Sri Lankan food: 12 dishes you should try

Sri Lankan food is one of the best reasons to visit. It is fresh, full of coconut and spices, and very different from Indian food, even if some dishes look similar. Here are twelve things to try.

The classics

1. Rice and curry. The national meal: a plate of rice with several small curries, often dhal (lentils), a vegetable curry, a fish or chicken curry, a sambol and a crispy papadam. Every family and restaurant makes it differently.

2. Pol sambol. Freshly grated coconut with chilli, onion and lime. It goes with almost everything.

3. Hoppers (appa). Bowl-shaped pancakes made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk, crispy at the edges and soft in the middle. An egg hopper has an egg cooked in the middle. Usually eaten in the evening or for breakfast.

4. String hoppers (indiappa). Small nests of steamed rice noodles, eaten with curry and coconut sambol, often for breakfast.

5. Kottu. Chopped flatbread stir-fried on a hot plate with vegetables, egg and meat. You will hear it before you see it: the cooks chop it with two metal blades.

6. Dhal curry. Red lentils cooked in coconut milk, mild and comforting. A good start if you are careful with spice.

Special dishes

7. Lamprais. A Dutch Burgher dish: rice cooked in stock with meat curry, a boiled and fried egg and side dishes, wrapped in a banana leaf and baked.

8. Jaffna crab curry. Rich, spicy and red, from the north.

9. Fish ambul thiyal. A sour, dry fish curry from the south, made with dried goraka fruit.

10. Kiribath. Rice cooked in coconut milk and cut into squares, served at New Year and festive breakfasts.

Sweet things and drinks

11. Fruit. Mango, papaya, pineapple, rambutan, mangosteen and many kinds of banana. Try a king coconut (thambili), the orange coconut, for a natural drink.

12. Ceylon tea. Of course. Visit a tea factory in the hills and taste it fresh.

Also try watalappan, a spiced coconut custard with jaggery, and curd with treacle: buffalo curd with kithul palm syrup.

How spicy is it?

Local food can be very hot. In restaurants and hotels used to visitors, dishes are usually milder. Just say "less spicy, please", and your driver will happily explain what is what.

Vegetarian and vegan

Sri Lanka is easy for vegetarians: many curries are made with vegetables, lentils, jackfruit or beans. For vegans, ask about ghee and fish flakes (Maldive fish), which are sometimes added.