Journey through Sri Lanka with Culinary Ceylon

By Madushka Balasuriya

The diverse nature of Sri Lankan cuisine is among its best qualities, but it is also what makes it maddening to pin down in terms of flavour and profile. 

The array of spices, cooking methods, and even different ways of consumption, makes it nigh on impossible for anyone to label any particular dish quintessentially Sri Lankan. Hoppers? Yeah it’s Sri Lanka. Pittu? Same. Kottu? Sure. Rice and curry? Most definitely. Pol roti? Absolutely. Lamprais? Hell yes! Now of course, other countries too have more than one dish which encapsulates their food identity, but for those visiting Sri Lanka, grasping the finer details of how to truly enjoy a Sri Lankan meal means discarding with many of the preconceived notions you may have had about how you eat food.

For example if you’re having string hoppers, many an outsider might slice off a few strings, do the same to a piece of fish on the side, prod at them with a fork, dip the hastily made skewer in some white curry and pol sambol, and be none the wiser. Oh the heresy.

Whereas with an egg hopper you might get the following situation where, with it having been frequently described as Sri Lankan pancakes, some unenlightened soul rolls it up like a wrap and proceeds to tuck in. Oh dear.

Now while these sort of faux pas can lead to hilarious meal time banter, and a memorable tale, there are on occasion scenarios where tourists may be put off or not totally capture the spirit of a truly Sri Lankan dish. This is where Culinary Ceylon comes in.

While few high-end Sri Lankan cuisine restaurants aren’t necessarily a new concept to Colombo, they all require a modicum of pre-established knowledge before you set forth; if you’ve ever been to a foreign land, you will no doubt understand the trepidation of ordering a dish from menu where nothing at all seems familiar. This, for many tourists, is the reality of trying out Sri Lankan food for the first time - especially if they don’t have a trusty local on hand to guide them.

Culinary Ceylon eschews this problem in innovative fashion, taking the responsibility of ordering out of your hands. Instead they offer a six course meal for a flat $ 70 dollar per head rate that takes you on a culinary journey across Sri Lanka.

While it is by no means cheap, this is also by no means your ordinary meal. Located on Hospital Street behind Dutch Hospital, the restaurant is hidden behind a small side kadé (shop) with a variety of traditional Sri Lankan snacks and condiments.

At the moment there are two sittings each day for dinner and one for lunch – not to mention cooking classes for tourists – all of which can only be procured via early reservation. We at Daily FT were recently afforded a sneak preview of what to expect.

A culinary journey

Once inside you’re greeted by an intimate room – seating is limited to no more than 28 people – with a bar on the side, and a visible open-plan kitchen in the front. The walls are littered with several black and white photos of olden-day Ceylon, while the ceiling lighting is overlaid by tiles made of repurposed batik and gunny bags, which more than fits in with the dark, moody lighting of the room.

Once all the guests have arrived though, that’s when the fun begins as your host for the evening takes over. Meshing tales from Sri Lanka’s rich history with a wealth of knowledge on the origins of several ingredients and dishes (“Traditionally we did not use chilli in SL. We used to have black pepper until the Portuguese introduced it”), he both provides an evening’s worth of entertainment while at the same time providing discerning diners with the necessary tools to correctly enjoy a Sri Lankan dish.

Throughout the evening we were treated to local Colombo favourites such as Isso (Prawn) Wade, Hot Butter Cuttlefish, Stringhopper Kottu, and Lamprais; universal Sri Lankan favourites such as Pol Roti, and Black Pork Curry; northern delicacies such as Idly; and even a childhood favourite, Bombai Muttai – essentially homemade candy floss – served by a genuine Bombai Muttai man.

The dishes themselves are served in small portions, so as not to fill you up in one go. Each course is prefaced by a little story by our host, who liberally drops historical nuggets that even many locals may find interesting, while also giving tips on how best to enjoy the dish that is about to be served.

Before we had our chicken lamprais, for example, we were informed that there is commonly spirited debate about how exactly it should be enjoyed; do you mix it all up, or do you not? With 14 guests at our seating, we were split squarely seven apiece. The lamprais itself was full of flavour and is certainly one that anyone new to the dish would undoubtedly enjoy.

Among our favourite dishes over the course of the evening were the hot butter cuttlefish, and the pol roti with black pork curry. Both were made to this writer’s preferred levels of spice and sweetness, while the accompanying seeni symbol for the roti was also rather exquisite.

A complete Sri Lankan experience

While we tried just a handful of dishes, Daily FT has been reliably informed that some 30 dishes are in the pipeline, meaning that each night has the potential to be an all new curated experience.

This combined with their supremely well-informed host is always ready to answer any questions you might have, and an extremely professional kitchen staff, means that there are not many places better than Culinary Ceylon when looking to gain a complete experience of Sri Lankan cuisine in a single night.

Pix by Ruwan Walpola