ඔයා හොඳට කෑවද?

Food.

I can only remember the perfectly seasoned lamprais from BreadTalk after a long school day with nothing but fondness. It only helped that BreadTalk was a 2-minute walk from my house. But it's not just the lamprais; every time I reminisce about my culinary adventures in Colombo, an exhaustive list of places rushes to my mind, and I hope that this short blog can do justice to what I have experienced and what I want you to experience.

Upali's

This is a somewhat popular Sri Lankan restaurant right opposite the Town Hall. My first ever memory of experiencing Sri Lankan cuisine was at this restaurant. The pol roti blew my 5-year-old mind so definitely order that. Pair it with the seer fish curry for the most decadent island delicacy you will have ever tasted. I won't force you to order the Watalappan for dessert, but if you're one to try new things, go ahead. And suppose you're a fan of cricket. In that case, you're sure to bump into a few Sri Lankan cricketers on weekends here ( it's really close to the Mercantile Cricket Association grounds where they practice, so definitely a favourite of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena).

The Palmyrah at Renuka

IF YOU WANT TO EAT THE MOST MINDBLOWING JAFFNA CRAB CURRY YOU NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDD TO COME HERE.  It's a legacy hotel situated at Galle Face Road, and personally, for me, the best part about it is that I am really close friends with the guy whose family owns this restaurant so everytime I would go there it would be like special treatment you get me? (author lore!) Anyways, don't forget to try the rasam there too it's better than any rasam you will have everrrrrr tasted. Crab though, most important, with the pol roti, also very important.

special dump in honour of palmyrah: 

The Paradise Café by Geoffrey Bawa

You go into Sri Lanka and you will start hearing a lot of the name Geoffrey Bawa. No he's not some asectic or monk (bruh when I was a kid I thought he was a pir baba but anyways) but he's more like the Sri Lankan Sabyasachi Mukherjee for buildings. Basically he's a really posh architect; now you're wondering what the hell is he doing here on my food list. This man gave life to some of the most stunning and ridiculously exorbitant hotels in the entire country (look up Heritance Kandalama) and cafés. But after trying all of them, I can confidently say that the Paradise Café is the only one worth assaulting your pockets for. Infact, you should definitely traumatise your wallet so you can go try the lobster and the panna cotta and the arborio fillets here. Also, the interiors are just chef's kiss.

Peach Valley

Enough Sri Lankan. Another surprisingly amazing cuisine you'll find at Colombo is Chinese thanks to the hugeee Chinese diaspora residing there so it is no chance that you will find some really authentic Chinese cuisine which will leave you thinking that every other Chinese you have had up until that point was nothing but an imposter. So, go to Peach Valley and try their Tom Yum soup with a side of hot butterfried cuttlefish and peking roasted duck. I still remember the first night when I landed in Colombo, there was no food at our brand new home and we wandered with our car through alleyways only to stumble upon this underrated place. 100000/10

thats enough for now; i hope u ate well

luh dump