- [Ruzaina] So how
you're going to do this,
Oh my God, it looks so good.
- Oh wow.
And what do we have here?
These look like uh,
these are the surprise, right?
Alright check it out
guys, it's Trevor James.
I'm hanging with Ruzaina
from The Minority Taste.
You can check out her YouTube channel
in the description below.
And today, we are deep outside
of Colombo in a local market.
We're gonna have a ton of delicious food.
What's the plan?
- So we're gonna go
have a home cooked meal
with a proper surprise element for you,
and then we're gonna go
for a proper Sri Lankan
late lunch and a street style food
not to be missed in Sri Lanka.
- Awesome, let's check it out.
Get ready for an extreme street food tour,
and an amazing home
cooked meal experience.
Cause today, Ruzaina
from the Minority Taste
is bringing us in deep to
a local market in Colombo,
and an amazing home cooked
meal cooked by her grandmother.
You're gonna love this video,
so make sure to watch all
the way until the end.
Cause we're bringing you for some amazing
and extreme food experiences.
Let's eat.
Wow, there's just so much
color in this market.
And this is all local Sri Lankan produce?
- Yeah, this is all
local Sri Lankan produce.
Our soil is really rich.
You put anything in it,
and it'll just grow.
- Really?
- Yeah, and also most
of our stuff is organic,
so and it's really cheap, you don't
have to go for special supermarkets here.
- It's just so colorful.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, it is.
- [Trevor] Look at all this.
Eggplant, radish, tomato.
Where's the spice, we've
gotta get the spice.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, come
let's look for the spice.
- Wow, there is just so much here.
And these are all dried fish?
- Yes, this is all dried fish.
We are very famous for our seafood
and also our dried fish.
- Look at these.
- Yeah.
- So these are all anchovies?
- Yeah, this is dried anchovies.
This is very famous, we make a very very
delicious fried anchovie
dish with onions in them.
You should try, and you will get to
try a couple in the late lunch today.
- [Trevor] Oh, awesome.
So how would you use
all of these dried fish?
- So we like to stir fry them with onions
and a lot of chiles, and then we fry them.
Then we can cook them in a
curry with this in coconut milk.
You can have it any way you like.
- [Trevor] Oh, and look at this.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, this is tuna.
Dried tuna
- [Trevor] Oh, tuna chunks.
- [Ruzaina] This is a Maldive fish.
- [Trevor] Oh.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, this is a Maldive fish
so this is really really tough,
but we pound them and grind them and
make it into like a powder or like shreds,
and then we use them.
- [Trevor] Ah, and you put
this in the coconut sambal.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, we put
this in the coconut sambal,
we put this in various
other things as well.
- [Trevor] And we'll be having this today?
- [Ruzaina] We'll be having this today.
We have another speciality, and
that is our very own hot chile.
That's the kochi.
So this is the kochi chile,
which is really really hot,
although they're small.
They're super, super hot and
they're just dangerous little bombs.
- [Trevor] Kochi miris
chile, and these are deadly?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, they are deadly.
- [Trevor] So if I bit
into it, would I be able to
- [Ruzaina] Do you want to bit into it?
- [Trevor] (laughs) Would I live?
- [Ruzaina] You would live.
I don't know what gonna
happen to your tongue though,
but you'd live.
- [Trevor] And there's just so much here.
So these are the miris?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, kochi miris,
this is our Sri Lankan speciality,
and this is also another
special chile called the
nai miris, also called the snake chiles.
So both of them are hot,
but they're so flavorful, I mean you
add just one into like a
curry, like a dull curry
or like a coconut sambal, it just gives
you that pop of like
- It just brings it to life.
- Yeah, brings it life.
- And I'm just in awe of the color here.
All the fruit, all the veg.
So much spices, look at this cinnamon.
- [Ruzaina] This is our gold, you know.
- [Trevor] This is gold.
- [Ruzaina] This is gold
because our Sri Lan cinnamon
has the best flavor ever.
- Oh.
This market is breathtaking, hi.
Oh, so many spices here, look at these.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah.
So these are some of our very
famous and popular spices.
This is the clove.
We just use two or three
of these in buth curry
because it's so strong and aromatic.
- [Trevor] Oh, that is so potent.
