In Ehliyagoda, a small village in Sri Lanka’s central hills region, two girls stand above a mortar and pestle, grinding rice into flour with every blow of their large coconut-wood rods. It is heavy work for the young girls.
But preparing food is as much a social occasion as it is a domestic duty in Sri Lanka – a time for women to gather and gossip. Grinding rice is a daily routine that takes place in villages across the country and while the nation’s business capital, Colombo, is a modern urban metropolis, beyond the city limits most Sri Lankans live a traditional way of life.
A large portion of the 20 million residents in this tear-shaped country the size of Tasmania are involved in the food industry – as farm hands, selling produce at markets and on the side of the road, or working in restaurants or tea houses, feeding others. You see the evidence of this everywhere … roadside stalls sell fresh meat and fish, red rice and curries or buffalo curd in clay pots. When you buy a King Coconut, a national delicacy, the seller will hack a section off with a machete, place a straw in the top and send you on your way. Boys push trolleys or ride bikes with carts attached selling vegetables and fruit such as bananas, jackfruit, local cherries, cashew nuts and diced mangoes.
Slowly recovering from the ravages of civil war – a ceasefire in December 2001 brought the battles to a halt, and calm now prevails – the nation once known as Ceylon is rebuilding, led by the clothing and gem industries, as well as tea, coconut products and spice exports. And the tourists are beginning to return, although a strong military presence reminds travellers that the country has battled Indian, Portuguese, Dutch and English occupation as well as internal rifts over the past two centuries. But the hotels are filling again as sightseers from across the globe trickle back to this part of Asia.
While international influences can be seen throughout the land, the villages of rural Sri Lanka have retained their traditional way of life. In kitchens across the land, old recipes and food customs are as strong as ever.
The Sri Lankan cuisine is dominated by curries, and while many dishes are similar to those created in neighbouring Asian nations, such as India and Thailand, Sri Lanka’s distinctive use of spices, herbs, fresh vegetables and fruit make its cuisine unique.