Lacking a restaurant culture, Sri Lanka was a challenge when
it came to food. With Sri Lankan cuisine, Rice and Curry is the traditional
main course. Taking two to four hours to prepare, the simple phrase ‘Rice and
Curry’ does little to encompass the variety, both in terms of the complete
mystery of what foods you will actually be served and what flavor combinations
you may end up with.
A meal of Rice and Curry consists firstly of your choice of
meat, dependent of course on what is available, and what the chef wants to cook
that evening. Chicken, beef, fish, fried eggs, hardboiled eggs, mango, banana,
jackfruit (meat, fruit; tomato, tomahto), you name it, they’ll curry it. Then,
an assortment of small curried vegetable dishes, anywhere from two to eight, fill
up all empty space on the table. Green beans, onion, tomato, okra, string
beans, beets, peppers, potatoes and various indeterminate veggies abound. It’s
a complete gamble, but usually also includes dhal (lentils, useful in the event
of extreme spice).
And if this veritable feast from the curry gods sounds too
good to be true, that’s because we haven’t yet touched on the Russian roulette
of flavors involved.
As native New Mexicans living in Thailand, we thought we
were acclimated to spicy foods. Sri Lanka takes spicy to new levels.
Personally, I prefer to be able to taste my food and feel my tongue. From bland
with horrendously spicy aftertaste to eye-wateringly spicy mango curry with a smoky
flavor, the Sri Lankans certainly manage to pack in the chili. However, there
is little flavor aside from the heat; rarely did we encounter sweet, salty or
savory, and when we did they were overpowered. The right balance of spice and
taste just never seemed to come to fruition. Ultimately, Rice and Curry turned
out to be nothing but a buffet of squandered potential and burning taste buds
on a heaping pile of steamed rice.
