Children – Adored, especially by men who play with them and spoil them freely and publicly without fear of raising suspicion. Children are given responsibilities at a young age.
Chilli – Chilli is an essential ingredient to every curry – chilli powder and fresh chillis in large quantities. Tamil curries are hotter than Sinhalese curries. Some curries are so hot they make the Sri Lankans themselves cry! Chilli, salt and pepper are also sprinkled on mango, pineapple or any other kind of fruit as a snack.
Consumer choice
Once the good clothes and good cotton have been shipped off to Debenham’s and Marks&Spencer’s the average Sri Lankan consumer is left with the rejects. Each clothes shop (barring those in the up-market areas of
The good thing about this is that there is no set ‘fashion’ to keep up with, apart from a growing trend to become more and more western. Colours, patterns and styles do not have to match and do not conform to what everyone else is wearing. People are a happy, buzzing colourful patchwork. Miri wants to add that, in fact, if you’re lucky enough you might see a man with a Hello Kitty handbag wearing black shiny trousers with beautiful sequins! It also seems that when away from home foreigners wear what they like too – we learnt this the other day after seeing a white man walk by the window wearing bright pink shorts, along with vest, Burberry shoes and flat cap – it made us chuckle, to say the least!
Traditional dress is a different matter – you can get any shalva and any saree you want. They come in a variety of colours and beautiful materials.
When it comes to food, everything is locally grown and reared. Imported foods are rare and very expensive so only eaten by rich people who can afford to go to the western style supermarkets. Everyone else shops at the market and local shops and stalls. Everyone eats what is in season and what is available (rice and curry lunch packets are always available everywhere).
Cricket – Legacy of the British. The national sport that everyone is obsessed with. It is on the tele at all times of the day and night. Children play it in the street. Cricket stadiums are very important places.
Fruit
Banana – Is eaten after every meal and comes in different colours and sizes – the most popular being the small, sweet banana. There are also green bananas and pink bananas. Branches of bananas hang from the ceiling and fill the windows of every fruit shop.
Brown Coconut – the no.1 coconut of
· Frying - EVERYTHING is fried in coconut oil – even popcorn has a strange coconutty flavour.
· Food – No curry is complete without coconut milk, of which there are two types – 1st milk and 2nd milk. Discard the watery liquid in the middle (the stuff we would use). Scrape the flesh of the coconut out (there is a special tool to do this - an essential part of a Sri Lankan kitchen) and squeeze its juice into a bowl, add water and get your 1st milk, squeeze the gratings a second time and get 2nd milk, which is weaker. Other food that contains coconut is rotti, …
· Household items – Coconut hair can be used to wash dishes with and to make brooms, toilet brushes and string. Coconut shells are cut into serving spoons.
· Hair products – Coconut oil for moisture and shine.
· Cleaning product – left over coconut gratings are used to clean and polish the floor.
Jack Fruit – The flesh of the Jack Fruit is mango orange with a litchi texture - very sweet – ugly on the outside – delicious on the inside. Jack Fruit trees are very common. One fruit can grow so big that it sometimes looks too heavy for the branch – watch out when they fall! The flesh and stones of the Jack Fruit can be curried. Along with Jack Fruit you can curry just about anything – beetroot curry is very popular, leek curry, cabbage curry, brinjal (aubergine) curry, mango curry – curried everything!
Jambo Fruit – a small bell-shaped fruit which tastes like an apple but the flesh of which is softer…nice!
King Coconut – the king coconut (as pictured at the top of this blog) is one of the most popular for eating and drinking in its raw state. In our area, this is also the most common coconut tree, and you better watch out when these are falling too! You drink the juice and eat the flesh, which is translucent and slimy. It has a milder flavour than the brown coconut.
Palm Fruit – when it’s not ripe you can eat the jelly from inside with a spoon – the jelly is translucent and tastes of king coconut – when it’s ripe you can eat the white fleshy bit.
Wood Apple – so far have only had wood apple jam - a mixture of sweet and sour. Round and mouldy-looking on the outside - gooey on the inside. Very tasty!
Other fruits on the list to taste are: rambutan, mangoustine…
Health advice – some of the advice we have received since being here: Curry and rice for every meal every day makes for a healthy balanced diet (It is a great cause of worry to people if you say you just had soup for dinner.). Whatever sickness you’ve got, a Sri Lankan will always tell you to stay away from cool drinks and fruit while you are sick.
Health and Safety (or lack there-of)
Fire – Burn anything at any time. Burn your own rubbish if the council doesn’t pick it up.
Motor Bike helmets – Apart from the adults, for whom it is the law to wear a helmet, children ride freely, squashed in between parents or at the front, holding the handles and squinting against the breeze – babies and young children all go helmetless and beltless and seeing as it is rare to be able to afford a car, it is possible for a whole family of four to fit on a motorbike.
Seat Belts – who needs them??!
Sewers – Try not to fall in.
Imported goods – Cars, fridges, electrical goods are all imported. The duty on them makes them massively expensive. This turns what would be a brand new £10,000 car in the
Law and Order – While soldiers and police line many of the main roads, the law is mostly in the hands of the people.
Wildlife in the house
Geckos: Other than the cockroaches and ants that will come if you leave the slightest bit of dirt or sugary stuff around (a trail of ants will find any miss-laid or spilt sugariness, e.g. when my toothpaste arrived from the
Other wildlife: the chipmunks that live in the roof of the house opposite often come under the eaves of our house and run along the top of the wall to play. As there are now baby chipmunks this type of wildlife is also welcome :)
Snakes – are poisonous. If a snake comes in the house the recommendation is to spray kerosene at it (the smell is supposed to make them leave). If it doesn’t leave, I guess you have a bit of a problem! Miri and I started to discuss a snake emergency plan – we don’t have any kerosene – and then decided just to wait and see what happens at the time! As of yet, no snakes have ventured into our house :)
Unknown wildlife/The case of the mysterious paw prints: The other day, I noticed some footprints about a foot from the top of the wall and on further inspection noticed the same footprints on the other side of the room. At first we figured they must belong to the chipmunks, but looking at the chipmunks we realise that one of the footprints is about the size of a chipmunk’s head and that actually, chipmunks do not have padded feet. Our temporary conclusion is that this must be the paw prints of a cat that can walk horizontally along walls! For now the case remains open!
* Please note that this encyclopaedia is by no means extensive and may not be entirely accurate. These are just a few of my observations of the things you get used to after a while as well as the differences that make life as a foreigner in Sri Lanka so vivid and adventure-filled…Life for the average Sri Lankan is not wrapped up in cotton wool...
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