Galadari Hotel invites you to journey through Thambapanni at their newly launched  “Taste of Ceylon” culinary experience. Celebrating 38 years in the hospitality industry, Galadari Hotel marked its anniversary with the launch of “Taste of Ceylon” on the 6th of October 2022 at the Blue Lotus. Taste of Ceylon is poised to take their diners on a journey through Thambapanni with a Sri Lankan spread of authentic local favourites served with a twist. 

“In celebrating our 38th anniversary and marking 38 years of excellence in hospitality to our guests, Taste of Ceylon was launched in response to an overwhelming demand for authentic Sri Lankan cuisine from our customers” shared Thushantha Kariyawasam, Director F&B-Galadari Hotel. “Taste of Ceylon offers unique flavours from the corners of Sri Lanka with a spread that truly highlights Sri Lankan food for the culinary gastronomy it is. For our local guests, it’s the chance to enjoy their local favourites and for those travelling, it's an opportunity to experience and savour the authentic flavours of Sri Lanka.” 

Set up at the Blue Lotus, Taste of Ceylon offers an open-kitchen style concept where guests can see what’s available on the menu before placing their order. Action stations for hoppers and roti ensure that food is prepared fresh to order. Guests are invited to order from an A-la-carte style menu (offered on a traditional cane kulla) with a detailed list of the staples and curries with drinks and desserts. All menu items are individual portions.  We visited Taste of Ceylon on their launch to see what’s on offer.

Sri Lankan Staples
While rice and curry may be considered the ‘official’ staple of Sri Lanka, us Sri Lankans are big fans of any rice-based meals and we’ve got the dishes to prove it; roti, kottu, hoppers and more. Taste of Ceylon offers a great range of Sri Lankan staples with accompaniments. Their Hoppers range includes plain hoppers, egg hoppers and kiri appa but also offers a creative twist to the hoppers with their flavoured range of beetroot and spinach flavoured hoppers. All hoppers are accompanied by seeni sambol and katta sambol or lunu miris.  Their String Hoppers follow a similar creative twist to the usual white and red string hoppers with the inclusion of their Nil Katarolu-flavoured blue string hoppers.   

The meal is accompanied by a kiri hodi and the choice of pol sambol, kooni sambol or pol mallum. What we were really fascinated by was their selection of Pittu which was served with pol kiri and katta sambol. They offered Mani pittu, Pol pittu, Turmeric pittu and Jaffna Style Keerai pittu. We really enjoyed the Jaffna style Keerai pittu tempered with curry leaf, mustard seed and sprats. 

They also have a variety of Roti to choose from; Pol Roti, Manioc Roti, Sweet Potato Roti, Kurakkan Roti, Spicy Kochchi Pol Roti and Dan Dila Roti.  Manioc Roti and Sweet Potato Roti were something we’ve never tried and we enjoyed how the texture of the yam varied the consistency of the roti and how different a yam-based roti worked with curries. Beyond the staples we’ve tried they also have Roast Paan, Plain Godamba Roti, Stuffed Godamba Roti with fillings such as spicy chicken, pepper tuna, hot garlic prawns and vegetable and cheese, String Hopper Pilau and Sri Lanka’s most beloved street food; Koththu. 

Curries
Once the staples/ carbs are ordered, guests can also order separate curry portions to accompany their meal. They have over 15 varieties of curries to choose from and they reflect the cooking styles from all corners of Sri Lanka; Negombo-style crab curry, Gam Kukulmas curry, Jaffna Style Brinjal curry, Mutton Liver Bi-steak, Isso Bedum, Cuttlefish Black curry and Jaadi Theldala are among the few.  We opted for their Negombo-style crab curry, Traditional Mutton curry, Isso Bedum, Gam Kukulmas curry and their Potato White curry to be our accompaniments for our meal. The Negombo-style Crab curry paired beautifully with our Jaffna-style Keerai Pittu and the Traditional Mutton Curry with Isso Bedum with our rotis. 

Dessert/Homemade Sweetmeat
Sri Lankan sweetmeat delicacies are always such a treat. While you can opt to order individual items off the sweetmeat menu, we chose to ask the staff to put together an assortment platter for us.  Our platter included Sweet Fried Del Chips, Aggala, Homemade Annasi Dosi and Kaludodol, Pol Toffee, Milk Toffee and Bibikkan. We simply couldn’t keep our hands off the homemade Annasi Dosi and the Sweet Fried Del Chips! They also offer Welithalapa, Helapa, Lavariya, Kiri Peni and of course, fruit salad.  Overall, Taste of Ceylon offers guests a good menu curated with a range of Sri Lankan dishes that reflect Sri Lanka’s best and most authentic gastronomy.

PHOTOS Nimalsiri Edirisinghe