Around the World in 80 Restaurants — Sri Lanka

Throughout my life, especially at school, I’ve always had mates whose families come from Sri Lanka. I can credit them for my base level of knowledge about the financial irregularities of the Chennai Super Kings, Sri Lankan food, and most importantly, Tamil swear words. This begs the question: why have I still never tried Sri Lankan cuisine? The simple answer is probably that most of my Sri Lankan friends all lived around Woolwich and Lewisham, and that bus journey wouldn’t be worth it even if dinner was being cooked by Paul Bocuse himself. Even still, the names of the dishes stuck in my mind just as much as how to call someone a twat in Tamil. Two of the dishes that were ingrained the most deeply in my memory were mutton rolls and kottu roti, and that was what I set out to find.

Luckily for me, Bristol has a pretty wide selection of Sri Lankan restaurants, which generally cater more to the gap-year returnee rather than people who call Sri Lanka home. The country’s newfound reputation for being a bit of a backpacker hotspot had passed me by until fairly recently, but these days it’s much more likely to find its way onto your screens through Joe Weller rather than Jeremy Bowen. Presumably this has helped Sri Lankan cuisine escape the monocultural view that food from the Indian subcontinent suffers from in the UK, and have a moment in the sun. One place that is clearly benefitting from this trend is this week’s restaurant, Kottu Hut.

I was joined for dinner that evening by two friends, Oscar and Aidey, who were also in a very similar boat to myself. We also all went to pretty similar schools, where Tamil was the de-facto language where you could insult your mates without getting scolded by a teacher, and yet Sri Lankan food had still passed us by. It was a Friday night, so invariably the drinks list was the first thing we were drawn to. Unfortunately, I was on the last day of a course of antibiotics, and therefore was limited to the non-alcoholic section, which was actually better than a good deal of pubs, and was even cheaper than many. Even the alcoholic beers were around the £5 mark, which probably makes Kottu Roti one of the cheapest places to get pissed in Redland. The one exception was the 8.8% Lion Stout, which, for the sake of this review,was probably best avoided,

We were slightly concerned after receiving our drinks that our waitress had just taken her belongings and walked straight out of the restaurant, but nevertheless someone eventually came over to take our order. Going purely based on my recollection of conversations from year 8, I went for the lamb rolls to start, followed by the chicken kottu roti. Aidey had the chilli chicken wings and lamb biryani, whilst Oscar chose the chicken noodles. From what little information I’ve been able to find about how noodles made it to Sri Lanka, it seems to be through its historic position as a trading hub with South-East Asia.

The lamb rolls were the closest I could get to the mutton ones I’d heard about during my time at school. The filling was full of flavour, with the spiced lamb, potatoes and vegetables wrapped in a savoury pancake and coated in breadcrumbs, before being deep fried until crispy. The sweet chilli sauce served with the lamb rolls had a nice kick, but wasn’t as spicy as Aidey found his chicken wings, which was reminiscent of watching Mike Parry do the cinnamon challenge. He kindly donated Oscar and I his two remaining wings, which were certainly hot, but also had a lovely sweetness to them which distracted you from the feeling of getting slapped across the face by the chilli flakes suspended in the glaze. Another round of beers was in order to cool us down, and both Oscar and Aidey opted for the Sri Lankan brewed Lion lager. I was offered an editorially justified sip (my GP won’t read this) which was surprisingly sweet, but very refreshing. The sort of lager you’d want in a tropical climate.

The mains were beautifully presented in earthenware bowls, and the portions were well worth the price we paid. I permanently borrowed Aidey’s unwanted raita, which paired perfectly with the flavours of the kottu roti. The slightly charred flavour of the roti mixed with the warmth of the spices had all the hallmarks of a great comfort food. The chicken was tender and the vegetables added a nice, slightly crunchy texture into the mix. Despite being slightly sceptical of the dried fruit in his biryani, Aidey was ringing its praises by the end of the meal, and I was assured that the spicy, garlicky Sri Lankan noodles were also of a similar quality.

All in all, my first foray into Sri Lankan food was a roaring success, and this definitely won’t be my final foray into this island’s amazing cuisine. I really hope in future more of the unique and diverse cuisines from across the Indian subcontinent will get their moment in the sun, and break free from its perception as a spicy accompaniment to 8–10 pints. I will leave you, appropriately, with some wisdom from the back of the bottle of Lion lager: “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. Lion is the perfect companion for wherever your adventures take you. Because every journey has its reward”. I don’t know about you, but I’m taking this as a sign to go to the pub.