What Calls Me Back: The 5 Sri Lankan Dishes I Miss From Home
- Nathalie Claudia
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
There is always food we would swim oceans for, just to taste home again. Here are five dishes our food writer Nathalie would gladly cross seas for from her homeland, Sri Lanka (and honestly, can you blame her?).
On the journey home from university, does anyone else expect a plate of warm food awaiting their arrival?
I for one, do. But my home… is somewhat of an ocean away… so here are 5 dishes I would swim the distance for!
Firstly, a piping hot cheese kottu with its accompanying spicy sauce has to be one of my legendary go-to comfort foods, and it usually awaits me regardless of the time or the day I land in Sri Lanka.
කොත්තු ( kottu) is simply a hearty dish, full of explosive flavours from the shredded roti that has soaked up a curry, mixed up with fresh vegetables, rich meat and sometimes creamy, soft cheese.
As for breakfast, there’s a particular dish that traditionally symbolises a change in one’s life. Prepared on our birthdays, on first days of school or work, during weddings, and even farewells, is none other than, කිරි බත් (kiri bath).
Kiri bath, also known as milk rice, is a staple meal found across the island and a focal dish that is versatile enough to be eaten with curries, sambols and lighter alternatives such as jaggery and milk toffee for sweet-tooths.
My family and I would engage in a bit of a workout and make the sambols from scratch using a simple mortar and pestle.
We would share the meal and disperse for the day, already eagerly awaiting the next.
We have plenty of options for dinner, and the most nostalgic for me would be… String hoppers!
Less than 5 metres away from my home resides an exceptional woman with her exceptionally loud children, and every night, she would make ඉඳිආප්ප (indi appa), also known as string hoppers which are basically soft threads of dough, permeable enough to soak up curries and malleable enough to envelope meats, vegetables and more. Essentially, a heavy meal in disguise that will put you right into a food coma.
On a more personal note, there are no greater culinary experts in my family than my grandmothers. Though being quite different in nature and taste, they come together to create meals that can only be described as blessings – tempting fruits of their union.
A simple rice and curry meal for lunch will forever taste like home. I’m pretty sure rice is the first thing you’re fed as a baby and it’ll probably be the last — basic Sri Lankan lore, yes.
However, I believe society as a whole lacks genuine understanding towards the effort and cultivated instinct that goes into making vibrant curries, each with their own unmistakable taste atop rice that has also been infused in flavour. The colours are a mere pretty sight; beneath it all lie homegrown freshly plucked leaves coated in spices bought from the neighbourhood store we cycle to. And if we’re lucky, our own vegetables would have been the benefits of our clumsy yet earnest gardening, and if not, once again, gifted from a neighbour.
Sri Lanka is boastful of its food and I found that I had taken it all for granted when I travelled to Malaysia. Here, I have had the joyful privilege of exploring places I had never expected and discovered countless meals, that I in turn have fallen indebted to. From a solemn lightness to a dynamic kick in the throat, these few years have introduced me to wondrous cultures rich in taste…
Alas, nothing compares.
I find myself experiencing a multiload of emotions everyday, and each ties me to a meal from back home. Perhaps it may be out of habit, instinct, or refined preference… but it is undeniable that I yearn and reach out for tastes that transcend me back to my island, where within the humble streets remain every hand that has fed me.
To bring it to an end, here’s my favourite sambol that’s taste means more to me than its fiery sweetness.
Once in a while, my mother would assemble at least 12 onions the size of my fist and she would direct me to cut them all, leaving me crying, of course. From then, she would carmelize, season and temper a large pot on the stove till she is satisfied. This here would be සීනි සම්බෝල( seeni sambol). A spicy, tangy, yet sweet product that pairs up incredibly well with absolutely anything from warm bread, rice from the pot or it can also be enjoyed straight from the jar as nature intended it, even if my mom frowns upon it.
To this day, these are merely 5 of the many meals that I adore, crave and carefully pack to carry overseas to my home away from home, just in case I miss them (and I always do).
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