“Rice & Curry” honored in New York Times 2011 List Of Notable Cookbooks

The Year’s Notable Cookbooks William P. O’Donnell/The New York Times (“Rustica” and “The Foods of Spain”), Jake Guevara/The New York Times (“Seoultown Kitchen” and “Truly Mexican”), and Alessandra Montalto/The New York Times (“Cooking in the Moment”) By JULIA MOSKIN, FLORENCE FABRICANT, PETE WELLS and NICK FOX Published: November 29, 2011 It’s hard to do justice [...]

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Home Cookin’

  I didn’t title my cookbook Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking for nothing. The best Sri Lankan food your are likely to get in country or abroad, for that matter, is not in a restaurant, but rather at someone’s home. Don’t get me wrong: I love to eat out when I’m traveling and [...]

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Hotel De New Pilawoos

Sometimes these blog posts don’t work out as planned. I had planned, for example, to do a post on string hoppers, the rice noodle “nests” popular in Sri Lanka for breakfast and dinner. Problem is, I wanted to buck tradition, or conditioning, or whatever you want to call it, and have string hoppers for lunch. [...]

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Off The Eaten Path: Juchunyuan Restaurant In Colombo

Colombo has no shortage of Chinese restaurants, most of which serve food with its own particular character, shaped, of course, by local tastes (meaning, it’s much spicier than the run of the mill storefront Chinese in New York or any western city for that matter).  It’s also probably nothing like the ‘authentic’ Chinese food you [...]

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Rice & Curry In A Hurry: Gamay Kade (at Senkada/Salaka)

Lunch being the main meal in Lanka, I noticed that there’s a ton of places to get a quick, midday rice and curry—from street side stands and trucks that sell 100 rupee rice packets to the informal, sit-down restaurants that cater to the office crowd.  While most rice packets are perfectly fine, they have usually [...]

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Lampreis To Go @ The Dutch Burgher Union

Although I did a much earlier post about the “Battle of Lampreis” in Sri Lanka, I realized today after lunch that there really is no competition: The lampreis at The Dutch Burgher Union is hands down THE BEST and only lampreis worth eating. For all you novices out there, here’s a little refresher course: Lampreis [...]

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Green Cabin: A Colombo Institution

According to my Aunty Dora, who’s old enough to know, the legendary Colombo eatery, Green Cabin (453, Galle Road, Colombo 3 — Phone: 588811 or 591841), and its sister restaurant The Pagoda Tea Room (105 Chatham St., Fort, Colombo 1 – 011 232 5252)have been feeding hungry Colombo residents for a long time. In fact, [...]

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Off The Eaten Path: Yaal Restaurant — Colombo 6

  While Sri Lankan food is known for its heat, the regional cuisine of northern Jaffna is reputed to be even more fiery. Last time I visited the island, I had the good fortune of going to Jaffna to see for myself as I went in search of the real deal Jaffna cuisine (http://bit.ly/vsYV4X). But [...]

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And Speaking of Savory Donuts…

I’m always on the lookout for something interesting, original, and new, so yesterday on the way home I noticed a spot that seemed more likely to be found in L.A. than Colombo–a drive-in donut shop. That’s right, Gonuts (1 Castle Street, Colombo 7), is the capital’s newest (and only, as far as I know) donut [...]

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ISSO (Prawn) Wade & “Savory Donuts”

Arrived in Sri Lanka a couple days ago for a quick trip to handle some business before the release of my cookbook in a couple weeks. After 23 hours of travelling, my first craving off the plane was for lampreis, a luxurious rice & curry meal wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf, that I [...]

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