Photo credit: Silk Road Spice Merchant.
Written by Lucinda Frye.
Diverse and indigenous cuisine brought by the many ethnic people to St. Maarten from all over the world piques our interest. To this end, we are on a quest to find where it comes from, if it is used for celebrations, if it is exotic to some but everyday food to others. Anything to do with keeping the body and soul nourished with that which is produced from good old terra firma, is what makes the world go around.
To say I love Indian food is an understatement. Perhaps, more than loosely saying that, I should define it a bit more – although, I love Cape Malay Indian food, my new love is for Sri Lankan Indian food.
The history of Sri Lanka is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions. Therefore, the cuisine of Sri Lanka has European influence as well as combining South Asia, Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean foods as there has been much movement of the peoples from there.
There has been the two-legged variety of homo sapiens in Sri Lanka since forever! Early human remains found date back to about 38,000 years ago.
From around the third century, after the arrival of a prince from Northern India, documents of settlement have been found. These chronicles cover the period in the sixth century BCE, when the earliest ancestors of the Sinhalese settled there. The first Sri Lankan ruler of the Anuradhapura Kingdom, Pandukabhaya, is recorded for the fourth century BCE. Buddhism was introduced in the third century BCE by the son of an Indian emperor.
The island was divided into numerous kingdoms over the following centuries. Sri Lanka was ruled by some 181 monarchs from the Anuradhapura to Kandy periods, though this number is not a certain. Along came the Portuguese, Dutch and British, in the 16th century, and of course some coastal areas of the country changed hands frequently as to who was in control during that time.
The island was largely controlled by Portuguese who ruled from1597 and 1658. The Portuguese lost to the Dutch in the Eighty Years' War. Then, the island was united under British rule in 1815. Armed uprisings against the British took place by the people rebelling in 1818 and 1848 until independence was finally granted in 1948. However, the country remained a Dominion of the British Empire until 1972.
In 1972, Sri Lanka assumed the status of a republic. A constitution was introduced in 1978 which made the Executive President the head of state. This was not a satisfactory settlement, as is with humans; And so, the Sri Lankan Civil War began in 1983 and only ended in 2009 – a 25-year-long civil war!
Sri Lanka is rife with artifacts found dating back to the Early Iron Age, at least as early as 1200 BCE.
“Evidence of human colonization in Sri Lanka appears at the site of Balangoda. Balangoda Man arrived on the island about 125,000 years ago and has been identified as Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who lived in caves. Several of these caves, including the well-known Batadombalena and the Fa Hien Cave, have yielded many artifacts from these people, who are currently the first known inhabitants of the island.” – Wikipedia
The hunter-gatherer people who still live in the central, Uva and north-eastern parts of the island, are probably direct descendants of the first inhabitants, Balangoda Man. The discovery of oats and barley on the plains from around 15,000 BCE suggests that agriculture had already developed at this early date.
Indo Aryan migrants developed a unique hydraulic civilization named Sinhala. They constructed some of the largest reservoirs and dams of the ancient world as well as enormous pyramid-like stupa architecture.
The earliest surviving chronicles from the island, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, say that Yakkhas, Nagas, Rakkhas and Devas inhabited the island prior to the migration of Indo Aryans.
This truly unique and ancient land changed hands over and over. The first Europeans to visit Sri Lanka in modern times were the Portuguese who arrived in 1505. They found the island divided into seven warring kingdoms. Warring between themselves - yet unable to fend off intruders! The Portuguese founded a fort at the port city of Colombo in 1517, gradually extending their control over the coastal areas. The Sinhalese moved their capital to the inland city of Kandy in 1592. Here they were able to hold their own for the ongoing struggle through the 16th century.
During this time, many Sinhalese converted to Christianity due to missionary campaigns, the coastal Moors were religiously persecuted and forced to retreat to the central highlands. When the Dutch landed in 1602, the Buddhist, who disliked the Portuguese occupation, appealed to the Dutch for help.
The Sri Lankan king made a treaty with the Dutch in 1638 to get rid of the Portuguese. The main conditions of the treaty were that the Dutch were to hand over the coastal areas they had captured to the Kandyan king in return for a Dutch trade monopoly over the island. The agreement was breached by both parties.
