A Look into the background of Sri Lankan Food 

Sri Lankan cuisine is one of the most complex cuisines of South Asia. Rice is consumed daily, can be found at any occasion, while spicy curries are favorite dishes for lunch and dinner. Some of the 
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Sri Lanka has long been renowned for its spices. Since ancient times, traders from all over the world who came to Sri Lanka brought their native cuisines to the island, resulting in a rich diversity of cooking styles and techniques.

The island nation's cuisine mainly consists of boiled or steamed rice served with curry. This usually consists of a "main curry" of fish, chicken, pork or mutton, as well as several other curries made with vegetables, lentils and even fruit curries.

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Side-dishes include pickles, chutneys and "sambols". The most famous of these is the coconut sambol, made of ground coconut mixed with chilli peppers, dried Maldive fish and lime juice. This is ground to a paste and eaten with rice, as it gives zest to the meal and is believed to increase appetite.

Sri Lankan people use spices liberally in their dishes and typically do not follow an exact recipe: thus, every cook's curry will taste slightly different. Furthermore, people from different regions of the island (for instance, hill-country dwellers versus coastal dwellers) traditionally cook in different ways while people of different ethnic and religious groups tend to prepare dishes according to their customs. Although Sri Lankan food appears similar to South Indian cuisine in its use of chilli, cardamon, cumin, coriander and other spices, it has a distinctive taste, and uses ingredients like dried Maldive fish which are local to the area.

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