Then I realised, the place called 'Curry and Chips' was rated as two stars in the book (new this year) and it's just across the road from where Yuye lived! In fact, we buy food from that area all the time, without ever giving the place a thought. I wonder why that was. Perhaps somewhere deep in my mind, the idea of having chips with curry just didn't click? Either way, we decided to give the place a try the very next day, being all excited about the prospect of maybe finding a fantastic new joint so close to home.
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As we entered, it felt just like any other informal cafe/takeaway restaurant, except with the distinct smell of curry in the air. I actually love my curries, but most of the curries I've tried are Indian and this restaurant specialises in Sri Lankan food. I was compelled to google what the difference was between Indian and Sri Lankan food and I didn't find too much information out there. The main things I gathered were:
1. Sri Lankans like to roast their curry powder before making the curry whereas Indians l like to use it raw and thus gives Sri Lankan curries a more smokey flavour, obtained from this source. They also use more spices (and thus can be more spicy) and has a drier consistency.
2. Sri Lanka is closer to Southern India, therefore is more similar to Southern Indian flavours compared to Northern and they like to use more coconut milk, banana leaves and fish, obtained from this source.
3. Sri Lankan food is not as common in Western society as Indian, so the familiar names of Vindaloo and Madras are from India. If I got anything wrong or if there's anything you would like to add to this analysis, I'd love it if you comment below :).
We weren't quite sure what to order really and took random picks from the lunch specials written on the wall. Yuye ordered the Banana Leaf Biriyani Lamb ($14) which comes with spiced rice, curry of your choice, potato theldala and mint sambol served with saffron egg and salad, wrapped in a fragrant banana leaf. The 'curry of your choice' really just meant ingredient of your choice between chicken or lamb since Biriyani is the actual curry. I thought Yuye ordered this because of the egg, he lovessss eggs. The menu said it was a "saffron egg" which I thought would taste like saffron but sadly it was just a regular deep-fried egg. It was a bit dry but since we both love eggs so much, this was not a big issue.
The curry came all wrapped in paper and seemed mysterious. I was dying to unwrap it to see what's inside!
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And…surprise! The curry and rice inside the banana leaf was fragrant and spicy, although we agreed that the meat was a bit dry. From ordering this curry, it was evident that Indian curries are very saucy compared to Sri Lankan, and frankly I liked the saucy ones more although this wasn't bad in any way. Yuye also thought they were probably all pre-prepared and just heated up in a microwave or something similar (this place has huge takeaway signs all over the place so it's quite obvious that takeaway is a major service).