“The Dutch captured Colombo in 1656 and the last Portuguese strongholds in 1658. By 1660, they controlled the whole island, except the land-locked kingdom of Kandy. The Dutch (Protestants) persecuted the Catholics and the remaining Portuguese settlers, but left Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims alone. The Dutch levied far heavier taxes on the people than the Portuguese had done.” – Wikipedia
During the Napoleonic Wars Great Britain, fearing that French control of the Netherlands would end in the French control of Sri Lanka, moved on in and occupied the coastal areas of the island. They called the island Ceylon. In 1802, the Treaty of Amiens formally ceded the Dutch part of the island to Britain and it became a crown colony. In 1803, the British invaded the Kingdom of Kandy and by 1815 Kandy was annexed in the second Kandyan War, finally ending Sri Lankan independence.
Sri Lanka was a front-line British base against the Japanese during World War II.
At the end of the war changes were being made and dominion status took place in 1948. Military treaties with Britain, as the upper ranks of the armed forces were initially British, and British air and sea bases remained intact. This was later raised to independence when the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka came to power. From 1949, with the concurrence of the leaders of the Ceylon Tamils, the UNP government disenfranchised the Indian Tamil plantation workers and troubles set in once again. The Tamils, the Kandyan leaders, general strikes and antagonizing of the Tamils and the Sinhalese with the status of Sinhala and Tamil as official languages, brought about changes by 1956 - the Sinhala Only Act came into being. Sinhala was now made the first and preferred language in commerce and education. This led to a migration of mostly the Dutch Burghers leaving the country as they felt discriminated against. In 1958, the first major riots between Sinhalese and Tamils flared up as a direct result of the government's language policy.
From the 60s through to 1971, uprisings once more destroyed peaceful living. Six years of emergency rule followed yet another uprising, once again with many casualties. Finally in January 2015, presidential elections resulted in a unity government between the UNP and SLFP parties. Then in 2019, three churches and three luxury hotels were targeted in a series of coordinated Islamic terrorist suicide bombings.
And, still troubles keep rearing its ugly head on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka!
Through this all, families had to survive and the cuisine, a mixed bag of flavours from the many, many different nationalities who had control, produced a cuisine like no other – completely delicious, helped by the abundance of fresh produce found both on land and in the sea.
Today influences from Indian / particularly South Indian, Indonesian and Dutch cuisines are most evident. Tea is an important beverage throughout the country. Sri Lanka is known for producing some of the world's finest tea. Cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka.
Recipes
The word “curry” comes from the Tamil word “kari” originally meaning black pepper or sauce. Now, it means spiced stew to most of us.
Curry powders are generally mixed each day by every household who all have their secret blend. There are a couple that can be premade though.
Unroasted Curry Powder - simple
Ingredients
½ cup cumin seeds
¼ cup fennel seeds
1½ cups coriander seeds
1 oz green cardamom
A good pinch of cloves
20 fresh curry leaves
2” cinnamon stick, broken
Method
In a dry frying pan, lightly toast the seeds together just long enough to release their fragrance and remove any moisture - set aside to cool
In the same pan, dry-roast the curry leaves and cinnamon t for 2–3 minutes, until the curry leaves are crispy – set aside
Grind spices to a fine powder in batches
Store in a cool, dark space up to 4 months
Roasted Curry Powder
Ingredients
1oz green cardamom seeds
1oz cloves
1 3/4oz cinnamon stick pieces
1 3/4oz basmati rice
5 1/2oz coriander seeds
2 1/2oz cumin seeds
1 3/4oz fennel seeds
1/4oz fenugreek seeds
1/2oz black peppercorns
1oz curry leaves
1/2oz pandan leaves
Method
Toast cardamom, cloves, cinnamon in dry pan 3 mins
Add rice and toast 12 minutes
Toast rest of ingredients separately 12 minutes
Cool then grind in batches
Can be stored 1 month
Hot Red Curry Powder
Ingredients
5 1/2 coriander seeds
2 1/2 cumin seeds
2 1/4 fennel seeds
1/2oz fenugreek seeds
1/2oz peppercorns
1/4oz cinnamon pieces
3 1/2oz dried chilies
Pinch of turmeric
4 sprigs curry leaves
Method
Roast all ingredients – except turmeric on a large roasting tray in a 275*F preheated oven for 45 minutes, shake pan every 15 minutes
Leave to cool
Add turmeric and grind in batches until very fine
Store for 1 month
