Big, bold flavours from a small island

Sri Lankan cuisine is a delicious synthesis of fragrant spices, tropical ingredients, and culinary traditions, writes Tasha Marrikar

Tasha Marrikar

The ethnic Sinhalese group has a long history stretching back to the Jaffna kingdom and the associated Vanniyar chieftaincies. Most Ceylon Tamils are Hindus, though there is also a significant Christian population within the community. In Lankan–Tamil food culture one can view a course of evolution that stays true to their history on this island, but it also incorporates later influences from the colonising westerners, and the more modern internationally inspired flavours.

Lankan–Tamil desserts actually have close similarities to their Sinhala counterparts, with ingredients like jaggery, rice flour, coconut and sesame seeds, apart from the gingelly oil which is distinctive of the Tamil cuisine. Everyday food is usually rice and curry, with their recipes often constructed using garden ingredients like hibiscus, pumpkin, moringa sticks, aubergine and okra.

The fiery orange Ceylon Tamil crab curries dotted with dark green
moringa leaves are so legendary that there are restaurants in Colombo built solely on their reputation for making authentic ‘Jaffna crab curry’. The palmyra palm wine is another iconic element that I love about this food culture. In fact, all palmyra-based foods from snacks, savouries, sweets and porridge to drinks, form a significant part of Ceylon Tamil cuisine. This is because the palmyra palm (Borassus flabelliformis) is an important symbol of the Ceylon Tamils’ cultural capital Jaffna, to which most still have a strong connection.

Indian Tamils

The majority of ‘Indian Tamils’ are immigrants who arrived in Sri Lanka from Southern India to serve as the labour force in the colonists’ tea, rubber and coffee plantations. There are also many other smaller groups of traders and merchant communities like Sindhis, Bohras, Memons, Nadars, Malayalis, Gujaratis, Bharathas and Baluchis (often called Afghans) who first migrated to Sri Lanka from the Indian subcontinent, sometimes even as far as six hundred years ago. The ingenuity with which the Tamil migrant communities have built a version of their homeland’s food culture from their sparse plantation housing gardens; the profoundness of the connection that Sindhis establish between nourishing the mind and the body — their bhajans always being followed by community dining; the absolute gastronomic delight of beloved Bohra treats like samosas, godamba roti and Bombay sweets. These are just a few of the many, many Indian Tamils’ culinary elements that I find to be incredibly important to the diversity of Sri Lankan cuisine.

Ceylon Moors

Also known as Sri Lankan Muslims, this ethnic group is a mix of Arab merchants and Islamic immigrants from India. The influence that they’ve had on the evolution of Lankan cuisine is remarkable.

From the halwas that inspired the local sweet aluwa, the colourful glasses of saruwath lining roadside booths — a direct descendant of the Arabian sharbat, the insanely sweet local candyfloss bombai-motai, the food-coma inducing biryani and the most popular Sri Lankan street food of all time — Kottu (thought to have been invented by Batticaloa Muslims to make use of leftovers) are all Moorish stories that have changed Lankan cuisine forever.

I must mention what is probably the queen of desserts in Sri Lanka, which happens to be a Moorish pudding — watalappan.

I think everything that needs to be said about watalappan is summed up in this quote by JP De Fonseka, published in the Times of Ceylon, 1937; ‘The Muslim’s is a sweet tooth. He has a pudding, (for which Allah be praised) called wattialiappam, a soft succulent one of jaggery and eggs and all the spices on earth, which goes down with a demure sweetness like that of the hour is in paradise’. Even today in Sri Lanka, Muslims are known for their delicious food, and Moor restaurants proudly display signs that read ‘Muslim kada’ (Muslim shop) that have become a guarantee for terrific taste.

Sambol, the symbol of authenticity

Sri Lankan food without sambol, I would argue, is a meal without heart. It is related to a Malaysian and Indonesian ‘sambal’ and every meal in a Lankan household has at least one sambol dish. The idea behind eating a sambol is to eat a little bit of it with your meal; however, they are a big favourite of mine and I usually pile it on to my plate. Some sambols are fiery, some are healthy, almost all are super nutritious and primarily served raw. A lot of sambols in Sri Lanka have raw, grated coconut bases. Another key ingredient is lime; the juice is an essential part of finishing most sambol dishes. Most Sri Lankans use sambols as a method to eat nutritious, superfood leaves raw and get the best out of them. I urge you to read up, find greens available near you and use them by finely slicing them and mixing it with coconut and lime juice!

(Excerpted with permission from JayaFlava by Tasha Marrikar published by Harper Collins India.)