Wednesday, 23 March 2016

Papaya feasting

We’ve been to Ealing’s Sri Lankan special nearly three times this year – so it is about time we blogged about it :o)

As some of you may know, Sri Lankan restaurants are in fact hard to come by, even in our cosmopolitan London town. The new, and trendy ‘Hoppers’ restaurant in Soho has recently drawn more attention to this much understated cuisine, although with its no-booking approach it is often hard to get a table. We have also been to another restaurantin Tooting, and heard about some authentic Sri Lankan eats on Sunday evenings at a pub in Sudbury Hill. However our Sri Lankan friends tell us that they aren’t as common as we might have expected.

We first tried Papaya before we really knew what Sri Lankan food was. Having dined in many Indian restaurants and having spent time in South India, some of the dishes on Papaya’s menu seemed familiar. With over 11% of the national population being Tamil, Sri Lankan cuisine shares many dishes and influences from South Indian Tamil traditions. On our first visit we un-adventurously ordered those dishes that we were familiar with, such as dhal and curries. 

Earlier this year however, we were fortunate enough to attend a friend’s wedding in Sri Lanka and get to sample the culinary delights and delicacies that it has to offer. One thing that was striking to us was the delicate flavours and textures that Sri Lankan dishes host – of course this is in comparison to our experiences of Northern Indian British restaurants which just don’t seem quite as fine or well tuned.  Several Sri Lankan dishes are made up of finely chopped ingredients and a multitude of aromatic spices and flavours.


Photo: Papaya's Kothu Roti

In Sri Lanka itself our British appearances prompted the question at each mealtime “how spicy would you like your dish”. We mainly went for medium, although the one “spicy” dish I did try was really pleasant, and with a few breathers in between made for a delicious meal. This is one thing Papaya doesn’t match to its heritage roots – a few of the items on the menu are labelled with “Mild”, “Medium” and “Hot”; however by our measure the one “Hot” dish (the chicken madras curry) did not live up to the chilli used for in-country dining.

One of our favourite dishes is the Kothu Roti. Imagine an Indian flat bread (the roti) copped into strips of about 1cm wide (or less) and fried up with meat, vegetable and those aromatic spices we mentioned...and there you have it, the Kothu Roti. Traditionally eaten in the evening in Sri Lanka (rice and curry are reserved for lunchtime sittings), we would argue that Kothu Roti goes down a treat at any time of the day. Since having been in Sri Lanka, this is now a regular on our order when we visit Papaya.

Photo: Kothu options at Papaya (string hopper is a bit like vermicelli)

Another traditional dish is the Egg Hopper, a south Indian pancake made from fermented rice, cooked with a fried egg in the centre. When I first saw this in Sri Lanka I was convinced it was a breakfast fusion of Indian Dosa (the pancake) with an English breakfast fried egg! How wrong I was – hoppers, and egg hoppers are a traditional eat for any meal all over the island.

During our most recent trip we went with some friends excited for a Sri Lankan feast. We ordered a lot of food and decided to also sample the starters. Most of the starters tended to be dry-ish fried bites – such as fishcake cutlets, lentil balls, samosas and so on. I thought they were delicious, but one of our guests did comment that she wished she’d saved more space for the phenomenal curries instead.

 Photo: Dahl, curry, rice, and another favourite - coconut sambal (finely ground coconut with spices to sprinkle on any dish)

By its own measure Papaya is “The best Sri Lankan Restaurant in the UK” (as it states on its restaurants homepage, claiming the Sri Lankan Community Award). Aside from the homemade Sri Lankan food we’ve been lucky enough to sample by the mothers of our good friends, we would agree that Papaya has been a delight to return to every time we get those Kothu Roti cravings.


Summary score table /5
Food Deliciousness:4.5
Drinks Tastiness: 4
Service Skills:4
Atmospheric Vibes:3
Recommendation Score for a Casual Eve:5
Recommendation Score for Showing off Ealing:5
Total average score:4.25