Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

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Being Offended

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

I spend a lot of my time when I’m away trying not to offend people. I’ve landed in the middle of their country and their culture. They’ve welcomed me in to their homes, their schools, their workplaces, their lives. I genuinely don’t want to offend them. Sometimes it’s hard trying to work out exactly what I should and shouldn’t say and what I should and shouldn’t do in any given circumstance. But I try.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother.

I was talking to one of the English teachers in on of the schools I was working in. She asked if I was married. I said no. She asked if I had a boyfriend. I said no. She said: “Yes, I could tell you want to be alone because you have cut your hair.” Hmmm.

Emily and Lauren’s host family asked them to make them pizza for dinner one night. Note: the family requested it. They asked that Lora and I be invited over. Ah, good. Cultural exchange. So we went shopping and did our best to buy flour and cheese and yeast and tomato paste (with no chili) and appropriate pizza toppings. We found a pizza dough recipe.

We invaded the kitchen and started cooking. The oven was brought out from under the bed of a nearby bedroom and dusted off. A baking dish was found that would act as enough of a baking tray. Scales were dug out. The mother watched as we cooked. Two of the daughters kept us company while we were working.

The aunt was at the other end of the kitchen making noodles and curry for dinner.

Yes. They had invited us round and asked us to cook dinner and they made their own food while we were cooking. To their credit, everyone tried one bite of pizza. But they did complain that it wasn’t tasty because there was no chili on it. Fair enough. More pizza for us.

I did decide at one point to make a point. So I put on my best “don’t worry I’m only joking” smiley face and pointed to the mother and said “Kande! Kande! Kande!” which means “Eat! Eat! Eat!” and is one of the first bits of Sinhala that volunteers learn. She just laughed and refused. Wish it was that easy for us.

Then, when the noodles and curry were ready, they seemed very upset that we didn’t want to eat any. Despite the fact that we’d just been eating the pizza that we made because they asked us to make it.

Emily asked me if we should be offended by the whole thing. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure.

Posted in Culture, Food, Sri Lanka | No Comments »

Sri Lankan Coffee Shops

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Yes, you did read the title of this post correctly. It does say Sri Lankan Coffee Shops. There are some. Not many. But some.

I spent a few days in Dehiwala which is a suburb of Colombo.

It’s 10 rupees (about 7 pence) on the bus from Dehiwala to Majestic City.

Majestic City is a shopping centre. It has shops, a food court, a KFC, ATMs, everything you’d expect from a shopping centre. Across the road from Majestic City is a Pizza Hut. Next to the Pizza Hut is a Barista coffee shop.

Mmmmmm. Coffee shop.

The sort of place that has clean tables and chairs. It has power sockets on the wall so I can plug in my laptop. They serve coffee and tea and iced coffee and mango smoothies and other variants. They serve some snacks. There’s a toilet upstairs (through the Pizza Hut) that is clean and functional.

The place isn’t really that busy so I don’t feel too bad about sitting there for several hours. And I do make multiple orders to justify hanging around.

It’s expensive by Sri Lankan standards 180 (1.03 GBP) for a pot (2 cups) of tea. I could get two cups of standard Sri Lankan milk tea for about 60 if I went somewhere cheap and nasty. The iced mocha is 350 (2.00 GBP) or 450 (2.57 GBP) if you want extra cream.

So when I’m hanging around in Colombo I tend to spend quite a bit of time in Barista. I can plug my laptop in. I can surf the net. I can get work done. I can drink tea with separate milk and no sugar. I can just hang around in a coffee shop.

A very nice western oasis in an otherwise very nice eastern country.

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The Egg

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

I am staying in a convent. With 6 nuns. All of whom are very lovely, caring people. They are also non-vegetarians. They know that I am a vegetarian. And that I’m a vegetarian who eats eggs. They are worried about me. So once a day (usually at lunch) I get an egg. Every day. Sometimes it is whole boiled egg that appears in the breakfast curry. But usually it is an omelette that I get a lunchtime. Sometimes there’s an egg at two meals.

Now, I do eat eggs. They’re not my favourite thing. Especially when I think about what they are. But I do like eggs. And a good omelette is a nice thing (especially if it has lots of mushrooms and strong cheddar – which these ones don’t have). But a plain omelette is good. And the nuns here do make a cracking omelette (pun intended).

But I must say that I think 7 eggs a week is a little excessive. I’ve spoken to them about this and we’ll see if it stops. :)

Seeing Sr Pauline walk to the cupboard in the dining room the other day with a basket of about two dozen eggs caused Elaine and I to burst into fits of barely stifled giggles. It was hilarious! :)

The Eggs

But, it is nice to be looked after so well.

Postscript: after having two conversations with them, I am now pleased to report that the flood of eggs has abated. Though I still giggle whenever I see one. :)

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Food in the convent

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

We’re eating three meals a day in the convent. And the food is good.

