A European traveller's guide to Sri Lankan cuisine

Sri Lankan food is not Indian food with a different flag on it. The coconut is doing most of the work, the spice blends are roasted darker, and the sour notes come from goraka and lime rather than tamarind alone.

Rice and curry is a table, not a dish

Expect one plate of rice and five to seven small bowls: a dhal, a fish or chicken curry, two vegetable curries, a coconut sambol and a papadam. You are meant to mix, taste and go back.

On chilli

Sri Lankan heat is real, but every kitchen will dial it back if you ask. In our restaurant, tell the host "mild" and you will still get all of the flavour and none of the regret.

Ask for a hopper on your first morning. It is the dish guests write to us about months later.

Ten things to order

Egg hoppers, string hoppers with kiri hodi, pol sambol, dhal curry, ambul thiyal (sour fish), jackfruit curry, kottu roti, wambatu moju, curd with kithul treacle, and a king coconut straight from the tree.