That’s cool. To be fair, Skiz and Ankie write about a fair amount of Sri Lankan cooking and, honestly, everything we cook here is Sri Lankan food, we make it so. Sri Lankan Chinese for example, is pretty creative and unique to here.

I was admiring the little details in that pic too.
Mulkirigala is close to Tangalle. The ancient demons must have evolved in to much more evil monsters, some of whom were arrested recently.

like its on a interview.legs tucked under the chair. :)

I agree with you that our current food culture leaves something to be desired. But our cuisine is still pretty respectable. In my opinion, it has a lot more variety than you seem to think, and certainly more than what you would encounter in, say, a typical Indian restaurant. And Indian cuisine is considered world-class.

A friend of mine once told me that we have 20 varieties of beef curry alone. She was probably exaggerating, but rattled off about seven then and there. I can remember four – jaggery beef, pepper beef, devilled beef and beef smore.

But leave aside meats and consider the pretty astonishing number of vegetables and greens we use on a regular basis. For lunch today, I had beetroot, pumpkin, gotukola, dhal and eggplant, in addition to pol sambol, mango chutney, some kind of pickle, and chicken curry. And this would be considered a pretty basic spread. Leave aside the flavours – the multitude of colours alone are marvellous! I think a typical Sri Lankan meal has as much variety as any, and probably more than many.

And who cares about which colonial overlord came up with what? It’s all Sri Lankan now. Try and find a lamprais in Amsterdam or an Ala Thel Thala in Lisbon. If you think the French dreamed up their stuff all by themselves, talk to the Italians. And if you think the Italians did it all themselves, talk to the North Africans.

Where we fail is that we have just given up on quality. My granny’s old cook could make a divine chicken curry, where the gravy had more than adequate spice but didn’t overpower the flavour of the chicken. Today a chicken curry is usually such a dreary affair. No one cares about ingredients, we overcook just about everything, and as long as there’s military grade chilli in it, we’re happy.

But when it’s done well, Sri Lankan cuisine can be quite glorious and certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

The French are an exception. For example consider the cuisine of the English or the Scottish… bangers and mash for the former and haggis for the latter… how “exciting” is that? And what about the Germans with their Sauerkraut? And like you said potatoes come from South America and they were introduced to Europe by the Spanish. And the central ingredient of what is now Italian cuisine – the tomato – also comes from South America and is not native to Europe. But I agree that Sri Lankans in general do not have a foodie culture, and there is very little experimenting or development of new dishes.

when we eat we don’t talk?! Have you never dined with a Sri Lankan before? Food is a major part of any social event.

I think it’s Kandyan era, like 17th-18th century, though the temple itself must be older. I think some of the paintings have been redone during colonial times, with additions of cupids and roses etc.