WHAT comes to your mind first, when you think of Sri Lankan food? Sri Lankan crabs, no doubt! But you’re bound to miss out on a lot if you cling to that association. Much as the sweet-fleshed Sri Lankan crabs deserve their fame, there’s a wide assortment of curries, sambol (spicy side dishes), meat and seafood dishes, snacks, and desserts that are distinctively Sri Lankan, says Chef Publis, lead chef of Mount Lavenia Hotel in Colombo.
Aged 64, Publis has risen to the position from the ranks of a kitchen apprentice who ‘‘knew nothing about cooking’’.
Quite popular in his country for his culinary skills in both traditional and modern Sri Lankan cuisine, this was Publis’ third trip to Delhi (and sixth to India) to participate in the Sri Lankan food festival at Hyatt Regency. Newsline caught up with him eager to share what he terms as the ‘‘nouvelle’’ cuisine of Sri Lanka.
The misconception about Sri Lankan food
It’s not as spicy as people think. The modern cuisine, specially is not spicy because we don’t use too much chilli. We replace it with coconut milk, curry leaves, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cummin seeds and sweet cummin seeds.
People also confuse our food with South Indian cuisine since both look similar sometimes. But the two are absolutely different. In South Indian cuisine, the vegetables tend to be over-stewed, spicy — too much of garam masala for my taste and there’s excessive use of artificial essence and colouring, animal milk and fat. Also the dals are overcooked. There are no pieces and the spinach is blended thoroughly.
In our cuisine, we try to let the natural flavours of our ingredients show through: you can see the colour and freshness of the food. We use less of spice. It also has ayurvedic properties.
On spices
Sri Lanka’s main ethnic group are the Sinhalese. And their staple diet? Rice and curry, usually of spiced vegetables, fish, poultry, meat or game dishes. The Sri Lankan cuisine is expressed in spices — cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, mustard seeds, coriander, turmeric, for instance — that total up to 42 in number with about 37 of these having medicinal values.
On medicinal values
The key to the Sri Lankan cuisine is Ayurveda, the traditional Hindu system of medicine in which health is ruled by the balance of five basic elements: air, fire, water, earth and ether. It determines the selection of spices for various foods. The average curry, for example, may contain up to 13 key ingredients such as onion, garlic, chili, lime, turmeric, cumin, each with its own particular Ayurvedic effects.
On curries
Sri Lanka has ‘‘red’’ curries, which contain a lot of chilli and a limited number of spices. The distinctively Sinhalese ‘‘black’’ curries have a rich aroma and flavour, thanks to the technique of roasting whole spices (mainly coriander, cumin and fennel) to a rich brown colour before grinding them.
‘‘Brown’’ curries are made from unroasted spices, while ‘‘white’’ curries are mild curries that contain plenty of coconut milk and very little chilli.
Accompanying the curries will most likely be at least one spicy condiment known as a sambol. Also known as ‘‘rice pullers’’, these sambol are sure-bets to whet the appetite with their basic ingredient — from onion, bitter gourd, dried shrimp to salted lime — heightened by the flavours of chilli, onion, salt and Maldive fish (a type of tuna fish). Sri Lanka has a total of more than 365 varieties of vegetables.
His passion
I have been working for 47 years now and have visited over 220 countries. I am currently working as a consultant at 6 hotels — 4 in Maldives and 2 in Sri Lanka and would continue to work for another 15 years at least.
I like to produce novel cuisine, giving different cuts to different vegetables and making different curry preparations for each vegetable or meat. Some of my recipes are being sold in Dubai, Australia, UK and Switzerland as ready-to-eat packaged food/spice powders.
On crabs
The locals don’t get to enjoy Sri Lankan crabs. Crabs are quite expensive in our country, and 80 per cent of the larger ones are exported to Singapore. So we get generally the leftovers — the smaller crabs!
On popularity of Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is popular around the world because of its taste. But it is actually not healthy, for 90 per cent of it is oil, ajinomoto and various sauces — soy sauce, oyster sauce etc.
The only good thing about it is that the vegetables are half-cooked.
On Delhi
I have been here twice earlier. My last trip being two years back. It has changed for good over the years, with respect to cleanliness.