Janet's Journal

Short eats are the most popular form of street food in Sri Lanka.  Recipes are handed down through the generations of these much loved snacks, some light & some substantial enough to make a main meal. 

Everywhere you go you can find vendors of these treats from a shop front, kiosk or even a table set up outside someone’s home.

Roti
Roti come in many shapes and sizes and is used in many different ways to make tasty short eats.  Plain roti are made from flour, water and salt worked until wafer thin.  Then fried and eaten with dhal, potatoes or meat curry.  Egg roti has an egg broken onto before being folded and fried. 

Filled roti use the same dough but the shape will tell what the filling is.  Vegetable roti are usually triangle shaped and filled with a curried vegetable mixture before being folded and then dry fried.  Beef or chicken roti are oblong and made the same way

Pol roti made from grated coconut, flour, green chilli and water then dry fried in small round discs, served with chilli paste is good to eat on its own, but lovely to take home & dip into soft fried or poached eggs.  Or it can be eaten with treacle by those who like a sweeter snack.

Rolls
Rolls are made from plain roti dipped in beaten egg and breadcrumbs before being fried.  Egg rolls contain a hard boiled egg with potato curry, normally triangular in shape.  Fish rolls are sausage shaped  

Always best eaten while hot so that the outside coating is still crispy with the inside being soft and spicy. Just to make things interesting there are some people who make these in different shapes, so always check!

Buns
These look like bread rolls!  One of the most popular is egg bun, hard boiled egg, slices of onion and a piece of capsicum.  Fish buns are triangular with a spicy fish curry in the centre.  Seeni sambal, slow cooked sweet and spicy onion, is another favourite.

Samosas
Small triangular shaped roti stuffed with vegetable or chicken and then deep fried until crispy.

Cutlets
Either fish or egg they are fairly dry curries which are pressed into round balls before being dipped in beaten egg & dipped in biscuit crumbs and deep fried.

Vadai
Vadai is like a crunchy lentil fritter or savoury biscuit. They are made from coarsely ground lentils, whole lentils, chopped green chilli and onion, seasoned with salt and pepper, then made into a little patty shape and and deep fried. 

Crisp and spicy, they make a tasty snack. A lot of street vendors will also sell them with whole deep fried prawns on top.

Unduvadai
These are also very addictive, like a savoury doughnut, crispy on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside. 

Very similar ingredients to vadai with the addition of ground rice and a little water made into a small patty shape with a whole in the middle, then deep fried until golden brown. Delicious eaten with a little coconut sambal.

Dosa
A thin, crèpe-style pancake made from a fermented rice and lentil batter. It’s fascinating watching them being made. Dosas can be eaten any time of day as a quick filling snack or a main meal. 

Crisp and buttery dosas fried in copious amounts of ghee vie with the simple plain soft dosa eaten with a sambal. Another tasty choice is masala dosa served with a spicy potato filling.

Hoppers
Hoppers, appa, are made from a fermented batter and cooked in a hopper pan with a lid until the paper thin sides are crispy and the base is soft and spongy. 

There are plain hoppers, or egg hoppers when an egg is broken into the bottom until just cooked.

A treacle hopper has treacle mixed into the batter before it is cooked.

Achcharu
Loved by most Sri Lankans from childhood, it has a sweet, tangy taste with a kick of chilli. Unripe fruits, most popular being mango, pineapple, nelli and ambarella, are chopped into small pieces then pickled in a mixture of vinegar, salt, sugar and chilli powder. 

Whole veralu, the Sri Lankan olive, is also used sometimes to make this tasty pickle.

Welithalapa
A delicious roadside treat for those with a sweet tooth. Grated coconut is mixed with treacle and kurakkan, boiled together and pressed between a banana leaf to cool.

Pani Walalu
Another sugar overloaded treat. Undu (urad dhal) flour is mixed with coconut milk to make a batter, which is then piped into hot oil into coils. When golden brown and crispy they are dipped in treacle syrup and left to cool a little

Manioc Chips
Made from the humble cassava, which is cut into thin slices, deep-fried until golden brown, then sprinkled with salt and chilli powder.

By the roadside you can always find people selling pineapple, cut and ready to eat, or maybe a king coconut for a quick refreshing drink. 

Enjoy!