From notes of eastern spice to authentic street food, Sri Lanka has much to offer those visitors who wish to challenge their taste buds with novel delicacies. Here’s how to enjoy a journey of taste through Sri Lanka if you are a foodie visiting the island.

Milkrice 

Let’s start off your flavourful local culinary journey with milkrice. For those lodged at hotels like Amari Colombo, the breakfast buffet is likely to include this amazing Lankan breakfast. Boiled in coconut milk, this rice dish goes well with lunu miris (a spicy onion sambal) or even a chicken or fish curry.

Hoppers

Hoppers are considered to be more or less like a pancake, but with a Sri Lankan twist. This is made with a fermented rice flour dough and is soft in the centre and crispy all around once fried. It is usually served with an egg in the centre, sweet with jaggery or even just plain.

Kottu

Right from the best restaurants in Colombo to the wayside eateries, just about anywhere in Sri Lanka, kottu is certainly a hot favourite on the menu. The best experience is standing by the kama kade (food shop), listening to the clanking of steel as the chef prepares a fresh portion of kottu just for you. The dish taste out of this world!

Stringhoppers

Image by Wikimedia Commons

Unlike the previous hopper dish, this is not a pancake, but rather a stringy bundle of steamed rice flour dough. Stringhoppers are best eaten with kiri hodi (flavourful coconut milk curry), pol sambol and a choice of meat/fish curry.