Breakfast is dosa (rice flour pancakes), iddly (steamed rice flour cake things), puthu (steamed rice or tapioca mixed with coconut), chappati or puri (a bit like chappati but cooked in oil) with curry. We get tea or coffee at breakfast. And it’s great. There’s a flask of hot water and some tea bags and a jar of Nescafe. There is also a flask of hot milk. Usually people here make tea with hot milk. But I’m making tea with hot water and adding a splash or two of hot milk afterwards. And that means I get tea that isn’t so milky. Which suits my taste. Elaine usually has coffee. And there is sugar on the table. So I’m getting tea with no sugar which is also a great relief. :)

Lunch is rice and curry. There is a fish/meat curry. Sometimes there is a fish curry and pieces of fried fish too. Elaine is loving the fish. I’m not eating it. But that’s ok. And there are leftovers from breakfast. Oh, and I get an egg.

Dinner is rice and curry. Usually all veg, but sometimes there is fish as well. This often includes leftovers from lunch. Sometimes dinner includes chappati too.

Breakfast is about 7:45. Lunch is about 1:15. Dinner is about 7:45. Sometimes one or two of the nuns are busy doing other things so come a bit later. Sometimes we’re a bit later and they have already started. The time keeping for meals isn’t that strict.

The food is all laid out on the serving table.

We stand behind our chairs before the meal and the most senior nun present prays.

Then we go to the serving table with our plates and serve ourselves. Which is really, really nice. It means we’re not being overfed. Which is a relief.

We then sit and eat. There is cutlery and some of the nuns eat with cutlery, some eat with their hands, sometimes it depends on the food. I eat chappati with my hands but eat everything else with knife and fork, or fork and spoon.

After we’ve finished eating, we all stand behind our chairs and the most senior nun says another prayer.

Then we wish each other a good morning / afternoon / evening / night and we go our separate ways.

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Back in Sri Lanka

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

While writing this, I have a mosquito bite, dirty feet and bruises from a bus ride. I made a friend on a bus and at one point today was in reasonably intimate physical contact with 6 different people simultaneously. Today I had kottu for lunch.

This means only one thing – I’m back in Sri Lanka!!! And I’m loving it!!!! :)

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Flight from London to Colombo

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

I boarded my flight and settled down to sleep, and watch a movie (‘Three days’), and eat, and read some of my book (‘The year of naked swim parties’).

I woke up in time for Delhi. I thought I had a 12 hour stopover, but it turns out it was only 4. Which was nice. So I had some tea (ridiculously strong and stewed, with warm powdered milk, but with no sugar). Welcome to India. :)

I got some work done. Laptops are very handy. Powerpoints all through the departure lounge at the airport are great. Especially the ones that actually worked (I tried about 12 of them, I only found 2 that worked).

Went for a wet-wipe wash down and a change of clothes. I didn’t think that the clothes that I’d been wearing from Essex to Manchester to London to Delhi would really cope with Delhi to Katunayake to Colombo to Horana. :)

Next flight. The next leg was only 3.5 hours. Barely enough time to fall asleep before you have to wake up again. :)

It was good to be back in Sri Lanka. And landing with only carry-on luggage does make the whole process much quicker. The heat and humidity really hit me when I walked out of the airport. It’s quite oppressive at first, but I know from experience that it won’t take long to get used to it again.

Got some cash out and found the shuttle bus which took me to the bus station at Katunayake (the town that the airport is in). I let Heather and Cyril know that I was on the way, and let some UK people know that I had arrived.

Got a normal bus (not AC) to Colombo. It was great watching Sri Lanka go past the bus windows. Shops that sell every type of plastic thing you could imagine (chairs, buckets, jugs, cups, spoons, bowls, boxes, etc). Boutiques selling bananas, king coconuts, jak fruit. Communication shops plastered with advertising posters for Dialog, Etisalat, Mobitel, etc. Enough shoe shops to make us devotees of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a little nervous. Men buying and chewing betel (and spitting it out). People on bicycles with no lights. Three wheelers. Crazy buses. Women in beautiful saris. Women in skirts and blouses. Men in suits. Men in sarongs.

We passed Buddhist temples, Hindu kovils, Islamic mosques, Christian churches. There were a lot of people coming out of one church. A couple of hundred of them I think. All wearing white. Several got on our bus (which was already full, of course).

The guy sitting next to me started talking to me and kept the conversation going for almost the whole trip (2hrs) to Colombo. Name, family, job, age, marital status, hobbies, interests, attitude to smoking, religion, favourite films, sport, nice Sri Lakan places to vist, etc.

It was dark when I got to Colombo. So I hurried off to find a bus to Horana. I had instructions about where I was going to get off and I asked the conductor. I then fell asleep. I woke up after a while, hoping I hadn’t missed my stop. But I hadn’t. The conductor enlisted the help of several other passengers and the driver to try to figure out which stop mine was and where it was.

