Continuing my series on What is your favourite street food?
Sri Lanka
There are a number of popular street food items that are popular among locals and tourists.
Shrimp Fritter / Isso Vadai
Made with channa dhal oil cakes and shrimps.
Serve this with a dab of lime juice or chopped onions.
Kotthu
Made with Godambha roti (a type of flatbread/roti made with flour, oil, water & egg). Shredded roti is combined with vegetables, egg, meat, spices and gravy.
Achcharu
Mostly made with fruits such as mango, olives, ambarella, pineapple, guava.
This is a pickled snack that contains chillies, vinegar, salt.
Short-eats
This coined word is referred to as snacks in Sri Lanka. Mostly crumbled and deep fried items as shown in the photos.
The fillings usually consist of canned tuna/mackerel, egg, meat/chicken combined with tempered potato, onions and chillies.
The names of the short eats: cutlets(round shaped ones), patties (half-moon shaped ones), rolls (cylinder shaped ones), samosa - originated from India (triangular-shaped ones)
Hoppers also know as Appa / Appam
This is a very crispy bowl-shaped thin pancake made with a fermented rice flour batter. In Sri Lanka, this is served mostly as a savoury dish and consumed mainly for breakfast and dinner.
It's common to add an egg and consume it as an egg hopper with condiments such as "lunu miris" - chillies and onion paste or with a hot curry.
Recently the big hotels and restaurants have taken these hoppers to the next level by adding various ingredients such as cheese, chopped onions, bell pepper to the batter and serving with tempered prawns etc.
Even though hoppers are common in all parts of Sri Lanka, variations of hoppers are found in India, mainly in Kerala and also in some parts of Malaysia.
So, what is your favourite SriLankan #streetfood ?
