Short Eats and Street Food Recipes

Kottu

Kottu Roti

Kottu roti, also spelled koththu, is Sri Lanka's most famous street food: shredded godamba roti stir-fried on a hot griddle with egg, vegetables, spices and leftover curry, to the clang of two metal blades. Loud, fast and endlessly adaptable, it is how you turn yesterday's chicken curry into a smoky, savoury, chewy plate of dinner.

Maalu Cutlets

Sri Lankan Fish Cutlets

Sri Lankan fish cutlets are crisp golden balls of spiced fish and potato, crumbed and deep-fried until the outside cracks and the middle stays soft. They're a fixture at tea-time tables, parties and bakery short-eat counters, made with tinned tuna or cooked fish, onion, ginger, green chilli, pepper and curry powder. Call them fish croquettes if you like. Either way, they're the snack that disappears fastest from any plate.

Maalu Paan

Sri Lankan Fish Buns

Maalu paan, Sri Lankan fish buns, are soft, lightly sweet yeast buns with a spiced tinned fish filling, baked until golden. The dough carries milk, butter and egg; the centre is jack mackerel or tuna fried down with onion, garlic, ginger, green chilli, curry leaves and Sri Lankan curry powder. You'll find them in every neighbourhood bakery, and they're the short-eat to tear open with milk tea.

Bittara Rolls

Sri Lankan Egg Rolls

Sri Lankan egg rolls are known locally as bittara rolls, and you'll often see them listed as Chinese rolls on bakery menus. They're thin savoury pancakes wrapped around a spiced fish or chicken filling, with a slice of boiled egg tucked inside. Then they're crumbed and deep-fried until crisp and golden. This is the classic Sri Lankan short eat you find in every bakery, and it has nothing to do with the cabbage-filled American or Chinese egg roll. It's a crepe roll: soft, spiced filling and a hidden egg sealed inside a shatteringly crisp breadcrumb shell.

Ulundu Wadei

Ulundu Vadai

Ulundu vadai, also written ulundu wadei, is a savoury, doughnut-shaped fritter made from soaked and ground urad dal (ulundu, black gram), spiced with onion, green chilli, curry leaves and crushed pepper, then deep-fried until the outside crisps and the middle goes light and fluffy. You'll also hear it called medu vadai or just urad dal fritter. It's a Sri Lankan tea-time and breakfast short eat, the kind you want warm with coconut chutney, dhal or sambar and a strong cup of tea.

Banis

Sri Lankan Banis

Sri Lankan banis is the enriched bakery bun every neighbourhood bakery turns out by the trayful: soft, lightly sweet, the plain bun Sri Lankans tear open with milk tea. The dough gets milk, butter, sugar and a little egg worked in, kneaded smooth, proofed twice and baked until the tops are deep golden and glossy. Inside that thin shiny crust it's pillowy. These plain sweet tea buns are the simplest and best-loved of the banis, eaten plain, split with butter, or spread with jam.

Kimbula Banis

Kimbula Banis

Kimbula banis is the famous Sri Lankan crocodile bun, a soft, lightly sweet enriched yeast bun scored with diagonal ridges and finished with a crunchy sugar crust on top. Kimbula means crocodile in Sinhala, and the name comes from the scaly, ridged look of the cuts across the surface. The crumb is pillowy and barely sweet, the sugar topping is crackly, and the whole thing is the classic bakery short-eat to tear apart with a hot cup of milk tea.

Biththara Kottu

Sri Lankan Egg Kottu

Sri Lankan egg kottu, also called biththara kottu, is the egg-led take on the island's most famous street food. You shred godamba roti, chop it on a hot griddle with plenty of beaten egg, vegetables, spice and that rattling clatter of two metal blades. Chicken kottu uses leftover meat curry. Here the egg does the work, folding into smoky savoury ribbons through the roti. No meat, quick, and the easiest kottu to manage at home.

Elawalu Kottu

Sri Lankan Vegetable Kottu

Sri Lankan vegetable kottu, or elawalu kottu, is the meat-free version of the country's most famous street food. Shredded godamba roti gets chopped and stir-fried on a hot griddle with leeks, carrot, cabbage and onion, spiced and bound with savoury gravy. It's smoky, hearty, and easy to make vegan: just skip the egg. You don't need chicken or beef for a kottu that satisfies.

Elawalu Roti

Sri Lankan Vegetable Roti

Sri Lankan vegetable roti, or elawalu roti, is a soft wheat-flour dough wrapped around a spiced filling of potato, leeks, carrot, onion and green chilli, folded into a flat triangle or square parcel and dry-griddled until golden. Pillowy-soft with toasty, blistered edges and a savoury, gently chilli-warm centre, this vegetable stuffed roti is a proper bakery and tea-time short-eat. It's naturally vegetarian and easily vegan. Eat it warm with a dab of chilli sambol or katta sambol and a cup of tea.

Isso Wade

Isso wade, or prawn fritters in English, sometimes written isso vadai, is a crisp Sri Lankan lentil fritter studded with onion, chilli and curry leaves, with a whole prawn pressed on top and deep-fried until lacy and golden. Isso means prawn and wade is the fried lentil snack, so the name is just prawn wade. Hot, crunchy and properly spicy, it's a split-pea and chana dhal fritter you'll see at seaside stalls along the coast, sold by the dozen.