Short answer
Sri Lankan food is the cooking of the island of Sri Lanka, built on rice, coconut, chili, curry leaves and roasted spices. Rice and curry is the core meal, with hoppers, string hoppers, kothu roti and fried short eats as the best-known extras.
Sri Lankan food is the cuisine of Sri Lanka, an island south of India, and it is built on rice, coconut, chili, curry leaves, roasted spice blends and fresh sambols. The core meal is rice and curry, a plate of rice with several small curries, and the cuisine also includes hoppers, kothu roti and fried bakery snacks called short eats.
What is Sri Lankan food?
Sri Lankan food is the everyday cooking of Sri Lanka, shaped by local ingredients such as coconut, rice, jackfruit, fish and spices, and by centuries of trade and settlement. It is related to South Indian cooking but has its own flavours, dishes and names.
Three ideas hold it together. First, coconut appears in many forms: grated, as milk, as oil and as a fresh sambol. Second, spices are often roasted dark before grinding, which gives Sri Lankan curry powder a deeper, more bitter edge than a typical North American curry powder. Third, many meals are built from several small dishes rather than one main plate.
Food in Sri Lanka varies by region. The coast uses more fish and seafood, the hill country grows tea and vegetables, and the north has dishes closer to Tamil Nadu cooking. Cooks from different communities, including Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher families, each add their own dishes.
What is rice and curry?
Rice and curry is the central Sri Lankan meal: a mound of rice served with a main curry of fish, chicken or mutton and several smaller side dishes. The side dishes might include dal, a vegetable curry, a green leaf dish, a sambol and a crisp papadum.
The plate is balanced on purpose. Something sour, something sweet, something creamy and something sharp sit together, and you mix a little of each into the rice with your fingers or a spoon. Curries are usually named for their main ingredient, such as pumpkin curry, jackfruit curry or chicken curry.
What are hoppers and string hoppers?
Hoppers (appa) are bowl-shaped pancakes made from fermented rice and coconut milk batter, crisp at the edge and soft in the middle. String hoppers (idiyappam) are nests of steamed rice noodles. Both are eaten with curry and sambol, mostly at breakfast and dinner.
| Item | What it is | How it is cooked | Usual partners |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain hopper | Thin bowl-shaped pancake | Ladled into a small curved pan | Seeni sambol, curry |
| Egg hopper | Hopper with an egg set in the centre | Egg cracked in as it cooks | Lunu miris, sambol |
| String hoppers | Pressed rice flour noodles in nests | Steamed | Dal, coconut sambol, curry |
| Pol roti | Flatbread with coconut in the dough | Griddled | Lunu miris, curry |
Each of these dishes has its own explanation elsewhere in this guide, so this section only gives the overview.
What is kothu roti?
Kothu roti is chopped flatbread stir-fried on a hot flat griddle with egg, vegetables, spices and often chicken, beef or mutton. The rhythmic clanging of two metal blades chopping the roti on the griddle is part of the dish, and the result is a savoury, well-seasoned mix.
The name comes from the Tamil word for chopped. It is popular as a late meal and street food in Sri Lanka and in Sri Lankan restaurants abroad. Toppings and spice levels vary, and some cooks add a spoonful of curry gravy to keep it moist.
What are short eats?
Short eats are small savoury snacks eaten between meals or with tea, and they are the part of Sri Lankan food most people meet first in a bakery. Typical short eats are:
- Patties, baked or fried pastry with a spiced filling
- Rolls, often crumbed and fried, filled with fish, chicken or mutton
- Vada, a fried lentil snack
- Cutlets, crumbed and fried balls or ovals with a spiced filling
- Egg or vegetable puffs and samosas
Sri Lankan bakeries have long sold these next to bread and sweets, and in Canada Sri Lankan bakeries in Scarborough and other Toronto neighbourhoods sell them for takeout. They are handheld and made to eat quickly, which is the origin of the name.
What spices and ingredients define Sri Lankan cooking?
The signature ingredients are coconut, curry leaves, pandan leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, chili, turmeric, tamarind and goraka, a sour dried fruit used in fish curries. A roasted curry powder, a raw curry powder and chili flakes are used for different dishes.
| Ingredient | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Coconut milk | Richness and a mild sweetness in curries |
| Grated coconut | Texture in sambols and breads |
| Curry leaves | A fresh, slightly citrus aroma, fried in oil first |
| Pandan leaf | A sweet, grassy scent, often cooked with rice |
| Roasted curry powder | A dark, deep and slightly bitter base |
| Goraka or tamarind | Sourness |
| Cinnamon | Warm sweetness, Sri Lanka is a major cinnamon source |
What sweets and desserts are Sri Lankan?
Sri Lankan sweets are often built from rice flour, coconut, jaggery and treacle. Common examples include kavum, a deep-fried oil cake, kokis, a crisp rosette cookie, watalappan, a spiced coconut custard, and sweet fried snacks such as vaipan and mothakam.
Many are made for festivals, especially the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April, when families prepare trays of sweets. Some Sri Lankan bakeries abroad sell a few of these sweets next to the savoury items.
What should you try first?
For a first visit, pick one meal and one snack so you see both sides of the cuisine.
- Rice and curry for the full range of flavours.
- A patty or fried roll for a quick snack.
- Kothu roti for a hearty, well-spiced plate.
- Hoppers or string hoppers if a place makes them.
- One sweet snack to finish.
If you cannot take much heat, say so when you order. Sambols and some curries can be quite hot.
Which Sri Lankan dishes does Rouge Bakery appear to sell?
Rouge Bakery in Scarborough, Ontario, is described on its Google Maps listing as a bakery in Chand Morningside Plaza, and reviewers mention Sri Lankan style items. The guide has not found an official menu, so the list below comes only from reviewer mentions and may not be complete.
Items named by reviewers include mutton rolls, patties, kothu roti, rotti, vada, vaipan, mothakam, chicken biryani, chicken noodles, curry lamb with rice and a dish called Beef Devil. Rice and curry as a full plate, hoppers and string hoppers are not among the items reviewers mention, so a visitor should ask what is available on the day.
No prices were found, and this guide does not take orders. The menu page lists what has been recorded, and the hours and location page has the address, phone number and the opening hours shown by Google Maps and Apple Maps.
Common questions
Is Sri Lankan food the same as Indian food?
No. The two share spices and some dishes, but Sri Lankan cooking leans on coconut, dark roasted curry powder, goraka and Maldive fish, and it has its own breads and snacks such as hoppers, pol roti and short eats.
Is Sri Lankan food very spicy?
Often, yes. Chili is used generously, especially in sambols and curries, but heat varies by dish and by cook. Many places will tell you which dishes are mild, so ask before choosing.
What is a short eat?
A short eat is a small savoury snack eaten between meals, such as a patty, cutlet, roll, vada or samosa. The term is used across Sri Lanka and in Sri Lankan bakeries abroad.
What do Sri Lankans eat for breakfast?
Common breakfasts include hoppers, string hoppers with curry and sambol, pol roti with lunu miris, and milk rice, called kiribath, often on special days. Bread with sambol is also eaten.
What is a good first dish to try?
Rice and curry gives the widest view of the cuisine. If you want something quick and handheld, a fried roll or patty is an easy start, and kothu roti is a hearty choice.
Looking for the basics? Rouge Bakery address and opening hours are on the home page.
This article is general information from an independent guide, not from Rouge Bakery itself. For the store’s current details see hours and location.