Lunch today at one of George Townโs newest eateries: ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ ๐ฆ๐ฟ๐ถ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ธ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ in Little India. Owned by Sri Lankan expat and long-time Penang resident, Sam Pereira, and his wife, Gipsy, they sought to offer authentic Sri Lankan options in a largely Tamil-dominated Little India dining scene here in George Town.
We perused the menu and opted for these for a quick lunch:
๐๐ถ๐ฌ๐ถ๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ด ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ธ๐ข (Sri Lankan chicken curry) - Iโd always found Sri Lankan curries to be among the hottest in the world, surpassing even the Chettinad cooking of neighbouring Tamil Nadu, India.
But the cooking here has toned down its chili heat considerably to cater for the Penang/Malaysian palate.
๐๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข๐ด๐ช ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐บ๐ข (Sinhalese pineapple curry) - one thing I found unique about Sri Lankan curries is that cut pandan leaves are added during the cooking process, and were never removed before serving. So, one needs to spit those out if inadvertently eaten, as pandan leaves are very fibrous and should never be swallowed.
Pandan leaves are also more โSouth-east Asianโ, rather than South Asian, when it comes to culinary uses.
We actually came here for ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ด, a classic Sri Lankan dish of rice with various curried meats and vegetables, all wrapped up in banana leaf and baked, but was told that the dish required advance order.
But what we got also made for quite a satisfactory lunch.
Address
Kandy Sri Lankan & Western Cuisine
119 Lebuh Penang (Penang Street, Little India), 10200 George Town, Penang, Malaysia
Tel: +604-526 9192
Operating hours:12.30pm to 11pm daily
Any idea how long they are soaking the cashews before making the curry? I have seen directions ranging from up to two hours and others that suggest โ8 hours or overnightโ. I am guessing that this is because everyoneโs grandmother approached this recipe in their own way!
Probably low clientele traffic since the cafe is new - lamprais requires quite a few different meat and vegetable curries to be pre-cooked, before they can be assembled together in a banana leaf-wrapped parcel and baked.
I do hope theyโll be able to offer that eventually. One of the dishes I remember from my trip to Colombo a few years back.
Weโre back at Kandy last night to try their lamprais, that famous culinary contribution by Sri Lankaโs Eurasian Dutch Burgher community.
The one here wasnโt very good at all, and certainly a far cry from those weโd had from Kuala Lumpurโs various Sri Lankan eateries., especially Lankan Cafe in Bukit Gasing.
We also ordered some chicken cutlets and fish cutlets, as they reminded us of those delicious morsels we found all over Sri Lanka during our travels there back in 2019. The ones here were very good: freshly-cooked, with golden-crisp exterior, and moist, tasty filling. They are also pleasantly greaseless and, in fact, tasted better than many of those we had in Colombo during our last holiday there.
