Latest / What’s the Story: The Sri Lanka Podcast / The Kerfuffle In The Kitchen | Getting Picky in Sri Lanka
Transcript
- The Kerfuffle In The Kitchen | Getting Picky in Sri Lanka The kerfuffle in the kitchen has calmed down since I (at last) remembered the adage about too many cooks spoiling the broth. And acted upon it. Sudeth and Kasun, our (pre)existing chefs, have stepped effortlessly into the gap left by the departure of a big enchilada, and the pot is set to simmer smoothly again. Two Commis chefs have joined the team, and the kitchen whirls once more with contented, timely, creative – rather than the sultry Gordon Ramsay B Side that is the alternative chorus of any kitchen. Both Sudeth and Kasun are pleasingly talented and able; well organised, properly mindful of standards, hardworking and curious to push the boundaries of our Menu Mantras. Our kitchen is (I know I may be unjustly accused of bias here) the best within at least a 65-mile range, if not more. It’s certainly way better than anything in Kandy, Negombo, Matale, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Hatton, Dambulla, or most of the grand restaurants and hotels in Colombo. That’s more than conscionably good for a kitchen in the jungles of central Sri Lanka, where finding pomegranate molasses can take the better part of a week. Having eaten my way through more Michelin-starred restaurant menus than any generous god could countenance, I‘ve rediscovered the blindingly obvious: you can’t beat simplicity, authenticity, routine. Do a few things really well; keep to what you can buy that is really fresh and local; and take to heart that food is a tour (or at worst, an excursion) through a country, a district, a culture. That’s it. That’s our menu Mantra. Entirely. No more. And definitely no less. This means leaving other kitchens in other lands to fashion dry ice trompe l'oeil salads, pompadour cuts of preternaturally expensive meats from distant Japanese prefectures, mercurial seascapes daubed with caviar and served on mirrors dusted with blushing Anatolian salts; and all the other melodramatic dishes prepared for the jaded urban palates of this starving earth. No. No., No. No. Food may be fuel, but it sure isn’t entertainment, brief and flimsy as anything you might catch flickering across the Netflix screens before it is gone forever. Not unless you’ve run out of other things to do in a long and reckless life, and have taken to climbing the Munros or dropping in on the College of Heraldry to research your matriarchal family line. Food is culture, learning, and life. What I revere about our estate food is that all our ingredients are really, really local (though the curd most certainly comes from heaven). The most perfect vegetables and fruit are sensually abundant just a stone’s throw away; most of the usual, but still more of the unexpected. The spices we pick from our gardens are cinnamon, cloves, pandan leaves, and pepper. cardamom, vanilla, curry leaves, turmeric, goraka, ginger, cumin, chilli. The herbs we grow ourselves. When it comes to meats, we are very picky. Good beef doesn’t happen on the island: it comes from thousands of miles away, tired, jet-lagged and an affront to any armchair environmentalist. Pork is challenging; locally sourced, easily disgraced. Lambs, like penguins, have yet to call this tropical island home. But the chicken is excellent. And the fish, of course, is better still. Sailfish swims off all the coasts, its flesh thick, steaky and white with none of the oily aftertaste of some sea creatures. And tuna – well, enough said. Tasty tuna can be seen off every beach doing backstroke, breaststroke, crawl, a gleaming Sri Lankan passport clasped between its teeth. Tuna is very, very good. And then of course there is rice. Back west or down the sleek corridors of the G7 nations, it's mostly white. Intermittently wild. Sometimes brown. Occasionally organic. But here there is also Suwendel, Kuruluthuda Wee, Madathawalu, Sulai, Murungakayan, Pachaperumal, Sudu Heenati, Kaluheenati, Gonabaru, Kuru Hondarawala, Polon Wee, Guru Podi Wee, Kuru Ma Wee, Pulli Wee, Alagu Samba, Guru Wee, Pushpa Raga, Alagu Samba, Allei Perumal, Hapumal Wee, Mada El, Rasna Vaalu, Askarayal, Hata Da Wee, Rata Thawalu, Hathi El, Madei Karuppan, Rath El, Heen Deveradhari, Maha Maa Wee, Bala Goda Wee, Manikkam, Masuran, Bala Murunga, Heen Rath El, Rath Karael, Bala Samba, Heen Samba, Molagu Samba, Rath Mada Al, Bala Thatu Wee, Heen Suvuru Wee, Molligoda, Bata Kiri El, Hondarawalu, Motakarupan, Mudu Kiri El, Rathu Bala Wee, Beheth Heenati, Kahata El, Murunga, Rathu Sooduru, Kahata Samba, Niyan Wee, Kalu Bala Maa Wee, Kalu Bala Vee, Deveradhari, Kalu Handiran, Sudu Maa Wee, Goda Wee, Kottayar, and Wanni Dahanala. To name but a few. As Van Goff might have said to a curious passerby: we are not short of colours. To shape food with all this around us is a little short of joyful. There are the obvious things you should never deviate from: toast soldiers with boiled eggs; nutmeg with comfort macaroni cheese; proper homemade marmalade; and freshly baked bread. But the ketchup with our lunchtime fish and chips isn’t Heinz -it's homemade, with nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. Curries come with Mango & Rosemary Chutney. Ice creams are flavoured with more than just vanilla or chocolate – with cardamom or ginger, chilli & kittel, or pepper & honey. Sri Lanka’s melting-pot history of Indian, Portuguese, Dutch, and British flavours tosses such beloved invaders as hoppers, milk rice, love cakes, bibikkan, samosas, gulam jamun, bhajis, and lassis onto our menu. Soups made from carrot, cauliflower, beetroot, or pumpkin are stirred with a greater intensity of added ginger, cardamom, coconut, or chilli. Island favourites like naran kawum, cashew nut or vegetable curries, dhal dishes, meats, or classic dishes of tuna, cauliflower, spinach, salsas, potatoes, or beans are enlivened by a touch of lemongrass, rosemary & kitel, pineapple, saffron, tamarind or ginger, kittul & basil. You can’t meet a bit of the real Sri Lanka when you eat from Kasun and Sudeth’s kitchen, despite choosing your food with the judgment of a dowager. Even their breakfast fried eggs have little smiles on the yolks picked out in pepper grapes. Real food, as Julia Child observed, is a serious art form and a national sport. That was a production written and recorded by David Swarbrick at The Ceylon Press, based in the jungle north of Kandy, at The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel, and set up to tell the story of Sri Lanka.