BENGALURU:Indulging in close-to-authentic food is quite rare these days with fusion food being the trend of the season. Yet, the struggle is real when it comes to keeping alive traditional food that you were once served as kids by your mother or grandmother. Being said, you could be in for a surprise at The Sri Lankan food festival which started on Thursday at Sheraton Grand Hotel at Brigade Gateway.
While City Express was in for a preview before the festival started, we were served an array of dishes from salad, buns, pickles to vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries. Chef Ramesh, a renowned Sri Lankan chef, definitely left us mouth-watering with his presentation.
We started off with a taste of the fish bun, known as Maalu Paan, comprising tuna fish and potato savoury mix. Now this is the perfect breakfast dish to gobble up especially when you are in a hurry. Baked perfectly, clearly showing it on the golden brown bun, the dish was slightly dry on the inside but nevertheless, it still made a mark.
The Sri Lankan Eggplant Pickle with aubergines, vinegar, ginger and garlic, was another favourite among the pickles - sour and mixed well when eaten with bread.Negumbo Black Pork Curry with grated coconut and black pepper powder had a good flavour which was spicy due to the pepper, and very similar to South Indian Pork curries. The pork pieces were a bit hard, which could have been more tender. However, the curry was the highlight of the dish.
Lamb Bistek cooked in curry vinegar with onions, tomato, green chillies, ginger and garlic is actually a beef dish but is replaced with lamb chops. The coconut milk used gives it a distinct flavour, which makes the dish sweet rather than usual spicy lamb chops.The highlight of the entire cuisine was the Jaffna Crab curry, cooked right, the masalas used in the dish can be tasted in the flesh too. Not too spicy and not too sweet, it gives a perfect balance to the curry. The dish can get a bit messy but that’s the whole fun of it.
From the vegetarian menu, we tried the Lotus Root Curry, Nelum ala Vanjanaya. Again with a distinct flavour of coconut milk, the dish was sweet. Most of the curries had coconut milk which had similarities to Kerala and Tamil Nadu cuisine.
Aluva, a white diamond shaped dessert with rice flour, coconut milk, and Dawal Kurundhu leaf, melts in your mouth and was just perfect after trying out the crab curry. Not too sweet, this is also a perfect snack to munch on.Overall, the cuisine did give us a flavour of Sri Lankan roots and had a stark similarity to the South Indian cuisine we get here at home. And a thumbs up to the chef for his efforts.
Cost for two: Rs 3,800
Rating: 4/5