Yesterday I did my usual trip to the pool with our family friend for his aqua aerobics class. When I arrived to pick him up, his mum brought out a tray with four foil wrapped cylinders to give to me. She had made some pittu, which is a specialty of Sri Lanka. It’s basically a rice flour and coconut mixture shaped into a cylinder mould then steamed. Here‘s a photo of the modern pittu steamer. We were given one but haven’t tried it out as yet. We very rarely have them so this was a nice treat.  They are usually served with kiri hodi, a sort of curry soup made from coconut milk, turmeric, chillies and other spices. I made some kiri hodi today to serve with the pittu and also made a meat curry. Both came out quite well although I’m sure Game Fanatic would never consider my versions as good as his Nana’s. Kiri hodi is also served over stringhoppers, which are thin rice noodles formed into disc shapes. Here‘s a decent photo of some stringhoppers. Game Fanatic and the Scientist just finished off a big batch of the stringhoppers made by the same lady for Game Fanatic’s birthday. We never made any of the kiri hodi, which I really like on the stringhoppers, so I gave up my share to the two guys.

I also found this photo which shows stringhoppers with the kiri hodi on it. There’s also what looks like the pancake roll made by my mother-in-law and some pol sambol (coconut mixed with chillies and spices and served as an accompaniment to curries). The only non-Sri Lankan item is the samosa but Sri Lankans eat quite a few of those too!