Lamprais

Lamprais is the Dutch Burgher community’s gift to Sri Lankan food, a lavish one-plate meal born in Colombo’s colonial-era kitchens. Fragrant rice is piled with several curries and relishes, wrapped in banana leaf, and baked until the leaf steams its sweetness into the filling. It is the dish ordered for birthdays and family gatherings, unwrapped like a present at the table. The parcels were originally made for travelers, meant to be carried and eaten on the road, and the name comes from the Dutch word for a bundle of leftovers raised to an art.

A whole feast tied up in banana leaf

Open the parcel and you meet the full island, buttery rice, dark chicken curry, sticky seeni sambol, tangy brinjal moju, and a jammy boiled egg, each spoonful a different flavor. The banana leaf adds a subtle, grassy perfume you cannot get any other way, and the baked edges turn faintly charred and crisp. Serve the parcels hot, still steaming, and let everyone unfold their own.

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