Which was successful in that the bus duly deposited me in exactly the right place. The car picked me up to drive me to Heather and Cyril’s house and I got there about 9:30. Which was pretty good since I’d landed at 5:45. :)

I had a lovely welcome from them. Had a quick shower and a light dinner. I always forget how amazingly good the bananas in Sri Lanka taste!!

We chatted about what needed to be done in my Monday meeting. And I went to collapse into bed.

Posted in Food, Friends, Sri Lanka, Transport | No Comments »

Going Home

Monday, February 14th, 2011

I have booked my flight home. I am flying out very early in the morning of the 27th of February.

This is a little earlier than I had thought. I was initially planning to stay till mid-March. But I brought forward the date by about two weeks. And these are the reasons why.

One reason is because my current visa expires on the 2nd of March and I didn’t really want to have to go to spend a full day in Colombo trying to get it extended.

But the main reason is that I just feel like it’s time to go home. I’m exhausted. Not the sort of exhausted that 10 hours sleep sorts out, but the sort of exhausted that means I need to go home and spend a few months back in the UK.

There have been no problems and I’m not upset or hating it or anything like that. I’m just finding that I don’t have the energy or patience to really enjoy it anymore and going home a bit earlier is better than staying longer and getting more and more fed up to the point that I start hating it.

I have loved every second of being here but I am starting to feel quite worn down by the whole travelling experience. Since the 1st of August I haven’t stayed in one place for more than 8 nights in a row and mostly I’ve been fewer than 3 nights. So that has meant a lot of packing and moving.

My plans have changed a lot, sometimes on my account, sometimes because other people have changed them for me. In each individual instance this has been ok, but all of them together has begun to be quite wearing.

I’ve spent most of my time in Sri Lanka as a guest staying with friends. And I have been looked after very well. In some cases a little too well. Being a guest can be quite exhausting and quite draining. There is a lot of food to be eaten and a lot of people to talk to. And I  know that the people I stay with care about me a lot and want to look after me but there are some times when it is nice to be left alone, to be able to wash in private, to be able to eat as much (or as little) as I want, to not have to sing (in English or in Sinhala) etc.

And I’m fed up with rain and mosquitoes and cold showers and too much sugar/chilli/curry/salt and not enough pasta/raw veg/tofu/breakfast cereal/nice bread/nice cheese etc.

So, it’s time for me to go home.

But I love Sri Lanka and India very much. And I have lots of wonderful friends in both of these countries. Some of whom I haven’t been able to visit on this trip. So I hope to be back in Sri Lanka and India very soon. Later this year if I can afford/arrange it. If not, then next year certainly. I hope. :)

Posted in Food, Friends, India, Problems, Sri Lanka | No Comments »

Special K

Friday, January 7th, 2011

I was in Food City in Kandy and I saw Special K breakfast cereal on the shelf. Nice! I like Special K.

But I didn’t have any way to keep the fresh milk cold (and if I’m going to have Special K, I want to have fresh milk with it). So I just sighed and put it on the list of things I’ll just wait for. No problem.

Then I was due to go to stay with Sujith (and he has a fridge) so I thought I’d go to Food City then and get some Special K and some milk. Awesome.

But staying with Sujith turned into staying with other friends in Avissawella (who don’t have a fridge). Ah well. I’ll just wait. No problem.

A few days later I was back in Karawita. By now, I was really looking forward to a bowl of Special K. And after one failed attempt, I actually managed to get a bus to Ratnapura to go to Food City to get Special K and milk. That wasn’t the only reason to spend an hour on a bus going to Ratnapura but it was a major reason.

So, with Special K and fresh milk safely in my bag, I merrily skipped my way back to the house. I put the milk in the fridge just to make sure it would be cold enough but couldn’t wait to taste the Special K.

I opened the box.
I opened the foil packet.
I saw the flakes of Special K in the packet.
My heart sank.
They were the wrong colour and they were glistening in a way that only sugar-coated things glisten.
Dammit.
I tried one.
Disgusting.
Very, very malty.
Very, very sweet.
Disgusting.
Gutted.
So disappointed.
Devastated.

Now, Special K in the UK has lots of sugar. It is marketed as a weight loss food but it does contain more calories than Cornflakes (mind you, most people then add sugar to cornflakes). I don’t eat Special K in order to lose weight. I eat Special K because it is tasty. And somewhat good for me. So the fact that there is some sugar in the UK version is ok. It’s not too much, it doesn’t taste like a sweet cereal to me. But these flakes were definitely sweet.

I looked at the ingredients. Sugar and honey. (In the UK, no honey.) Wheat (no rice). Given that everything in Sri Lanka that isn’t made from coconut is made from rice, how the hell is Special K here made from wheat with NO rice? Dear god the world is a crazy place!

