Spicy difference
To answer a niggling question in his mind, Ewe Paik Leong heads for Lankan Cafe
I Nwhat way is Sri Lankan food different ing.from Indian? This question keeps playing in my mind as I ascend the staircase to Lankan Cafe, tucked on the first floor of a commercial block in Taman PetalI swing open the glass door and enter a hall separated into two sections by a wall. The front section is outfitted with casual wooden tables and chairs and a bare-brick counter. A few framed travel posters of Sri Lankan scenes hang from one wall. The rear section of the hall has a cozier ambiance because of pendant lights and brickwall tiles.
The menu is divided into breakfast deals, lunch set, dinner treats, a la carte add-ons, tea-time specials and beverages. All dish names are either in Sinhalese or English, and they comprise dishes I’ve never heard of and of dishes I’ve eaten. There are no photos or explanatory notes.
Lunch sets are rice with a choice of several types of curries. For dinner, there are puttu kottu, iddiyappam kottu and kottu roti of the following varieties: vegetarian, egg, chicken, mutton, fish, prawn and squid.
The un-ambitious beverages section is conspicuous for its lack of spiced tea — the lone ranger being ginger tea. For tea (4pm to 6.30pm), there are spring rolls, appam, cakes and puff (mutton, tuna and vegetarian).
FIRST TRIP
My chicken iddiyappam kottu turns out to be a mound of string hoppers partnered with crackers and chutney. And vegetable curry of the day manifests as cauliflower with petals of onion.
The string hoppers start of as a textural thing before slapping my cheeks with strident spices that break in waves and refuse to let the chicken bits have their say.
The crackers are plasticky and should be replaced with spice-fragrant papadom.
Next, my taste buds nearly whimper for mercy at being assaulted by violent heat from the curried cauliflower. The spicing is not multi-layered but is more like a singlenote welding blowpipe! A cold drink saves my taste buds from further brutality.
A high point in my meal is the desserts. Watalappam comes as a square of custard. Nutmeg and cardamom lends fragrant warmth to this spongey-textured delight and coconut prevents the duo from running amok.
I finish off with gula Melaka cake, which breathes caramel-like aromatics over me with each and every bite.
SECOND TRIP
To cover the menu thoroughly, I return for another taste. Puttu kottu is brought to my table as steamed rice bolstered with the same plasticky crackers and chutney.
The rice gains interesting texture from what tastes like desiccated coconut and omelette. It also gains funk from cinnamon, fennel and cardamom.
My taste buds sing praises when zapped by their flavours in ripples! The sweetness of the chutney acts as a contrasting counterpoint to the suave spicing.
A glass of iced ginger tea chases down the puttu kottu, but the ginger and tea in the former don’t reason and rhyme. I prefer cardamom tea.
Now, time for tea on a third visit. The support act by the paal appam (coconut milk appam) deserves a namaste.
Looking like a ringed planet, it has a lacy edge and a glob of coconut with babyfood softness in its centre. The heightened essence of coconut floats to my nostrils on first bite and there is a superb contrast in texture.
Up next are tuna roll and mutton puff. The fillings taste very much of themselves respectively but don’t ignite any culinary fireworks.
THE VERDICT
As I climb down the staircase out to the sidewalk below, I answer my own earlier question: Sri Lankan food differs from Indian as it is spicier and is further funkified with flavours that punch you in the nose!