Spicy all-time favourites

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IF YOU are craving for some authentic spicy Sri Lankan food, the place to go is the Best Western Premier Seri Pacific Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

The hotel is dishing out all-time favourites and delicious Sri Lankan fare until the end of the month at its Zende Restaurant.

"Sri Lankan food is known to be spicy" - Chef Chandakanti Vijayratna

An array of special home-made dishes are offered in the buffet spread, including Green Banana Curry, Pepper Crab, Fried Hot Shrimps, Sri Lankan Red Curry Chicken, Yellow Fish Curry, Leek Mirisata, Malu Abulthiyal and Lunu Miris.

The vegetable dishes are also must-trys as the promotion features Spicy Potatoes, Pumpkin Curry, Brinjal Curry, Wattakka Curry, Kadala Parippu Mallum and Curried Okra.

There is even a range of specially prepared desserts like Avocado Crazy, Kiri Pani, Pudding of Dulya, Jaggery Cake, Mung Kavume and Wellawahum for a sweet ending to the meal.

In order to bring these dishes to local diners, Best Western has specially brought in Sri Lankan chef Chandakanti Vijayratna.

Chef Chandakanti said Sri Lankan food was known to be spicy.

She said a lot of vegetables like ladies’ fingers and eggplant, as well as chicken, shrimp and fish was used in the cooking.

“Most of the dishes are easy to prepare and we use more chilli,” she said.

Fiery: The Fish Curry

According to executive chef Helmut Murmann, Chandakanti’s expertise helps ensure the taste is what it should be.

“We want to make sure each dish has the particular taste because food is all about the flavour and how much of spices we put in.

“The taste of the food is quite intense as Sri Lankan food is spicy, but we have toned it down so that every one can enjoy it,” he said.

He revealed that the spices were sourced from a special shop in Klang, which happened to be the only one specialising in Sri Lankan spices.

Desserts: (Clockwise, from front) Kiri Pani, Wellawahum, Jaggery Cake and Avocado Crazy.

“The thing with spices is that they vary from one place to another; for example, the seven-spice mixture for Moroccan cuisine is different from the mixture used in Chinese cooking,” he explained.

“Even the desserts we have prepared are very rich in taste — sweet with a touch of spice in them,” he said.

According to Murmann, the food is rotated for lunch and dinner throughout the promotion.