Continued Adventures in Food

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It might put you in the mind of my desperation for a sandwich to consider what I just ate for dinner. It was called a hot dog - and although I suppose the sandwich included some form of processed meat product, the flavor was more or less masked by the other ingredients: hardboiled egg, raw red onion, tomato, and butter. Ewww.

I cannot honestly say that I am not a fan of jackfruit. In fact, I can fairly conclusively say that I abhor jackfruit in all of its forms. They have three such recognized forms in Sri Lanka, two of which I have had the pleasure (?) of eating. Young jackfruit or polos has both the consistency and taste of bland chunks of beef. It is consumed as a curry (as is everything) and eaten with rice or - heaven forbid - string hoppers. Overripe jackfruit or cos has the advantage of being sticky enough to make eating rice with your fingers a breeze. Of course eating it is one thing; keeping it down is another. In addition to having the consistency of plasma, by the time it becomes cos, the taste of the jackfruit has evolved from beef to burned coffee. Ewww.

After over a month in Sri Lanka, I finally had hoppers for the first time two nights ago. Not unlike crepes, hoppers are eaten (as is everything) with curry. Not to be confused with string hoppers - which are essentially wads of homemade spaghetti - hoppers are easily the most divine Sri Lankan food, although kothu roti is surely a close second.

“Amma, maalu kanne naeae.”
“Not fish, salmon. You eat.”
“………”

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