- [Ruzaina] I know.
- [Trevor] Strong, yeah.
- [Ruzaina] These are our cardamom,
and you just crush it a little bit.
Again, we use only two or
three pods of this for curry
because it's so aromatic and fragrant.
- Oh.
Wow, and what are these here?
- [Ruzaina] These are the curry leaves
and the pandan leaves.
This is my favorite, favorite
favorite in the world
because it gives so much flavor.
- [Trevor] Pandan leaf?
- [Ruzaina] The pandan leaf, from pai.
And also this is the famous curry leaf.
Without curry leaf, we don't
have a curry in Sri Lanka.
- We need that, pandan and the curry.
What is this here?
- So this is sago and green gram.
- Sago?
- Sago and green gram.
- Green gram?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah
- [Trevor] Oh.
- [Ruzaina] And then it's
cooked with coconut milk
and palm sugar, our
local version of jaggery.
It's a jaggery, our version
of the palm sugar, yeah.
So it's made with treacle.
And when you have this,
it's suppose to nourish you
and it's like give you energy,
and it cools your body.
- Awesome.
- So it's good for the heat.
- Let's get one each.
Oh, so here it is.
It's a sego, palm sugar,
coconut, and tapioca?
- [Ruzaina] Yes, sego is tapioca.
- [Trevor] Wow.
- [Ruzaina] And green gram.
- And it's sweet, and green gram.
And hot, cheers.
- Cheers.
- Thank you, let's try it out.
Oh wow.
Oh, wow that is incredibly unique.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah.
- [Trevor] That is unlike
anything I've ever tasted.
It's gingery.
- Yeah, because they put spices in it.
Now there will be like the cloves in it,
the cardamom, the cinnamon,
so it's a mix of spices
- It's spicy and sweet.
- Yeah.
- You can taste the palm sugar
- And there's coconut milk
just to mellow it down.
- And smooth and milky.
- Mm hm.
And the tapioca seeds just
play around in your mouth.
- Wow, that is really good.
(speaks foreign words)
Cheers.
That is amazing.
- So we got our herbs, we got our spices,
we got our knock you down chilies.
We're good to go.
- Awesome, let's go.
And after a quick drive
through the beautiful
Sri Lankan village countryside,
we arrived at Ruzaina's grandmother's home
for a huge lunch feast.
- So this is my uncle's house
where my grandmother lives too
- Okay.
So I'm warmly welcoming
you, the Food Ranger,
to my humble home.
- I am so excited for this.
- This is my wonderful grandmother,
who is going to be cooking for us today.
- Wow, thank you for having us,
it's really nice to be here.
- Nice to see you, for you to come.
- Oh, we're so excited.
And when we walked in,
Ruzaina's wonderful grandmother
had a huge, beautiful
feast almost ready for us,
with only a couple dishes left to cook.
The dishes that I ended up loving the most
were the two varieties of
both beef brain and testicle.
Oh, is this brain?
- Yeah, boil it and then
it's cut into pieces,
and you egg wash, and then
dust with crumbs, bread crumbs.
And now you are to fry them.
- [Trevor] So we'll fry the brain?
- Yes.
- [Ruzaina] Fried brain is like a special.
- [Trevor] Really?
- Yeah, it's like a super special dish
because it's like fatty, melty
cheese and it's crumb fried
- [Trevor] Oh, I can't wait to try that.
Oh, wow.
And what do we have here?
These look like uh, these
are the surprise, right?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, these are the
surprise that he left for you.
- [Trevor] I think I know what these are.
- [Ruzaina] But usually, it's not given
to be consumed for unmarried women.
- [Trevor] Okay, so this
is just me? (laughs)
- [Ruzaina] This is just for you.
- [Grandmother] Only for the
males, only for the males.
- [Trevor] Okay, okay I'm excited.
So are these going to be spicy?
- [Grandmother] You can cook both ways
- [Trevor] Both ways?
Oh, we're just cutting in there.
Oh, wow.
I don't think I've ever seen the inside.
(laughing)
And this is the special for today?
- Yeah, special.
- The special.
And this is just for me?
- Mm hm.
- [Trevor] Just the boys?
Have you ever tried?
- No, we're not allowed to eat it.
- [Trevor] Not allowed?
