Planning Stage
My neighbor’s kid was having a birthday party last weekend, and they asked me to help with the snacks since they knew I love cooking. At first, I scratched my head thinking, “Dude, Sri Lankan birthday food? Gotta nail this.” Started digging through my grandma’s handwritten recipes and asked my cousin in Colombo for ideas.
Ingredient Hunt
Woke up early Saturday morning, grabbed my jute bag, and stormed the local Asian market. Took me forever to find kottu roti bread – finally spotted it frozen near the back aisle. Grabbed some jackfruit too, remembering how cheap it is back in Sri Lanka. Almost forgot the coconut milk until the cashier yelled, “Machan, you making curry or what?”
Cooking Chaos
Back in my tiny kitchen, turned on YouTube tutorial and burned my first batch of seeni sambol because I got distracted with Instagram. Second try worked better: chopped onions, dumped chili flakes and Maldive fish flakes into sizzling oil like my aunt taught me. Messiest part was prepping jackfruit curry – sticky stuff everywhere! My cat licked syrup off the floor while I struggled.
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Menu Breakdown
- Kottu: Shredded roti fried with scrambled eggs, carrots and that weird sausage nobody could pronounce
- Pani Walalu: Deep-fried lentil swirls that popped like fireworks in hot oil
- Wattalapam Pudding: Burnt my pinky testing if jaggery caramel was ready (it wasn’t)
Party Time
Showed up late carrying stacked takeout boxes. Kids went berserk for kottu when they heard me chop-chop-choping it live with metal scrapers. One uncle kept refilling his plate whispering, “Just like Negombo beach shacks!” Felt proud until the birthday boy spit out jackfruit curry shouting, “Too spicyyyyy!” Lesson learned: tone down chili for foreign kids.
Overall win? The coconutty wattalapam disappeared in minutes. Pro tip: stick banana leaves under desserts – looks fancy and hides your messy plating.