Truth be told, sometimes we didn't have a clue what we were eating! The Sir Lankan language of Sinhalese is difficult to translate with google and we haven't seen a lot of the foods before:
The red prickly fruit to the right are Rambutans. It's 'soft' prickly, doesn't hurt to hold and you peel it like an orange. The fruit inside is semi-translucent with a pit and is very tasty (doesn't taste like anything we've ever eaten).
On top of the rambutans are small, olive-size fruit called Gadugudas. The skin is tough to separate and you use your teeth to open. Inside is very sour that the Sri Lankans love but we said 'yuck'.
Cathy tried the orange King coconut (front and right) which tasted good but really was just like ordinary coconut juice.
The red bananas to the left are excellent. I'd say they were the best tasting bananas I've ever had. A fruit we didn't get a picture of that's a bit larger than a tennis ball, but hard as wood is a wood apple (duh). You have to smack them open and saw with a sharp knife to get inside. They taste like an extremely ripe Canadian apple (another yuck).
Vegetables and spices are another story:
The lady selling vegetables in the market spoke no English and it was hard to determine if we were looking at cucumbers, squash or even if you'd eat some of them (I got the green beans, thanks!).
For main dishes, there was a lot of fish and chicken with curry. Buddhists don't eat meat as they don't kill animals. Several times we heard "Muslims kill our cows and eat them" which gives you an appreciation of the feelings between the two sects. We really found it strange with people using their fingers to eat- rice, gravy dishes, vegetables- with their right hand. Some Muslim women would move their veil forward with their left hand and bring the food up with their right hand so you wouldn't see their mouth. Thankfully, restaurants offered utensils which we took eagerly!
Next up- India
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