The first time someone puts a Sri Lankan rice and curry in front of you, it is genuinely confusing. There is a mound of rice in the middle and five or six small piles of different things around it, and no obvious instruction. Here is how to actually eat it.
It is not a main and sides
This is the thing to understand. Those little piles are not side dishes and you are not meant to eat them in sequence. The plate is a set of components, and you combine them, differently, in every single bite.
What is usually on the plate
- Rice in the centre.
- Dhal, a soft lentil curry, the comforting anchor of the plate.
- A protein curry - chicken, fish or beef.
- One or two vegetable curries - beetroot, green beans, okra.
- Coconut sambol - grated coconut with chilli and lime, sharp and fresh.
- Often a papadum for crunch.
How to build a bite
Take a little rice. Add a bit of dhal. Add some protein curry. Add a pinch of sambol. Mix it right there on the plate and eat. The next bite, change the ratio. The dhal softens the heat, the sambol cuts the richness, the curry carries the flavour. Every bite is slightly different, and that is the entire point.
The sambol is not a garnish
People push it to the side. Do not. Coconut sambol is the seasoning of the whole meal. It is what makes rice and curry taste alive instead of heavy.
On heat
Sri Lankan food runs hotter than most Indian restaurant food in Canada, and there is less dairy to soften it. It is not there to hurt you, it is there for balance. Any kitchen will tone it down if you ask, so ask for mild your first time.
Where to try it
The best versions come out of small family kitchens, not big restaurants. In Scarborough the one I point people to is Blessed Kitchen, a family-run halal spot doing proper rice and curry, biryani and kottu.
Order a rice and curry with a couple of proteins, mix everything the way you are supposed to, and you will understand why people are so attached to this food.
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