The beginning

I love food. It is the reason why I can never, ever, say no to seconds; why I am always starting a diet... tomorrow; why one of my mother's most recurring admonitions as I was growing up was that my eye was bigger than my belly; and why, most recently, a case of gastro that should have been nipped in the bud by a hefty bout of antibiotics, has taken almost two weeks to leave me alone. Simply put, I love preparing food and eating it, and I rarely let anything get in the way of either.

For me, food has always represented a journey, on a number of different levels. It is an essential accompaniment to the journey of life. Dreadful cliché aside, there is really no other way to say it. Some of my earliest and most cherished memories revolve around food and its preparation – my very first cooking lessons with my grandmother (fascinating sessions involving ancient manual balancing scales, an antique Kenwood mixer which emitted a thunderous roar that seemed to rock the foundations of the house, and a yellowing recipe book, bursting at the seams with recipes in my grandmother’s loopy cursive); lunches cooked over an open wood fire at my grandfather’s coconut estate – simple, home made Sri Lankan fare at its most authentic and delicious; my grandfather’s exacting instructions to the staff on how to prepare the perfect tempered basmati rice or fish curry made with the catch of the day from the Negombo fish market; losing my first tooth while eating a delectably plump and juicy mango; the family coming together to indulge in decadent Christmas dinners complete with roasted turkey, all the requisite trimmings and a blazing plum pudding.


To eat food, is to go on a journey – a well-cooked meal transports the eater to a completely different place, on the wings of aroma and flavour. The herbaceous freshness of coriander, lemongrass and kaffir lime whisks you off to Thailand; the zesty sharpness of lemon, basil and parmesan beckons you to Italy; coconut and lime welcome you Sri Lanka; cardamom, cumin and cinnamon entice you to India; smell a sizzling steak on a barbecue and you're in Australia. My favourite thing about food is how it can take you to places you have never been before. Obviously, the delicious flip side is that, in my opinion at least, the best way to experience a new country when traveling is to dive wholeheartedly into its cuisine.


My relationship with food has developed over the years, in different places. Having grown up in beautiful, tropical Sri Lanka, I’m lucky to have been raised with a keen appreciation for a wide array of cuisines. When I moved to sunny Sydney in Australia for university, I fell upon the huge diversity of food that that melting pot of a city offered. Thai and Vietnamese, Italian and Indian, Lebanese and Moroccan and more – I tried and got intimately acquainted with them all. It was in Sydney that I really started cooking different types of cuisine and experimenting with flavours and cooking techniques in a way that made me realize that cooking is something that I was born to do. After nearly 15 years in that beautiful, harbourside city, my young family I recently moved back to Sri Lanka. Settling back into this country has also meant reacquainting myself with its unique cuisine and learning how to cook with the ingredients that are available here. This little jewel of an island boasts a stunning array of fresh produce from its abundance of ocean-fresh seafood to its glorious fruit and vegetables. Starting this food blog is a way to document this new journey. I am not entirely sure where it will lead me… but I am excited to discover what lies beyond the bend.