It was the perfect day — after a night of heavy downpour, the hills were a brilliant green and the clouds dipped low to kiss the mountain tops — as we drove from Kandy to Nuwara Eliya. We were on Day 5 of our Sri Lanka trip, where, inundated by rains, we’d had no choice but to eat at the hotels we were staying at. These were invariably dinner and breakfast buffets, which did feature a couple of local dishes, but for the most part boasted of standard Continental fare.
So after four days of eating fancy hotel food and craving for something a little more rustic and typically Sri Lankan, we stumbled upon a tiny roadside eatery on our way to the hill station. Nestled on the mountain side and overlooking the most gorgeous valley of tea estates, the restaurant was more like a dhaba run by an old woman and her family. And it was here that we had our first real taste of Sri Lankan food.
First it was a basket of piping-hot jackfruit pakodas, which were the perfect way to kickstart a meal on a cold rainy day. Soon after, we were served some hot Sri Lankan rotis that were fresh off the griddle with a side of Kukul Mas Curry or a spicy home-style chicken curry and polos curry (jackfruit curry in a mild yoghurt-based gravy). And how can I forget the star of the meal — the spicy onion and red chilli sambol that had tears running down my cheeks even as I stubbornly worked my way through a bowlful of it.
The Sri Lankan rotis, unlike the Indian ones, were thick and almost bread-like and just perfect to slather with sambol before dunking it into the chicken curry. If the chicken curry and sambol were fiery, the polos curry was soothing and creamy, the ideal foil to the spices in the former two.
We rounded off our meal with cups of freshly brewed tea sweetened ever so slightly with locally-made jaggery and glasses of cow’s milk. And just like that, sitting in that charming little eatery, feasting on fresh flavourful food and looking out over the hills, I fell in love with Sri Lanka.
