I haven’t yet traveled to Sri Lanka. It’s been on my list for years, and it almost happened this year, but despite my efforts, that trip is still in the future.
I mention this because I’ve only tried the South Asian island nation’s cuisine a handful of times — always at restaurants that may have served string hoppers, but specialized in other influences. I’ve never lived in a region where there was a full-on Sri Lankan restaurant. Until now.
Sri Lankan Flavors
Meet Banana Leaf. Located on Liberia Avenue in Manassas, where Latin American food rules, this hole-in-the-wall specializes in dishes that are mostly unique to Colombo, Kandy, and beyond.
The goal is education. Each table is topped with information about a different destination across the country — mine was the ancient kingdom of Polonnarawu — and a television plays videos of the homeland.
Sweet and Salty
When I visited on a recent Sunday, there was a buffet available, but the collection of stews and rice dishes didn’t include what I most wanted to try. That included the lamprais, a Dutch-inspired assemblage of deliciousness baked and served in the restaurant’s eponymous banana leaf.
With a base of rice that’s yellow with saffron, I chose a pork stew as the centerpiece, but it turned out there were only four small cubes thereof. I focused on the positives: Components also included the hot-and-tangy eggplant moju, a saltfish ball, cashew curry and toothsome ash plantains.
A breakfast staple, hoppers are made with fermented rice flour and poured thinner than paper to form a bowl-like shape that can be filled with egg or eaten like a sour plain dosa with chutney. But my favorite dish was the kotthu, a construction of chopped roti, meat (in my case, chicken), vegetables, and egg in curry sauce that splits the difference between pad Thai and savory bread pudding.
On the sweet side, I enjoyed a wood apple milkshake — made from a fruit that bears no relation or similarities to our apples, but is nonetheless, a tasty, if woody, treat. Watalappam is a coconut-based custard that gets its flavor and caramel color from jaggery, or dark, unrefined sugar.
Given my lack of experience with the cuisine, it’s hard to say how the Banana Leaf’s dishes compare as Sri Lankan food. But in terms of pure delectability, the new restaurant succeeds with flying colors.
Feature image courtesy Alice Levitt
