This Little Piggy Went to Asia...

I swear on my mother's rugelach I've been meaning to photograph all the cool stuff I've eaten since I got over here, but whenever I end up with food in front of me my brain switches off and I go into chow mode.  Thanks to some polite reminders from my fans stateside, I have been more diligent about taking pictures lately so here are some sample dishes so far!  Since I'm a proud Mac convert, I'm finally utilizing the myriad tools to make sweet multi-media presentations that the rest of you have been employing since like 2002.  The dishes shown in the video are pretty classic examples of set menu lunch fare items, usually involving some kind of typical Sri Lankan curry over rice with a vegetable accompaniment.

If you find yourself moved by the simple beauty of this video, it's because I used the Ken Burns cropping setting in iMovie to really add to the drama of each dish.  You're welcome.

First up, crispy fried fish curry over a vegetable rice with a slice of omelette and Chinese vegetables.  Lightly spicy, simple flavor and relatively easy on the foreign palate.

Second, a classic prawn curry, served shell-on in a basic fish sauce, also over veggie rice with omelette and Chinese vegetables.  A mess to eat thanks to the full-shell service, but quite tasty.

Third, and my favorite so far, a standard Sri Lanka set menu offering with a small bit of chicken in curry sauce, dal, chopped greens, some vegetable I cannot pronounce and as an added a bonus serving of crispy fried fish and peanuts.  The fish flavor was intense but pretty damn good.  Dal is a huge favorite here, and from what one coworker told me, "Everyone in Sri Lanka likes dal."  No arguments from me!

Finally, after a long day of eating strange new curries, nothing says 'my afternoon is shot' like a frosty glass of Lion Lager to wash it all down.  In the background there is the Barefoot Cafe garden eatery I visited on Sunday, located in back of a pretty nice souvenir shop in the capital city of Colombo.

Bon apetit!