Trishaw bread delivery. Photo by Dennis S. Hurd.
The Guardian talks about mobile shopping in Jaffna, ie, people delivering coconuts, bread and fish door to door. We have the same thing in Colombo, in Dehiwela at least. In the morning the short-eat trishaw comes around, then the fish and vegetables, basically anything you could need. Coconuts just fall from the tree (in the quantities that I require them).
The short-eat trishaw food is dubious. Short eats have limited nutritional value in the first place, but those unrefrigerated three-wheelers that circle the block never have anything good in my experience. You can’t go wrong with a roast paang, but the donuts and hot-dogs are pretty bad.
I also find the fish a bit suspicious. The guy is pushing raw fish around in the morning sun. I also wonder about the fishmonger’s wife. The vegetable sellers I guess are fine.
That said, I rarely buy anything from the people circling the block. I just walk 20 meters down to the corner, where they have vegetables, meat, bread and groceries. For all the emphasis on the west in local food, that’s sorta what we get by default in Colombo. I rarely go to a supermarket, instead getting whatever is circulating locally, on the street level.