Just had Sri Lankan for the first time the other night at Sigiri. Can’t believe I got hooked onto M.I.A.’s music long before my first bite of Sri Lankan curry. It's new, startling, SPICY. What is going on here? I don’t know. Black mustard seeds in the dhal. Okay, yeah, but there’s more. Pooja wagers a guess. Is there roasted coconut in there? "No," the waitress says. "But there is coconut milk." So, it’s heavy on the coconut milk, which comes with two of our side dishes as well. But not in a sickly sweet bad American Thai restaurant kind of way. In a soberly pungent, salty kind of way.
The heat is making people rowdy. Joanna says the word ‘spicy’ about 50 times in the first 5 minutes. She is also making moany endorsements. Everyone is - the food is intoxicating. The prawn curry has strips of pandan leaves in there, which I’ve always associated with Indonesian food. There is a whole page dedicated to rice and rice noodle preparations – my people. The pittu, a side dish, is roasted rice meal mixed with freshly grated coconut and steamed. It's great by itself.
At home, I read that Sri Lankan food has Indian, Malay, Dutch and Portuguese influences in their cooking from colonizers and settlers. I find an article by Amanda Hesser from 2004. She writes:
“Cooks here use coconut milk where most Indians use yogurt, coconut oil rather than ghee, and they cook with more fish and more chilies…Cooks rely heavily on aromatics like fresh curry leaves and rampe (or pandan leaf)…Tamarind and its frequent substitute, goraka, add tang to curries, and Maldives fish, a smoked and sun-dried skipjack tuna that is shaved, is used for salt and depth in condiments and broths.”
She also writes that the cuisine is closest in spirit to Kerala. I ask Harshad his thoughts on this statement. He tells me he agrees. “Some Sundays the chicken curry (at Sigiri) tastes like my mom's. Although there are some differences. The spices are a lot more intense. The food in Kerala tends to be milder.”
Sigiri
91 1st Ave
New York, NY 10128
(212) 614-9333
Recent Comments