Street food—some of Negombo’s famed culinary treasures!

One of the great culinary treasures in Negombo is the street food. Recipes are handed down through the generations of so many much-loved snacks, some light & some substantial enough to make a main meal.

By the roadside you can always find people selling pineapple, cut and ready to eat, or maybe a king coconut for a quick refreshing drink.

Everywhere you go around town you can find vendors of these treats from a shop front, kiosk or even a table set up outside their home.

In the evening their are small vans parked on the beach selling all sorts of fried snacks, sugary or savoury.

Achcharu

Loved by most Sri Lankans from childhood, it has a sweet, tangy taste with a kick of chilli. Unripe fruits, most popular being mango, pineapple, nelli and ambarella, are chopped into small pieces then pickled in a mixture of vinegar, salt, sugar and chilli powder.

Whole veralu, the Sri Lankan olive, is also used sometimes to make this tasty pickle.

Manioc ChipCrisp and spicy, they make a tasty snack. A lot of street vendors will also sell them with whole deep fried prawns on top.

UnduvadaiVery similar ingredients to vadai with the addition of ground rice and a little water made into a small patty shape with a whole in the middle, then deep fried until golden brown. Delicious eaten with a little coconut sambal.

DosaCrisp and buttery dosas fried in copious amounts of ghee vie with the simple plain soft dosa eaten with a sambal. Another tasty choice is masala dosa served with a spicy potato filling.

WelithalapaFirst are string hoppers, idiappa, which are nests of thin rice flour noodles lightly steamed. They eaten for breakfast or dinner with dhal and pol sambal and maybe a meat or fish curry as well.

Hoppers, appa, are made from a fermented batter and cooked in a hopper pan with a lid until the paper thin sides are crispy and the base is soft and spongy.

There are plain hoppers, or egg hoppers when an egg is broken into the bottom until just cooked. A treacle hopper has treacle mixed into the batter before it is cooked.

Roti

Roti comes in many shapes and sizes and used in many different ways to make tasty short eats.

Plain roti will just be a thin rectangle and you can eat it with dhal, potatoes or meat curry. Then come the filled roti you can usually tell what the filling is by the shape.

Vegetable roti are usually triangle shaped and filled with a curried vegetable mixture before being folded and then dry fried. Beef or chicken roti are oblong and made the same way

Pol roti made from grated coconut, flour, green chilli and water, then dry fried in small round discs, served with chilli paste is good to eat on its own.

They are also lovely to take home and dip into soft fried or poached eggs. Or they can be eaten with treacle by those who like a sweeter snack.

Rolls

Rolls are made from plain roti with various choices of fillings. Then they can be dipped in beaten egg & then breadcrumbs and deep fried.

They also come in different shapes but as well as beef, chicken or vegetable varieties there are also egg rolls, and fish rolls even sometimes egg and fish together.

Always best eaten while hot so that the outside coating is still crispy with the inside being soft and spicy.

Samosas are small triangular shaped roti stuffed with vegetable or chicken and then deep fried until crispy.

Cutlets are either fish or egg, fairly dry curries which are pressed into round balls before being dipped in beaten egg and dipped in biscuit crumbs and deep fried.

All of these snacks are so tasty and it’s fun trying to try each variety—but beware, sometimes they are made with local palates in mind, and can be very spicy!