The stupid amounts of sugar, honey and malt I can understand. I’ve drunk tea in this country. Nestomalt (one of the greatest crimes against humanity in my opinion) is loved by people here. So I think the Sri Lankan version of Special K is probably suited to the Sri Lankan palate. Which is a bit annoying since I bought it specifically so I could eat something that wasn’t designed for the Sri Lankan palate.

Ah well. There’s a lesson here. When in Rome …! Don’t eat macaroni cheese in a tourist hotel in Kerala. Don’t eat cheese or chocolate in Sri Lanka. Don’t eat toast in Asia (unless you can make it yourself). Don’t eat breakfast cereal in Sri Lanka. Don’t eat bread in Sri Lanka. Or rather, eat these things but don’t expect them to be ‘right’. In the same way you shouldn’t eat seafood unless you can actually see the sea from where you are sitting, and pasta is definitely better in Italy. And don’t try pol sambol in England!! Even if you make it yourself, the coconut just doesn’t taste the same.

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Indian Food

Friday, December 24th, 2010

I have an apology to make. To all of India.

Those of you who have been paying attention may have noticed me singing the praises of Sri Lanka (especially Sri Lankan food). In particular, I believe that I’ve said that Sri Lankan food is better than Indian food. And in the case of hoppers, I stand by that claim.

However, it’s time to even the balance somewhat.

I’ve had iced coffee in Sri Lanka. And it was awful. The iced coffee in the Swiss Cafe in Kovalam is just amazing (the iced tea is even better, but the iced coffee is awesome). So India beats Sri Lanka in the iced coffee stakes.

Also, I had hoppers for dinner the other day and the people I was with had a masala dosa (or thosai as it’s called here). Now I didn’t actually have any of it, but it was nowhere near as good as the ones in India, it was soggy and didn’t have much potato and didn’t come with all the extra pots of goo and just generally wasn’t right. So India beats Sri Lanka in the masala dosa stakes as well.

And finally, there’s plain rice and boiled veg. In many restaurants in India (or at least in many restaurants in Kovalam, though I did see it in other places too) it is possible to get boiled vegetables and plain rice. For those days where my body just can’t face any more curry or chilli. Now this is really difficult to come by in Sri Lanka so in the plain rice and boiled veg stakes India also beats Sri Lanka.

I still like the pol sambol, dhal, fruit salad and hoppers better in Sri Lanka. But India is not without its culinary delights too. :)

Posted in Food, India, Sri Lanka | No Comments »

Flavours

Friday, December 24th, 2010

I’m going to whinge for a bit. Sorry.

But first the caveat: I do love Sri Lankan food.

Now the whinge: there are three main flavours in Sri Lankan food. They are salt, sugar and chilli. Almost everything has one, two or all three of those flavours. And while people here have said they find western food bland, I think that’s because western food tends to have a much subtler blend of very many flavours. Sri Lankan food tends to have a few flavours in incredibly strong proportions.

I’ve eaten may dishes here (in lots of different places) where the amount of salt in the food brings tears to my eyes and burns my lips. When I cook I use almost no salt. Here, everyone uses a lot of salt. I mean a lot. I mean teaspoons of it in each dish (not just a pinch or two). And seasoning is done by the cook in the kitchen, there is no seasoning done at the table. So you get as much salt in your food as the cook deems appropriate.

And sugar. I don’t usually have sugar in tea. In Sri Lanka it is difficult to avoid sugar in tea. In India there is too much sugar in the tea, and the Sri Lankans use about twice as much as the Indians do. I’ve had plain tea (very strong tea – practically stewed, with about 4 or 5 teaspoons of sugar) that has had so much sugar in it that it makes my toes curl all the way from the tips of my teeth to the back of my throat.

And sometimes I just want food that doesn’t feel like it’s trying to kill me. Chilli is nice. Some chilli. Sometimes. In some dishes. A little bit of it. But great  quantities of the stuff in everything is a bit too much. And a note for all cooks out there, please do not put green beans and green chillies in the same dish. When I was in India, I had a vegetable masala that was very nice until I picked up a piece of chilli thinking it was a green bean (looks indistinguishable) and bit into it. My eyes started watering, I lost the power of speech, I drank half a litre of water. I’ve been wary of green beans ever since.

End of whinge. I do love the food here. I love pol sambol (which has sugar, salt and chilli in it). I love the wonderful home cooking I’ve had. I love the fruit. I love the vegetables. I love the rice.

Speaking of food, it’s about time for my dinner. Since today I am cooking for myself (yay) and have no kitchen, it’s cheese sandwiches (processed cheese unfortunately, but multi-seed brown bread), and some apples and mangoes. Mmmmm. Tasty.

Posted in Food, Sri Lanka | No Comments »

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