Top 8 dishes to try in Sri Lanka | Blog (2024)

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Top 8 dishes to try in Sri Lanka | Blog? ›

Sri Lankan curry and rice is the quintessential dish of the island and usually is eaten at lunchtime. There is an abundance of curries for you to choose from, so you'll always have a new dish to try. Some of the most popular of these are dahl, chicken, fish and gotu kola sambol.

Sri Lankan curry and rice is the quintessential dish of the island and usually is eaten at lunchtime. There is an abundance of curries for you to choose from, so you'll always have a new dish to try. Some of the most popular of these are dahl, chicken, fish and gotu kola sambol.

Firstly, “Rice and Curry”: the national dish. Forget India, Sri Lanka is the birthplace of the make-you-cry-curry. They love cooking with the hottest chillies they can find, usually cooled down with coconut milk.

Sri Lankan's typically eat rice as their staple food for the day and mostly for breakfast we tend to have variations like, Rice and curry. Milk rice with onion sambol.

Sri Lankan usually prefer rice and curry for any meal. But if you are to buy breakfast from a reputed restaurant it may have a variety of choices like Indian , Thai, even western. If it's a street vendor or a common food vendor it may be rice and curry, string hoppers, roti with a curry of your choice, bread and Dahl.

Kiribath Typical Sri Lankan dish of rice and prawns. The central feature of Sri Lankan cuisine is boiled or steamed rice, served with a curry of fish or meat, along with other curries made with vegetables, lentils, or fruits. Dishes are accompanied by pickled fruits or vegetables, chutneys, and sambols.

Generally speaking, you'll always be able to find one of the country's staple dishes on a menu: steamed rice and curry. This traditional food in Sri Lanka often includes chicken, fish, beef and mutton but there are also vegetarian curries made with lentils, jackfruit or mixed vegetables instead of meat.

Food expenses in Sri Lanka can be quite affordable, especially if you opt for budget restaurants where a meal can cost as little as $2 to $5 per person. Mid-range restaurants offer a wider variety of cuisines and typically range from $10 to $20 per person.

"A typical traditional Sri Lankan plate is pescatarian based with a predominant plant-based approach. These coupled with good fats derived from coconuts and 100 per cent grass-fed cow/buffalo ghee are key to reducing inflammatory processes in the body and arriving at the ideal body fat percentage.

Avoid salads and anything which looks like it has been sitting uncovered for a while; short eats (see Vegetarian food in Sri Lanka) are particularly likely to be old and to have been poked by many fingers. The busier the establishment, the less probability that the food's been sitting around all day.

Can you eat salad in Sri Lanka? ›

As tap water is not safe to drink in Sri Lanka, only drink bottled mineral water, which is readily available in hotels, shops and restaurants. You should also avoid salads, which may be washed in unhygienic water, and ice, which may have been made with it.

In Sri Lanka, many Buddhists refrain from consuming beef. Gifts are generally given and received with two hands. To demonstrate graciousness, some Sri Lankans may touch their right forearm with their left hand while offering the gift with their right hand.

In Sri Lanka, hoppers are thin, bowl-shaped pancakes named for the pan that gives them their form. Of course, these crispy basins cry out for some kind of filling. Just as the batter is starting to cook, chefs break a whole egg over it and cover the pan.

"In Sri Lanka, hoppers are eaten at breakfast time or in the evenings, but not at lunch”, Karan explains, “people will eat them with sambol or as an accompaniment to curries”.

Sri Lankan food offers a vivid array of flavor combinations: sweet caramelized onion relishes, bitter melon, spicy scraped coconut, and the burn of curry tamed by mild rice, and palm sugar sweetened desserts.

This is an island of magical proportions, once known as Serendib, Taprobane, the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, and Ceylon. Sri Lanka is famous for producing finest tea, rubber and coconut, as well as exotic spices.

Budgeting for Sri Lanka

Accommodation and food are more expensive than neighbouring countries, and the entrance fee to major attractions for foreigners is disproportionately high. Expect a daily budget of $30-$50 per person on accommodation, food, drinks, and transport.