- Yeah, so it's, especially unmarried
but although I'm married now,
it's still like a big no-no,
my grandmother would let me have it.
- [Trevor] Should Ting
try, or only for the men?
(laughs)
And before we knew it,
Ruzaina's grandmother
was preparing both the
testicles and the brain
in two different styles.
One peppery, and one with chile.
And while it was cooking,
Ruzaina brought us outside
to make the famous Sri Lankan pol sambal.
- So I'm gonna show you
guys a really really simple
but most popular dish called pol sambal.
So you need coconut, okay,
so this is like showing what
rich country our soil is,
and we've got shallots.
You can use red onion, but
shallots give that flavor.
Two types of chilies,
salt, and the Maldive fish
I told you, I showed you,
so this is how it looks when it's pounded.
- [Trevor] That fish from the Maldives.
- Yeah, and lime.
So what you do first is
you just pound it all together.
This is really really easy.
Are you getting the smell of the chile?
- Mm, that is potent.
- Yeah.
- It's like breathing a burning flame.
- I can't believe I'm making Trevor James
pound onions at my place,
and I'm getting him to make pol sambal.
- Ah, this is awesome.
- So it doesn't give much color,
so what we do is we add
a little bit chile powder
for more color, and pepper.
Oh, you're gonna love this one.
- [Trevor] And when we were done,
the feast was ready.
Wow, this is just amazing.
Thank you so much for having us here.
- So this is milk yam.
- [Trevor] Milk yam?
- [Ruzaina] Kiriela
- [Trevor] With beef?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, with beef, with beef.
Then we made a dry, dull curry.
- [Trevor] So lentils
- [Ruzaina] Yes, it's a lentil curry.
- [Trevor] Curry leaves, oh.
- [Ruzaina] Then this is a spleen
with lemon grass that we bought.
- [Trevor] Beef spleen with lemon grass?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, lemon grass flavor.
Then this is a spleen, black
pepper, and curry leaf flavor.
- [Trevor] Okay, so two
different flavors of spleen?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, so we are
using a lot of cinnamon.
We use a lot of cinnamon in most of them.
- Ceylon cinnamon?
- Ceylon cinnamon, most of the curries
we have used cinnamon here.
- Ah, beautiful.
- This is the brains too,
with like I said
- [Grandmother] Onions
- [Trevor] So this is
the brain with the onions
- [Grandmother] Onions,
vinegar, pepper, and cinnamon.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, again cinnamon.
[Trevor] Ah, beautiful.
- [Ruzaina] Then okra, lady fingers,
we have made a little Sri
Lankan version of morning glory.
- [Trevor] Morning glories.
And this is the special here?
- [Ruzaina] The special
- [Trevor] The beef
- [Grandmother] The beef special
- [Trevor] The beef special.
And we've got two different
types of the beef.
- Yeah, so this is another version of it,
made with chilies and onions
and it's made like a stir fry.
- Spicier with onions.
And how long have you been cooking for?
Ruzaina was saying you
started when you were 12?
- Right, in the olden days, yeah.
In the olden days you had to like,
there's no help or anything.
Women had to do everything
because that is the culture.
If the female in the
home didn't do all that,
they were like, according
to my grandmother,
the home is not prosperous
enough, like that.
So we'll start with the rice,
- [Trevor] Okay.
- [Ruzaina] because rice is
what Sri Lanka is known for.
It brings prosperity
- [Trevor] Right over the banana leaf.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, right
over the banana leaf.
- [Trevor] Brings prosperity?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, so this is
our, this is what we have.
We have our own type of rice.
This is called samba rice.
- [Trevor] Oh wow, I just am
blown away with the color here.
So much color and spice.
Oh, and that's the
- [Ruzaina] Dal
- [Trevor] The dal.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, and I'm
gonna put a little yam.
- [Trevor] A little yam.
- [Ruzaina] And the beef.
- [Trevor] Oh.
Wow.
- [Ruzaina] The spleen and lemon grass.
- [Trevor] The spleen and lemon grass.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, and this is the
pepper and curry leaf spleen.
- [Trevor] Pepper, curry leaf spleen.
- [Ruzaina] This is the brain
- [Trevor] Oh, the brain
- [Ruzaina] Brains too with
Ceylon cinnamon and pepper.
