Wakame - Asian cuisine
Wakame is a well-known Asian restaurant in town and this time around, they're having the "Asian Culture" festival where they are having a particular country every week where they serve dishes from this country (apart from the regular menu). I was invited to try out the Sri Lankan Cuisine.
Before this, I had had Sri Lankan food just once and it was a while ago, so was almost like the first time that I was trying out this cuisine.
I got to know that the owner of this restaurant shares a close relationship to Sri Lanka. Among other things, during his childhood days, he also had a nanny from here, and there is a dish named after her. More on that later.
As we waited for the mains to arrive, we munched on some Edamame. I think this was the only item from the regular menu that we had. They were hot and the flavour was perfect. It had the right amount of salt and seasoning to it.
I ordered the Gotukola Breeze which is a mocktail made from the gotukola leaf. It has pineapple, lime and sugar syrup. I liked the taste of this leaf, and the beverage felt refreshing.
For our first Sri Lankan main dish, we had the Colombo Devilled calamari. The calamari is made with red onion, tomato, leek and banana chilli. There were also some crispy curry leaves on the side as well as a lemon. The selection of spices for this dish made it taste heavenly. It has a tad bit of a South Indian flavour to it. If you are a fan of that, I would definitely recommend trying it out.
Next was the down south hot butter prawn. The warm chilli butter sauce that it was made in tasted fantastic. We had this with some coconut rice. The rice had a very mild flavour of coconut, so someone like me who isn't overly fond of coconut also liked it.
We then had the trinco black pepper seer fish. It is prepared with chilli garlic in black pepper sauce. It was on the spicier side. The fish was soft and flavourful and I really liked this dish.
If you're a fan of crab, then you would go crazy on the lagoon chilli crab. It is black pepper flavoured south Asian crab. They use some curry leaves to make the delicious paste as well as a creamy coconut sauce. This really was finger licking good.
Kottu is a type of dish which contains chopped flatbread and this restaurant has their own version called Wakame's kottu roti hotpot. It is mixed and mashed with egg and served with sunny-side-up. They also give a sambal like paste along with it. I liked the presentation of this traditional Sri Lankan dish.
The owner of this restaurant had a Sri Lankan nanny who used to make this signature dish and it is named after her. It is called Prima's mango & prawn curry. It is an interesting combination and it was my first time trying this out. A sweet and spicy raw mango is used with the prawn curry along with some curry leaf, mustard seeds, red chilli and jaggery. I personally found this to be okay.
For the dessert, we had Watalappan which is a type of custard. It contains a cardamom spiced egg, coconut, jaggery and cashew nut. Though at first bite, I found it a bit weird, but after a few bites I really liked it.
Last but not the least was the Lavariya Bar. It is a bar made from grated coconut and jaggery. It is wrapped with chocolate. It was served along with St. Clair's Tea Ice-cream. The combination was fantastic. I totally loved the ice-cream. If you like coconut, then you will go crazy over this one.
Before this, I had had Sri Lankan food just once and it was a while ago, so was almost like the first time that I was trying out this cuisine.
I got to know that the owner of this restaurant shares a close relationship to Sri Lanka. Among other things, during his childhood days, he also had a nanny from here, and there is a dish named after her. More on that later.
As we waited for the mains to arrive, we munched on some Edamame. I think this was the only item from the regular menu that we had. They were hot and the flavour was perfect. It had the right amount of salt and seasoning to it.
I ordered the Gotukola Breeze which is a mocktail made from the gotukola leaf. It has pineapple, lime and sugar syrup. I liked the taste of this leaf, and the beverage felt refreshing.
For our first Sri Lankan main dish, we had the Colombo Devilled calamari. The calamari is made with red onion, tomato, leek and banana chilli. There were also some crispy curry leaves on the side as well as a lemon. The selection of spices for this dish made it taste heavenly. It has a tad bit of a South Indian flavour to it. If you are a fan of that, I would definitely recommend trying it out.
Next was the down south hot butter prawn. The warm chilli butter sauce that it was made in tasted fantastic. We had this with some coconut rice. The rice had a very mild flavour of coconut, so someone like me who isn't overly fond of coconut also liked it.
We then had the trinco black pepper seer fish. It is prepared with chilli garlic in black pepper sauce. It was on the spicier side. The fish was soft and flavourful and I really liked this dish.
If you're a fan of crab, then you would go crazy on the lagoon chilli crab. It is black pepper flavoured south Asian crab. They use some curry leaves to make the delicious paste as well as a creamy coconut sauce. This really was finger licking good.
Kottu is a type of dish which contains chopped flatbread and this restaurant has their own version called Wakame's kottu roti hotpot. It is mixed and mashed with egg and served with sunny-side-up. They also give a sambal like paste along with it. I liked the presentation of this traditional Sri Lankan dish.
The owner of this restaurant had a Sri Lankan nanny who used to make this signature dish and it is named after her. It is called Prima's mango & prawn curry. It is an interesting combination and it was my first time trying this out. A sweet and spicy raw mango is used with the prawn curry along with some curry leaf, mustard seeds, red chilli and jaggery. I personally found this to be okay.
For the dessert, we had Watalappan which is a type of custard. It contains a cardamom spiced egg, coconut, jaggery and cashew nut. Though at first bite, I found it a bit weird, but after a few bites I really liked it.
Last but not the least was the Lavariya Bar. It is a bar made from grated coconut and jaggery. It is wrapped with chocolate. It was served along with St. Clair's Tea Ice-cream. The combination was fantastic. I totally loved the ice-cream. If you like coconut, then you will go crazy over this one.
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