eating like a native

I remember many years ago I had a Tibetan family living next door to me for a few months. They were truly lovely. They set up a shrine in the bedroom. They allowed me to join in their New Years Celebration when everything you wore and ate off had to be new. And you made these dumpling things and hidden inside each one was an element which would indicate how your next year would go. Charcoal - not good. Coral - jolly good. I also remember because they were Buddhists that I assumed they would not eat animals for food. They did have yak cheese and yak butter, but they also ate an enormous amount of red meat. They answered my question by explaining that there were almost no vegetables that grew in the high altitudes of Tibet… what was I thinking…. So here I am in a predominantly Buddhist country where the national symbol is a cockerel. Coconut Oil abounds.

They have 72 varieties of bananas.

Rice is with almost every meal. But chicken, fish and mutton ( which is actually goat) are on every menu at home or in a restaurant. Cows aren’t sacred over here. They are not wandering the highways like they do in India. No one eats the many dogs. And the cats are very skinny. And elephants have always been herbivores.

They drink coconut milk. In hardware stores, you can buy machines that will scoop out the coconut flesh. They fry bananas. They pull mangoes and papayas off the trees in their gardens or lean over to their neighbours. They believe lemons are not good for you and ayurvedically Limes triumph every time. They grow the real cinnamon… not the cassia that is like bark and should be sucked not chewed. This cinnamon dissolves. The vanilla pods are long and bendy. That is apparently how you tell if it is not old and therefore devoid of it’s essential oil, you just wrap it round and round your finger. (I will be trying that the next time I visit Wholefoods.) Pepper grows as a vine up the trunk of other trees. Tamarind is used medicinally along with limes and hot water to start your day. And of course there is Cardamon. And cloves. Which should be green and light brown respectively otherwise they are useless.

Because Sri Lanka has coast upon coast that belongs to them they have fishermen. Who bring their catch in and sell it at the markets, or on the docks, or it is caught and frozen ready for export to foreign lands. Tuna, sardines, butter fish, crab, and many that have names I can’t pronounce.

Fishing is a family tradition but it also a dangerous game. Some men just wander around with a bended stick or a small round net that they hurl into the waves from the sea shore. Some larger nets are thrown out over night and then pulled in by groups of men in the morning light. But there are also boats that go out for a week or three. That can hold 7 tons of fish. Young men go out to make quick money. But seemingly many don’t come back and the main reason is that they go to relieve themselves over the side of the boat holding onto the ladder and they lose their grip and bam. The poop death.

They love dal and fish curries. They often make them with the much prized dried fish which have a overwhelmingly salty taste. They make salads with onion, tomato, grated coconut, lime juice and salt. The favourite condiment is Sambal, which is coconut, red chilli, lime and salt.

They have hoppers which is rice batter swirled around in a small round pan and is turned out as a perfect bowl for you to fill with dal or curry. And there is Kottu. Starts with vegetable, grows with an egg and can end up with chicken ( bones and all ) and the most important ingredient, Roti, which is a chewy kind of bread. And the whole thing is chopped at speed and with some noise on a hot metal plate, and then piled like a Cobb Salad on a plate.

They even make their alcohol from the coconut flowers. These extraordinarily agile men climb high into the trees and walk between them on taut ropes and hit the flowers which release the liquid into the waiting coconut shells. Refined it becomes Arrack. But they call it toddy. And the men are called ToddyTappers. They use what they have. Like those Tibetans next door.