- [Trevor] That smells fantastic.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah
- [Trevor] With the cinnamon.
And this is mainly for
- The males.
- Males, for health
- For the males.
- This is the onion, pepper
- It is with pepper.
- Okay, wow.
Thank you, Granny, thank you so much.
Look at the color on this plate, that is
- [Grandmother] Sri
Lanka has a lot of colors
- [Trevor] Sri Lankan color, Sri Lankan
and it's all natural ingredients?
- Natural, yes, all natural ingredients.
- Oh this is the brain cutlet here?
- [Ruzaina] Yes, the brain fried cutlet.
Try a little more.
- [Trevor] Okay.
- [Ruzaina] And the fried spleen.
- [Trevor] And the fried spleen.
Oh wow.
Oh and the sambal.
- Yeah.
- The coconut chile sambal
that we made outside?
- Careful when you eat,
it's very hot enough
- It's spicy, be careful?
Okay. (laughs)
- Warning has been give, your warning.
Start with the cutlet.
- The brain cutlet?
- Brain cutlet.
- Mm, oh that's beautiful.
It's like a cheesy
potato cutlet, but brain.
- [Ruzaina] What you can do is you can mix
- [Trevor] Mix some sambal with it?
- Yeah, mix some sambal, some dal.
You take a little bit
of everything, that's
how you eat Sri Lankan food.
- [Trevor] Oh, just mix it up.
- [Grandmother] Some dal
- [Ruzaina] Some dal,
- [Trevor] Some dal
and some pepper spleen,
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, just add
a little bit of everything.
Just a little bit of everything.
- Just a touch of everything
and just scoop it right in.
Oh, that is really soft, mm.
And before I knew it,
it was time to dig in to the testicles.
So which one, try the pepper one.
This one?
Okay.
With a little dal, and a little rice.
There it is right there.
Okay, let's try it out.
Mm, oh.
Mm.
It's just like chicken.
It's just like chicken with a dal.
And peppery.
- Peppery, yes.
- Peppery.
(laughing)
Very tasty.
The testicles are really delicious.
Smooth, peppery, a
little bit of that onion.
So much spice in there,
and your mouth just feels
happy when you eat this.
Really amazing.
- Bye, bye, thank you.
- [Trevor] But this amazing
meal was just the beginning.
Ruzaina brought us for
more amazing street food
in Colombo to finish off the day.
Starting out first with an amazing
local rice and curry joint,
and finishing up with an
extremely satisfying dish
known as the dolphin kottu.
What an amazing time in Colombo,
and what are we having next?
- So in Sri Lanka, you have to experience
a local buth kade.
If you don't experience a buth kade,
you haven't been in Sri Lanka.
- A kade, so like a
little local lunch joint?
- Yeah, buth means rice kade means shop,
so rice shop.
- Okay.
Awesome, here we are.
Oh and they're just scooping
the chicken onto rice here.
So much color.
- Yeah, and he gives us just a small plate
and then they like scoop it up so full
and you can just get in
there and like really enjoy.
- [Trevor] Oh that's the joy of life.
Wow, and he's just
scooping, what is this here?
- [Ruzaina] That's the fried chicken.
Fried chicken, there's the
curry chicken, the gizzard
- There's nothing more satisfying
than pouring curries onto rice.
- Yeah.
- [Trevor] Look at all
this, so what's this here?
- [Ruzaina] This is the deviled prawn
- [Trevor] Deviled prawns?
Oh, and you can see the onions
- [Ruzaina] And the chilies
- [Trevor] The chile, oh and
then so many others here too.
- [Ruzaina] This is gizzard
- [Trevor] Gizzard?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, deviled gizzard,
and then deviled cuttlefish.
Actually, that is squid though.
- [Trevor] Squid.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, squid with onion.
Then this is a luna
sambal, you can have this
- [Trevor] Like an onion, spicy sambal
- Yeah, onion, chiles, tomatoes
finished off with lemon sauce.
Then this is the sprats, most
famous food that we can have
- [Trevor] Like a dried fish?
- [Ruzaina] Dried, salted sprats
stir fried in oil and chile
and it's just, yum
- [Trevor] Oh and I've been
looking forward to a local
little curry joint like this
ever since we landed.
