Sri
Lankans have a notorious sweet tooth. Though mainly fruits such
as bananas, papaw and pineapple are served after main meals,
there is a huge assortment of sweets and sweetmeats.
Just as coconut plays the main role in curries, treacle from
palm and coconut base almost all sweets and sweetmeats. Certain
sweetmeats are made mostly during festive times (i.e. in the
month of April). A tantalizing preview would be:
The many varieties of kavum
(caa-voo-m), a battercake made from rice flour and treacle and
fried in coconut oil,
Kokis (co-kiss), the Sri Lankan version of cookies
However, sweets such
as aluva (a-loo-va), a diamond shaped fluffy sweet that just
melts in the mouth, ebulkiribath (e-boo-l-kee-ree-baa-th), spiced
coconut and treacle mixture (pani-pol) cocooned in milk-rice,
sesame seed balls, dodol – quite similar to the Indian
sweet, masket and crystallized sugar-coated melon cubes are
found in many a tea-table.
Potato toffees, condensed milk toffees with cashew, ginger dosi
(toffee), marshmallows, Turkish delight are also very popular
and rarely a home is without at least one of these.
The
Sour & Sweet Taste Bud Tantalizer
Curd &
treacle is an all time favorite. Very much a cottage industry,
this is made from the most natural and freshest ingredients.
The curd, which is often made from buffalo-milk, is tangy in
taste and is set in flat, clay pots. Curd and treacle combined
in rice is a popular breakfast among many villagers.
The accompanying
treacle is the sap from either the palm or coconut flower. Treacle
from the palm flower is richer and thus more sought after. The
budding flower is tied at the tips with a cord, so that it would
not open. The sap that is to swell the flower and then fill
the fruit to come oozes out into the clay pot positioned at
the stem of the flower. The harvester collects this sap every
couple or so days.
The process of harvesting is indeed a unique sight. Two thick
ropes, about 5 feet apart, at least 50 feet above ground, connect
the trees. The harvester, balances on the bottom rope and using
the top as a supporter, moves from tree to tree – either
tying buds or collecting sap. Resultant treacle is the most
important ingredient in almost every Sri Lankan dessert and
sweet.
