The cuisine of Sri Lanka offers a wide range of light and healthy food.
Varied spice mixtures, colourful fruits and a variety of vegetable and meat is what it takes to make an authentic sri lankan meal. Sri Lanka is known for its rich spice blends. Spices such as cumin, cloves, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon and chilli, which give the dishes the desired aroma in powdered form, are usually included here. Sometimes savory-spicy, sometimes spicy-hot.
The spice mixtures in connection with vegetables, fruits, meat or fish are to be found under the generic term curry. Rice and curry is the national dish in Sri Lanka.
The trade in spices has brought many foreign nations to Sri Lanka already hundreds of years ago. The spices were sometimes more valuable than gold. Many typical spices such as Turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, coriander, pepper, nutmeg, chili, vanilla and ginger are used for traditional dishes. Fortunately, Sri Lanka's cuisine has remained unique despite many foreign influences. But spices can do so much more and were also used as medicines, magical potions, for refreshment, aromatherapy, as perfumes and aphrodisiacs.
In Sri Lanka fresh fruits are part of everyday life. Passion fruits, papayas, mangos, coconuts and many more exotic fruits can be found almost everywhere in the
country.
