Sliced mango, topped with buffalo curd and kitul honey. Mangoes have featured prominently in my diet these past weeks, as part of breakfast and as dessert. Like last year, the harsh and interminable round-the-clock curfew coincides with the mango season and, again, I find myself living on a property blessed with a mango tree. Last year, we had more mangoes than we could eat, giving them away to any takers before they rotted; and, it’s been much the same this time as well. Luckily, this is one of my favourite fruits; but I’m beginning to associate the taste of mango with oppression and hardship. Sri Lanka, 1st June 2020. Day 12 of the lockdown.Continue reading “Restricted Flavours”→
Known as “karawala” in Sinhalese, this highly fragrant preserved fish is prepared by first marinating the cleaned fish overnight in salt before sun-drying it for three days. “Karawala” is a well-known part of Sri Lankan cuisine, and can be cooked as a curry or eaten the way it is, as a flavoursome side dish. “Karawala” can be found throughout Sri Lanka’s coastal belt, in open market stalls along roads and streets. In the photograph, “karawala” is displayed in a large market in the Old Colombo zone of Pettah, in April 2018.
Son of the Morning Light 