Cinnamon Lakeside ‘Hopper Night’ celebrates local flavours

Friday, 2 March 2012 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lankan cuisine, with its exhilaratingly spicy tones, encompasses a broad range of flavours and textures. Sri Lanka has been renowned for its spices since traders from across the world arrived in the 15th and 16th centuries, bringing their native cuisines to the island, resulting in a rich diversity of cooking styles and techniques.

Every month, Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo hosts a night of authentic Sri Lankan food. The light and crispy hopper is the focus with many variations being created by the hotel’s kitchen brigade.

The wafer thin, bowl shaped hopper is made from fermented batter of rice flour, coconut milk and a dash of yeast. Whilst it is soft and spongy at the centre, it is delightfully light and crispy on the edges. This allows the chefs at Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo to dream up creative variations where a filling is added while the hopper cooks.

The hoppers are unique as they are appetising with variations such as cheese and chili hoppers, seeni sambol hoppers, kiri appa, pani pol hoppers, masala hoppers and of course the popular egg hopper. Although the night is dedicated to hoppers, it offers a spread of almost every popular Sri Lankan specialty. The specialties include pittu complemented by tripe curry locally referred to as ‘babath,’ string hoppers, kotthu rotti, chicken curry, crispy cuttlefish, beef curry, fish ambulthiyal – a sour smoked preparation of fish, potatoes curried in a thick coconut gravy and many other dishes.

After an invigoratingly spicy meal, the hotel offers guests an array of local sweetmeats to recover. They come in all shapes, sizes, colours and textures from lavariya, dodol, milk toffee, kokis, kavum, asmi, halapa, mung kavum to coconut rock and banana fritters amongst others. A calypso band will keep guests entertained throughout the night as it makes its way around playing songs on request.

The next Hopper Night will take place on 9 March at the Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo Terrace by the pool and Beira Lake from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and is priced at Rs. 1,616++++ per person. As far as venues go, one couldn’t ask for a more stunning one. Reservations and further inquiries will be entertained on 2491998.