Sri Lankan cuisine is characterized by particular combinations of herbs, spices, fish, vegetables, rice and fruit, shaped by the island's long history as a maritime trading hub that brought Indian, Indonesian and Dutch culinary influence into contact with local ethnic cooking traditions. Rice and coconut, which grows abundantly across the island, form the center of the cuisine, seafood both fresh and preserved plays a major role, and Sri Lankan cinnamon, historically distinguished as Cinnamomum zeylanicum for its delicate sweetness, sets local cooking apart from Southeast Asian traditions that use related but coarser bark. Other distinctive ingredients include Maldive fish, goraka, pandan leaf, lemongrass and kithul palm jaggery, and heritage red rice varieties remain prized. The characteristic meal is boiled or steamed rice served with a curry of fish or meat alongside further curries of vegetables, lentils or fruit, accompanied by pickles, chutneys and sambols, most notably a coconut sambol made with chili pepper and lime juice.
Facts
Signature TechniqueSourced to the subject's own accountThe central technique of Sri Lankan cuisine is serving boiled or steamed rice with a curry of fish or meat alongside further curries of vegetables, lentils or fruit. 1 Origin RegionSourced to the subject's own accountSri Lankan cuisine took shape at a hub of the historic oceanic silk road, where contact with foreign traders brought new food items and cultural influences that layered onto the island's own ethnic culinary traditions, most visibly from Indian, Indonesian and Dutch cooking. 1 Connections
Expresses Tradition
Source On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the KitchenHarold McGee
Features Dish
Source Paratha (Wikipedia)
Source Dal bhat (Wikipedia)
Source Kiribath (Wikipedia)
Source Lamprais (Wikipedia)
Source Murukku (Wikipedia)
Source Papadam (Wikipedia)
Source Yellow rice (Wikipedia)
Uses Ingredient
Source Larousse Gastronomique
Source Larousse Gastronomique
In the Other Atlases
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Sources
1. Sri Lankan Cuisine (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIntroduction
As a country that was a hub in the historic oceanic silk road, contact with foreign traders brought new food items and cultural influences in addition to the local traditions of the country's ethnic groups, all of which have helped shape Sri Lankan cuisine.
Rice and curry
The central feature of Sri Lankan cuisine is boiled or steamed rice, served with a curry of fish or meat, along with other curries made with vegetables, lentils, or fruits.
View the Source Larousse Gastronomique
Hamlyn, 2009- Uses Ingredient: Cinnamon, entry: Cinnamon
- Uses Ingredient: Coconut, entry: Coconut
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
Harold McGee, Scribner, 2004Expresses Tradition: Spice Trade Traditions
Kottu, Wikipedia
Kiribath (Wikipedia)
Features Dish: Kiribath, infobox national_cuisine fieldQuote, Features Dish: Kiribath, infobox national_cuisine field
Sri Lankan cuisine
Lamprais (Wikipedia)
Features Dish: Lamprais, lead paragraphQuote, Features Dish: Lamprais, lead paragraph
Lamprais, (Sinhala ලම්ප්රයිස් ; Tamil லம்ப்ரைஸ்), also transliterated in English as "lumprice", "lampraise" or "lumprais", is a Sri Lankan dish that was introduced by the country's Dutch Burgher population.
Pakora, Wikipedia
Features Dish: Pakora, Infobox: associated_cuisineQuote, Features Dish: Pakora, Infobox: associated_cuisine
Indian cuisine, Indian, Nepali cuisine, Nepali, Sri Lankan cuisine, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi cuisine, Bangladeshi, Pakistani cuisine, Pakistani, Trinidad and Tobago cuisine, Trinidad and Tobago, Afghan cuisine, Afghan
Dal bhat (Wikipedia)
Features Dish: Dal Bhat, Infobox: associated_cuisineQuote, Features Dish: Dal Bhat, Infobox: associated_cuisine
South Asian cuisine, South Asian Bangladeshi cuisine, Bangladeshi Indian cuisine, Indian Assamese cuisine, Assamese Awadhi cuisine, Awadhi Bengali cuisine, Bengali Bhojpuri cuisine, Bhojpuri Bihari cuisine, Bihari Gujarati cuisine, Gujarati Kutchi cuisine, Kutchi Marathi cuisine, Marathi Odia cuisine, Odia Sikkimese cuisine, Sikkimese Nepalese cuisine, Nepalese Sri Lankan cuisine, Sri Lankan Indo-Caribbean cuisine, Indo-Caribbean Guyanese cuisine, Guyanese Jamaican cuisine, Jamaican Surinamese cuisine, Surinamese Trinidad and Tobago cuisine, Trinidad and Tobago Mauritian cuisine, Mauritian Fijian cuisine, Fijian
Murukku (Wikipedia)
Features Dish: Murukku, Infobox: national_cuisineQuote, Features Dish: Murukku, Infobox: national_cuisine
India, Sri Lanka, Fiji
Yellow rice (Wikipedia)
Features Dish: Yellow rice, Lead sectionQuote, Features Dish: Yellow rice, Lead section
Yellow rice is a traditional yellow-colored rice dish in Iranian, Middle East, Moroccan, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Caribbean, Portuguese, Filipino, Afghan, Indian, Sri Lankan, South African and Indonesian
Papadam (Wikipedia)
Features Dish: Papadam, Lead sectionQuote, Features Dish: Papadam, Lead section
served as an accompaniment to a meal in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean
Paratha (Wikipedia)
WikipediaFeatures Dish: Aloo Paratha, Infobox: national_cuisineQuote, Features Dish: Aloo Paratha, Infobox: national_cuisine
India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Myanmar, Malaysia
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.