Taste of Sri Lanka – Brew and Barbeque

Brew and Barbeque, located inside Soul Arena Mall near Marathalli, Bangalore. The places is located on the 4^th floor of the building and it huge in size. There is even a deck for private gatherings. The décor is of a typical pub with rustic brick walls and a stage for live performances. The place is running the Sri Lankan food festival, dishes curated by renowned food enthusiast and writer Priya Bala. The festival runs until the end of next week.

The festival even has Sri Lankan inspired cocktails. We tried their Cool Toddy and Wasawasi. The Cool Toody was made in buttermilk with vodka infused drumstick, few Sri Lankan fried spices. Never imagined that we could make cocktail out of Buttermilk. It was damn refreshing and out of the world experience. The Wasawasi was made in Ceylon Cinnamon infused rum with loads of citrus fruits and spices. Delicious and spicy!

When it comes to food Sri Lanka had lots to offer with its subtle spices. We had couple of appetizers inspired from Sri Lanka like the Veg Cutlet. Simple mixture of minced veggies with Sri Lankan spices and crumble on top. Was missing my green chutney otherwise it would have been a perfect food. Next came the Devilled Mushroom, this quick stir fried mushroom dish is tossed with cubes of onions, capsicum, chilies and mustard paste. Awesome and a must try! Lastly, we tried the Seeni Sambol Bun. From outside it might look like a regular bun but it was stuffed with Onion sambol. The onions had caramelized till it turned sweet, it was perfect.

For the main course we tried the Sri Lankan Pumpkin Curry and Brinjal Moju. The Pumpkin curry was slowly cooked with Sri Lankan spices, curry powder and coconut milk. The Brinjal Moju was cooked with Sri Lankan spices and coconut milk. We tried both these curries with rice cakes. The taste was creamy and flavorful. Do try them if you haven’t eaten Pumpkin or Brinjal for sometime. The Sri Lankan dal was again very light and mildly flavored. There were even Tapioca chips on the sides making our plate complete.

At first, we were skeptical about Sri Lankan desserts as we didn’t know any. But we had couple of them and each one was simply delicious. The Watallappam is a pudding made with coconut and Sri Lankan spices. It was light, fluffy and just melted in the mouth. The Sri Lankan Muscat is a coconut flavored halwa topped with nuts, a bit oily but super delicious. Lastly, we tried the Coconut Jaggery Ice-cream, the coconut flavored ice-cream is topped with Jaggery syrup. Though it sounds simple but the taste was out of the world.