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Coconuts and curry for Breakfast

11th April 2016 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

From one beach to the next, the Bidmead tour of Sri Lanka continued down the coast to another small beach town – Tangalle. Less developed than the small but touristy town of Unawatuna, Tangalle is the perfect spot to spend a couple of days, doing absolutely nothing.

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Beaching in Tangalle, Sri Lanka

Nothing, of course, still consists of consuming some truly fabulous Sri Lankan food. Our guest house included breakfast, and although we opted for a continental one morning (sometimes, you just want a dippy egg), on our second day it was time to sample our first Sri Lankan breakfast.

Popular breakfast dishes in Sri Lankan include lentil dahl, spicy but cooled down by the coconut milk it’s cooked in, eaten on top of buttery soft roti bread. Hoppers, eaten either for breakfast or lunch, are bowl shaped pancakes made from rice flour and coconut milk. Sturdy enough to stay erect in the shape of the specially shaped pan used to make them, these pancakes are actually paper thin and delicate to eat.

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A typical Sri Lankan breakfast. To the left, lentil dahl (top) and below, chilli coconut sambol. On the plate (clockwise): hopper, string hopper, egg hopper & roti

The breakfast at our guest house consisted of not only hoppers, but egg hoppers too – the same dish, but with an egg cracked in the middle. Alongside out hoppers we were given a lentil dahl and pol sambol (shredded coconut, lime juice, red onions, chilli and spices). There was also freshly baked roti bread and string hoppers, which are plain cooked noodles made to be eaten along the dahl.

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Don’t judge a book by its cover – Saliya restauran

After one long morning of beaching, we took a break from the sand and sun and headed towards Tangalle town for a spot of lunch. We followed a Lonely Planet recommendation and ended up at Saliya, a large wooden hut off the main road. Although its rustic setting and squat toilet would not suggest it, the food was of a very high standard. We shared a large mullet fish and fresh jumbo prawns between us. Both dishes were grilled in a sweetly spiced ginger glaze, with much more of a Japanese flavour than the spicier Sri Lankan flavours we were becoming accustomed to eating.

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Grilled king prawns and mullet, served with a fruity salad

The salad was a mix of pineapple, mango, tomato, cabbage and red onion. The sweet fruit mixed with the strong and acidic onions made for a tangy culmination of flavours, with lime juice on top to help them all blend together. It was the perfect light lunch, leaving just enough room for some soft, eggy and sweet coconut pancakes for dessert.
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And with a fresh coconut on the beach, it was goodbye to the sea and up into the hills, for our next stop in Ella.
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Keep reading for the next Sri Lanka post, where I explore more of the wondrous dish that is roti bread, while sipping lots of tea in the cool and mountainous tea region.

Filed Under: Sri Lankan food, travel bidmeadbites, travel writing Tagged With: coconut, mullet, prawns, sri lanka, sri lankan breakfast, sri lankan food, tangalle

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