CulinarySri Lankan food and spice

Start with a market walk alongside a cook who knows the vendors, then a rice and curry of several small dishes: coconut, curry leaf, red-lentil parippu, young-jackfruit polos, pol sambol and a sour fish curry cured in goraka. Try hoppers and string hoppers at breakfast and kottu in the evening.

The spice gardens at Matale and Mawanella still grow Ceylon cinnamon, cardamom, pepper and clove. The northern kitchen in Jaffna is known for a fierce crab curry, and the south for king coconut and arrack at sundown. Galle Face high tea in Colombo keeps its own colonial routine.

We can arrange a private dinner on the south coast, a tasting menu in a Cinnamon Gardens townhouse, or a seat at the chef's pass in a kitchen that doesn't usually take outside bookings.