Sri Lankan foodies like to keep it spicy

Saturday, 3 February 2024 00:02 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

  • Uber Eats’ 2023 Cravings Report reveals interesting insights

Sri Lanka’s love for everything spicy Uber Eats has discovered last year based on what customers ordered.

Most prominently featured top instructions on orders placed on the Uber Eats app were “make it spicy”, “extra spicy”, and “spicy” – proving that Sri Lankans love their daiyya (spice).

The Uber Eats Cravings Report 2023, a snapshot of the country’s favourite cravings and the most popular binge-worthy dishes, threw up some interesting revelations. 

Having become an intrinsic part of everyday life, Sri Lankans made use of their favourite food and grocery app when they needed it the most. Over 8,000 orders were placed on Uber Eats with ‘Birthday’ as part of the delivery instructions.

Uber Eats fulfilled sweet tooth cravings too with Pancakes, Chocolate Eclair, and Chocolate Doughnut, emerging on top as Sri Lanka’s favourite desserts. It also turns out that Sri Lankans remained impeccably polite, as nearly half of all instructions included the word ‘please’.

Sri Lanka’s long love affair with short eats continued with Smoked Chicken Roll, Ulundu Vadai, and Fish Patty topping the list of most popular items ordered to fulfil snack hunger-pangs or Podi Badaginta. 

Interestingly, in the island nation that is one of the world’s largest tea exporters, iced coffee trumped milk tea as the most popular beverage. This was followed by strawberry mojito and cappuccino.   

The list of most popular dishes confirmed what we all know – Sri Lankans love their rice. 3 out of 5 most ordered dishes, clocking thousands of orders, were rice-based. Here’s the list of ‘2023 Menu Royalty’:

  • Spicy Chicken Submarine
  • Chicken Burger
  • Nasi Goreng 
  • Mixed Fried Rice
  • Chicken Biryani

Grocery orders on the Uber Eats app were along expected lines with focus on vegetables for home-cooked meals and milk for popular beverages. Here’s the list of ‘2023 Grocery Royalty’: 

  • Fresh Milk
  • Eggs
  • Tomatoes
  • Sandwich Bread
  • Carrots

Local delicacies continued to score big: beloved Achcharu (Sri Lankan pickle) was a hot favourite with over 17,000 orders placed during the year. Kottu (Sri Lankan minced roti dish) and its many variations were among the most ordered type of dish too with Chicken Kottu, Roast Chicken Kottu, and Chicken Cheese Kottu, taking the laurels. 

The age-old battle between Fried Rice or Biryani was also settled – at least for the past year – Biryani won with 20,000 more orders in 2023.

Uber Eats said delivery partners delivering meals always brings a smile to faces. This love and appreciation across Sri Lanka translated into over Rs. 100,500,000 in tips to delivery partners last year. 

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