Sri Lanka

Jack Fruit

 

 

I had tried Jack fruit a few times in Cambodia and India, but this we had ripped open and ate after dinner.

 

King Coconut

 

 

We didn't have to go far for the fresh hydrating goodness of  young coconut, these were growing in the garden of my friends house Grace. You can see the tree in this photo.

 

 

Soya Ice Cream

 

 

I came about these Vanilla and Chocolate cones, randomly when we took a day trip to Hikkudawa, after checking out the festival parade i spotted an ice cream trek plastered with pictures of Soya beans, and asked if there was milk in it. No all Soya beans, yum!! Accidental Highlight of the day...especially as I had miss lunch.  

 

 

Unawatuna beach

 



Load up on your vitamins with Marmite

Cocoa beans



 

 

These have a lychee texture, and the beans inside taste like chocolate but have a hard texture and aren't really edible.

Local Ethinic Shops

When I first stepped into an English supermarket after 10 months travelling I was pretty over whelmed by the options prices and all the signs, I began to desperately clutch the shopping list to try to stay focused, I made it out with a lot of Alpro Milks and most things on my list.

Comparatively this week I went around 3 of the ethnic shops in Basingstoke town centre, the first was the Caribbean shop, then the Ghurkha shop (Nepalese) lastly an Indian shop.

So I kind of felt more at home, especially seeing some of the delicious things I loved so much on my travels. (I didn’t go to Caribbean but I love Plantains)

 

Check out the hoard;

Saag (spinach) reminds me of many Nepal Trek Dahl Bahts,

Poppadoms also called Papads.

Curry leaves, as we got most of our other spices in Sri Lanka.

Ginger for some Thai food.

Plantanes, these huge fruits when deep fried, hold up much better than bananas.

Oh and salad onions, these are too addictive!

We also saw a packed mix of Aloo Palak (potato in curry spinach sauce) but we’re going try to make this from scratch.

Sri Lankan TVP

Sri Lanka is pretty big on the TVP (soya protein pieces) we were surprised to see it on the menu in a few places and then over whelmed by the amount in supermarkets. Especially cute was the cuttle fish style, which looks like raspberries, and they do a ring shape too.

I’m looking forward to cooking with these, and may try the “Devilled” style, basically lots of chilli.

I’ll let you all know how it goes!

Welcome home

A lovely little surprise waiting in my new bathroom was this stocked with one of my favorite smelling Vegan Shower gels.

Thanks mum x