Authentic Sri Lankan cuisine is hard to find in the city, let alone healthy, home-made delicacies prepared by the hands of a gourmet from the island.
Situated on a busy street in Yonghe City, Lion Foot Sri Lankan Cuisine is a homely retreat from the bustle of city life, scented with exotic ingredients all imported from the kingdom of spices.
Owner Amila Jeewantha is more of an artistic type than a businessman. After a couple of visits to Taiwan with his traditional dance troupe which participated in local art festivals, the 31-year-old adventurer decided to stay on and introduce his beloved country, its people, culture and food to the locals.
PHOTO: HO YI, TAIPEI TIMES
For between NT$250 to NT$350 per meal, the joint offers exceptionally good-quality food that will satisfy taste buds and health conscious patrons.
The menu contains a broad range of chicken, pork and seafood dishes served with home-made sauces that use dozens of herbs and spices.
As Amila explained it, there is little use of oil in Sri Lankan cuisine. The food is flavored and simmered together with baked herbs and spices. The signature Ceylon sauce for example, uses ingredients such as cloves, cardamom and mace, a spice that was considered more valuable than gold in ancient times. Red curry sauce with a handful of saffron filaments is a spicy option for people who want to warm up their whole body in wintertime.
Preparing the sauces is a time-consuming procedure that looks more like a complicated chemical experiment. The menu is changed on a regular basis as Amila constantly adds new and revised recipes to his creative comestibles.
Menu highlights include chicken korma with biriyani rice. Korma is a divine-tasting sauce made of simmered herbs and seasonal fruits such as apples, grapes and pears. It's light, sweet and full of flavor and compliments the fragrant rice.
Another must-try is seafood noodles with Sri Lankan spiced curry. Amazingly enough, Amila makes the noodles himself, using very little oil to knead the dough made with white haricot bean flour.
Each dish is visually enchanting and tastefully presented. Main courses can be accompanied with naan bread, saffron rice with nuts and raisins or vegetable roti which is a baked flatbread.
A post-meal cup of Ceylon tea is soothing.
The restaurant stocks dozens of certificated organic teas from the Batik tea plantation in Sri Lanka.
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