\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Delivery <\/a>
Delivery man <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This one is a little blurry. I was probably shaking with fear because of the giant pile of Scotch Bonnets right in front of me. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Quick, <\/a>
Quick, someone make some curry out of all these pumpkins! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7155\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ain't <\/a>
Ain’t no party like an eggplant party <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This guy was pretty stoked to have his photo taken <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7168\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bananas <\/a>
Bananas on the stalk are so weird looking! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The aptly named snake gourd <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7152\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7160\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Banana <\/a>
Banana flowers are so interesting <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ginger <\/a>
Ginger for days <\/div> <\/div>
\"string <\/a>
string beans. meh. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This was a commercial market, so farmers would come and sell their produce to these middlemen, who would then sell it to markets or other large consumers. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Before leaving Negombo the first day, we rose early to visit a commercial fish market.\u00a0Like most island countries, Sri Lanka has a huge fishing industry and the cuisine near the coast revolves around seafood. The first boats start unloading their months\u2019 worth of catches at 3 a.m., but thankfully we only rose early enough to catch the very end. There were piles of huge fish in varying states of being cleaned, and even a few that hadn\u2019t finished fighting for their lives, as one guy experienced when he stuck his finger in a fish\u2019s mouth while mugging for tourist cameras. He yelped and then tossed the suddenly wriggling fish onto another table and exacted his revenge with a large curved knife.<\/span><\/p>\n

We saw yellowfin tuna (identifiable by their distinctive, um, yellow fins), a few sharks that had been mostly dismantled, a pile of manta ray heads the size of footballs, and bins full of smaller fish and shellfish. The previous few days\u2019 weather had been quite severe in SL, so we weren\u2019t sure if there would be boats at all, but even the \u201csmall\u201d selection we saw was amazing. The hygiene, however, was less so. The fishermen slung fish bodies and guts around on the concrete, and stray dogs and crows skulked around stealing bits right off the bodies when they could. The ground was thick with fish\u2026. juice? and small bits of bones and other discarded waste. I regretted not ordering fish curry the night before, because I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d be able to order it now. The market was closing as the sun came up, which made for a beautiful introduction to the seaside town of Negombo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_6900\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6904\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_6918\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6899\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_6926\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6897\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6902\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I'm <\/a>
I’m glad Ajith told us to wear closed-toe shoes. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Because <\/a>
Because so many Sri Lankans are without refrigeration, much of the fish caught is dried so that it will keep longer. This process is as low-tech as it gets. These women go through and flip the fish over a couple times a day <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_8678\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6903\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6901\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_8677\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_8681\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6915\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

We also had one evening where we had a cooking lesson by a local family with a little kitchen purpose-built (with help from Intrepid) for teaching. It was fantastic, but also illustrated how time-consuming the “each curry cooks separately” and “everything from scratch” methods are. Luckily, we just had to follow directions, and then eat!<\/p>\n

\"These <\/a>
These ladies gave all their instructions by memory, spices included. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Time <\/a>
Time to eat <\/div> <\/div>
\"Banana <\/a>
Banana flowers are beautiful and delicious <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7398\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Multi-burner <\/a>
Multi-burner stove top <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7391\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

And a couple more random bits and pieces, including the street-ish food we tried. One of the best things about having Ajith to guide us is that he knew where to take us to get good authentic food (well, mostly authentic, as the cooks generally take the spice level down quite a bit for foreigners) that was prepared in a hygienic manner. And the cooks were cool when we wanted to watch them work, too. There were also tuk tuks that all drove around blaring F\u00fcr Elise,<\/em> like very erudite ice cream trucks, except they sold bread and pastries.<\/p>\n

\"Coconut <\/a>
Coconut husks used in gardening for water retention <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Kottu <\/a>
Kottu rotty, scary deep red chicken gravy, regular rotty, and dhal. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_8981\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Heres <\/a>
Heres where the “kottu” part comes in- he chops and bangs those things on the pan and makes quite a racket. They all have good rhythm, though, and it must be part performance. All that noise surely has a Pavlovian effect on diners. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"King <\/a>
King coconuts, always available as a beverage with just a few whacks of a machete and a straw. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"You <\/a>
You guessed it- rice and curry! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A lovely breakfast in the garden in Galle <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This was hard to find, but my beer of choice. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"And <\/a>
And egg hoppers, my true love. Just a hopper with an egg cooked in the bottom, but oh my- yum! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Our <\/a>
Our friendly neighborhood short order cook turns out a hopper, one of my favorite Sri Lankan treats. Its basically just rice flour and coconut milk, cooked in a wok-shaped pan that makes the top edge thin and crispy and the bottom thick and fluffy. Fill with the curry or sauce of your choice! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This rotty or roti or rotti dough is chopped into bits for use in another go-to dish- kottu rotty! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A normal non-commercial market <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sometimes <\/a>
Sometimes you just want a soda. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Man, <\/a>
Man, even eating potato chips is dangerous. Took a chomp of this dehydrated pepper before I knew what it was, and my eyeballs started sweating. <\/div> <\/div>
\"One <\/a>
One of these things will melt your face off. Do you know which one? If you guessed the Vegetable Rotty, you were right. None of us guessed correctly, but we survived. For reference, 50 rupees is about 30 cents. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Beetle <\/a>
Beetle nut leaves <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Rice <\/a>
Rice and curry! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Lion <\/a>
Lion lager, the default brew in Sri Lanka. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Not <\/a>
Not for me! <\/div> <\/div>
\"Mmm, <\/a>
Mmm, egg hoppers and dhal. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"After <\/a>
After tossing in a bunch of vegetables and peppers and seasoning, the guy starts cooking it. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Fancy <\/a>
Fancy salmon at our goodbye dinner <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Street <\/a>
Street food (we did not try). <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I wish I had the intestinal fortitude to try the food this guy was selling. But I was not willing to chance it. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Rice <\/a>
Rice and curry for lunch by Elephant Pond, made for us by our drivers wife. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Back to Sri Lanka<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The national dish of Sri Lanka, by which I mean you can literally have it for every meal, is rice…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sri-lanka","category-travel-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/shannonigans.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/IMG_8979.jpg?fit=3264%2C2448&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p77kqG-jz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1213"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1589,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions\/1589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shannonigans.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}