I do not like soup. Let me rephrase that – I hate soup and I hate it with a vengeance. Soup makes me think of sick food – the bland stuff that you always get when you are not feeling well. But lo and behold just yesterday, very reluctantly I tried this on a whim. And now, I am a ...

Yara Galle FortGalle Fort – one of my favorite places to be, period. There has always been something that attracts me to this place, something so ancient yet so beautiful that I keep coming back to over and over again. I’ve always been attracted to old places, places with stories to tell, histories to weep over and secrets enshrined within.  ...

I was on one of my baking frenzies when I baked these. A whim that I just needed to put in the oven and see how it comes out. Well they are so damned good that even I was surprised at how awesome they turned out. The dough is the basic maalu paan (fish bun) dough that I modified to ...

Sometimes you  just gotta say, fudge it.Christmas is just approaching and you are tired to the bone, having worked your backside off the entire year and you just can’t wait to get out of office and get under the covers of those comforting annual leave. But there’s still a few more weeks to go and you practically have to drag ...

How would you like a cupcake with chunks of creamy white chocolate, studded with rub red pieces of cherries? What if you encountered a gooey dark chocolate and then a crunchy multilayered biscuit at the bottom of it all? Well, I’m going to tell you how to do it.And I call them Zellers bottom cupcakes!Have you encountered this biscuit in ...

For us Sri Lankans living in a tiny island surrounded by water, seafood is a staple as the air that we breathe.Glistening blue waters fringing the golden sands shaded by lush coconut palms from the golden sunshine all year round, Sri Lanka is the tropical paradise that many dream about. Just for a moment, imagine what it’s like living here ...

Well, this was a small catastrophe. Casualties – A whole chunk of thumb sliced off to the mandolin resulting in loss of its use for a week, three burnt batches of chips and one batch stuck to the baking pan. It was the first time I attempted apple chips but I finally have it! THE method. This is the fool ...

I love shopping for ingredients. Nothing excites me more than going through the market isles looking for the freshest, juiciest most unusual ingredients to work with. The thought of a market visit alone is enough to brighten up my day. On a bad day when I am feeling particularly down, I go ingredient shopping just to cheer myself up. The ...

Who likes Nasi Goreng? Rather the question would be, who doesn’t! Literally meaning “fried rice” in Malay and Indonesian, Nasi Goreng is a much loved Indonesian specialty that we Sri Lankans have embraced and even in some cases, adapted as our own. A spicy rice that is jam packed with flavour and delicious titbits, it is no surprise why this ...

If you’ve been following my blog, chances are that you are already well aware of my love for pork. In my book, chicken is the most boring meat on planet earth in the history of mankind, beef slightly better, mutton, an acquired taste and pork, the oh-so-divine.Don’t even get me started on “chicken bacon” and “chicken ham”. What sacrilege is ...

This is a heart attach waiting to happen. But I can assure you that it is a heart attack that you won’t regret. Ever. Soft, mushy potatoes, cheese and cream. Who could say no? Gratin Daupinois or potato gratin as we call it, is a traditional French regional dish that was first served with an ortolan dish at a dinner given ...

I am not exaggerating or tooting my own horn when I say that my brownies are famous. It has so far been my signature dish. Among those who have tasted it, they have been ranked up and above all brownies that they have tasted so far – be it the countless brownie homebakers, exorbitantly priced commercial bakers and etc in ...

Exotic cz it tastes like that. Honestly, that is the first word that popped into my head once I took a bite. How would you like to bite into a creamy, coconut middle surrounded by a layer of brittle, dark chocolate? This is quite an unassuming but delicious thing that is the result of a late afternoon food fantasy. A likely ...

Just recently I realized that this blog is full of sweet things and savouries are lacking dearly. It’s not that I don’t make savoury things, I do. I mainly make those for dinner and since my dearest darling camera is not much of use at night, I don’t bother taking photos. But I have decided to change this. This dish ...

Sri Lankan Christmas is quite a unique affair. Mothers, aunties and grandmothers in their floral aprons bustle about the kitchen yielding wooden spoons and extra sharp knives months in advance, cutting, chopping, stirring and perfuming the kitchens with the smell of delicious spice, baking and pungent fermmenting.  It is a communal affair where cooking is made a family event – ...

Everything’s in bloom! With the approach of April and the dawn of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, it seems as though nature itself is preparing to welcome the festive season. Avurudu falls on the 14th April this year (as with most years) and as most celebrations in Sri Lanka, Sinhala New Year is characterized by the many traditional Avurudu ...

Living on a tropical island, seafood to us is second nature. Especially for those of us who love our seafood excessively, dishes like crab become everyday food. Not so much now. Choosing a good, fleshy crab is sometimes a challenge even for us island dwelling folk due to the mass exporting of crab from our island nation. Even if ...

I have had crab in every which way possible; at the most outrageously priced crab specialty restaurants to the small hole-in-the-wall outlets known for their crab curry in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, but let me just say that I am yet to encounter a crab curry that tops the one my mother makes. I am not being biased here, I ...

My aunt has a large lime tree which at a certain time of the year, bears so much fruit that she doesn’t know what to do with, when you are fed up with the lime juice, the pickle and the lime cakes and your teeth are protesting at the slightest mention of lime, you just have to stop. After all ...

I’m not a huge veggie person and for me, a meal is not complete unless there’s some meat or fish in it. Which is why I was a bit reluctant to try this one out but the whole food romance I have with Italy made me try this out. And I’m glad I did. It’s a classic northern Italian dish ...