Fruits and Vegetables

There are two things that Sri Lanka's tropical climate breeds: 1) poisonous and dangerous critters (snakes, scorpians, mosquitoes, bull ants, spiders and so on) and 2) a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. The benefits of one cancel out the other in many cases. It is interesting to note that the price of fruits and vegetables have sky rocketed since the civil war resumed. A pineapple costs around Rs 50 (less than a dollar), when it used to cost around Rs 20-25. A hand of bananas (and we're talking a big hand here) costs around Rs 250-300 (about $3), when it used to cost Rs 100-150. This may seem like not much to us, but this essentially means that prices have doubled. In Jaffna, where there is massive food shortages, food can cost 10 times what it did 2 years ago.

Mango (Singhala: amba) is a very popular fruit in Sri Lanka and is widely bought by the locals. Unlike the south-pacific mango we are used to in New Zealand, tropical mango retains a green skin. The darker the skin, the more ripe it is (rather like an avacado). Sri Lankan mangoes are especially juicy, sweet and lack the stringiness of south-pacific mangoes. There are also various different kinds, but the details of which I am not privy to. It is common throughout all of Sri Lanka for fruit to be sold both at portable vendors (as above), but also at road side stalls. In rural areas, as one passes by these stalls, the vendors will practically throw themselves in front of your car in order to get you to stop to buy their wares!! The above vendor was in Colombo.


Another important agricultural product is the coconut. The coconut is used in a myriad of ways by local Sri Lankans. The most desired coconut is the King coconut (Singhalese: thambili). The king coconut is usually cut open with a knife in such a way that small hole is created in the top. Through this, the water inside can be drunk with a straw. The water is uniquely refreshing in spite of the fact that it is invariably quite warm. This, apparently, is because the water is quickly absorbed by the body due to the natural concentration of salts and electrolytes. Once the contents have been drunk, the coconut is cut open so that the flesh can be scraped out using a spoon hacked from the coconut shell. The coconut is used in many other ways: in curries principally, but it can also be made into an alcoholic beverage (called toddy). Finally, the shell is used in various local crafts - for example ladels etc.


Sugar cane is the natural precursor of standard table-sugar. However, it seems relatively common for sugar to be eaten raw from the sugar cane. In the above picture, the fellow is cutting up pieces of sugar cane so that it can be sucked on thereby extracting a sweet, juicy watery substance. On the whole, I found the process labourious and unpleasent due to the fibrous nature of the cane. It basically hurts your teeth something wicked and it really does confirm why herbivorious animals have such huge molars.


The above picture illustrates a standard market stall of vegetables. This picture was taken in Kandy a few years ago. As you can see there is quite a variety of different vegetables not easily available in New Zealand. This is most obvious amongst the greens which include loofah, okra and bitter gourd. These more esoteric greens are, in many cases tasteless, but are prepared in such a way that they are quite delicious. Generally, these vegetables are all transformed into curries of one kind or another (see previously). Sri Lanka is ideal for vegans because: a) unlike the Indians, Sri Lankan food does not naturally use ghee, b) Sri Lankans have a wide variety of vegetarian dishes kept entirely separate from their meat dishes and c) vegetarianism is not uncommon in Sri Lanka on account that it is regarded as a virtuous lifestyle in accord with Buddhist principles (even if this is not always carried out consistently).

The above stall is selling fruits. You can see from the image that there are several differnt kinds of banana. The green skinned ones aren't unripe - they are naturally green and maintain that skin colour. These bananas (kedal-gesiya) are the closest we have in terms of taste to the south-american bananas we have in New Zealand. Other bananas include red-skinned ones (expensive, but very sweet) and, both red skin and yellow skinned, dwarf-bananas (again, sweet). Pineapples (annasi) are very tasty - they are especially sweet and juicy. The orange coconut above is the thambili I mentioned earlier. Also featuring in the photo are apples and wood-apples. I have only ever had wood-apple as a juice - it was quite unpleasent. Normal apples in Sri Lanka are imported since the tropical climate does not support their growth. They are certainly nothing to make a fuss over, but the locals rather seem to like them (probably in the same way we like mango, but have to make do with an inferior product). Also in the picture is pau-pau (gasslabu). The pau-pau in Sri Lanka are quite enormous, have a watery-slimy texture and possess a neutral-sweet taste. In short, they are like the pau-pau we get back home, but much superior. On the whole I dislike pau-pau anyway.