WHAT'S ON MY PLATE

Memories Served Hot My Journey Into Food Writing

- By Yasara Abeynayake

I was invited to write a food column after the Editor of The Sun (Daily Mirror) noticed how passionately I shared stories on my Instagram account. I used to post everything I ate and even dedicate love songs to the dishes I fell in love with. It may sound eccentric, but my love for food is deep and wholehearted.

Every bite makes me feel more intensely, as though the world sharpens in flavour. For a few years I wrote restaurant reviews and recommendations for HI!! Online, but I often felt confined by the emphasis on high-end dining. Some of the best meals I have ever eaten came from humble roadside kades, and I longed for the freedom to celebrate them too.

My first nighttime kade rice and curry packet came into my life when I was five years old, and the memory has stayed with me ever since. It was from The Nawalanka Hotel in Ratmalana, opposite the Maliban biscuit factory. Thirty-five years later the restaurant is still there, and the food tastes exactly as it did in 1989. The rice packet was folded into a neat square and filled with keeri samba, dhal curry, fish curry, sautéed beans, dhel curry, fried dry fish, fried chilli and poppadom Everything about it is pure nostalgia. One bite takes me straight back to the 80s, sitting in my grandmother's house, feeling small and safe.