Oh, san dal.
- [Ruzaina] Then there's vegetables.
Just one vegetables like
- [Trevor] some veg
- [Ruzaina] Pol sambal.
Pol sambal and dal is a must.
- [Trevor] That's the classic, right?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, that's the classic.
And a sprat fry.
- [Trevor] Just look at
the color on that plate.
Oh, look at that sauce.
Wow.
- [Ruzaina] So you can choose which part
- And they just add a scoop
of sauce on there too.
Oh yeah, that's the stuff.
And this just looks incredible.
Look at the color.
- I know.
- [Trevor] Wow.
So this is called the buth kade?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, the buth kade rice.
- [Trevor] So what did we get here,
we got beautiful chicken
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, the deviled chicken
- [Trevor] Deviled chicken, oh
- [Ruzaina] The deviled
prawns, the sprat fry
- [Trevor] The dried fish
- [Ruzaina] Dried fish,
then the pol sambal curry
with a classic, it's a must have.
- [Trevor] Oh, the color.
- [Ruzaina] And there's a
little bit of vegetables
like pumpkin and beans,
and this is melalyu,
which goes really well.
It's also not like a pol
sambal, but it's more fresh.
- [Trevor] So what's it made of?
- [Ruzaina] So it's an herb.
It's a herb and lime and
coconut and onions and chile
and everything, like a salad almost,
but it's very nourishing
and very good for you,
but tasty as well.
So it's like giving you that tang.
- [Ruzaina] And I'm really
looking forward to trying this.
This is the shrimp.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, this is the
shrimp, the deviled shrimp.
- [Trevor] Deviled shrimp.
And you can just see the color.
The red, the chile, the onion.
Oh, and all over rice.
- [Ruzaina] So what you do is you
take a little bit of everything, right.
- [Trevor] Okay.
- [Ruzaina] Like a
little bit of pol sambal,
curry, the sprats
- [Trevor] So you just mix that all up?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, we mix it all up
because we want the flavor
to blend in with the rice
and like you know,
because it like mashes everything together
and the flavor is much better
when you do it this way.
- [Trevor] Oh, when you
get it into a mound.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, we get it into a mound.
- [Trevor] So it's like
a rainbow of curry.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, in one bite.
- [Trevor] Oh, I don't know
if that's the way to do it.
- [Ruzaina] That's the
way, that is the way.
- [Trevor] That is the way?
And then what do you do,
you just push it in
with your thumb, right?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah.
So you scoop it up, make it into a mold,
and you use your thumb to
push it in
- [Trevor] As the pusher.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, as the
pusher into your mouth.
- Mm.
Oh my.
That is seriously good.
I just had a beautiful bite
of sweet, spicy onions and coriander.
- It's really good, right?
- Wow, those are so delicious.
Crispy, a little salty with the rice.
- [Ruzaina] Spicy
- [Trevor] Spicy
- Yeah, home cooked meal
is a different experience,
but this right here is so Sri Lankan.
This is the heart of Sri
Lanka in a buth kade.
- Mm, wow.
And after that amazing
buth kade experience,
Ruzaina is bringing us for one more
insanely delicious street food of Colombo.
The dolphin kottu.
- So this is our final stop.
This is a must try in Colombo,
and if you're going to have
it, you're gonna have it
at the Grand Pilous.
- Pilous? Dolphin kottu?
But it's not real dolphin.
- It's not real dolphin,
it's not the real dolphin obviously.
- Oo, they make it right here.
- Yeah, they're gonna make it right here
We're definitely gonna
order the dolphin kottu
- Dolphin kottu
- Yes.
It's not the real dolphin,
it's just that the roti
is cut up really long
- And this is, what is this here?
- This is a cheese mazala kottu.
- [Trevor] Cheese mazala kottu.
You can get all different types
- [Ruzaina] All different types of kottu.
- [Trevor] Oh, and this is it here.
So he's gonna make our
dolphin kottu right now?
- [Ruzaina] Yes, this
is our dolphin kottu.
- [Trevor] Oh.
And you just throw in some chile?
What's all going into the wok here?
- [Ruzaina] So oil, chile
flakes, chile powder,
salt, a little bit of flavoring agent.
Then the cut up vegetables,
onions, chilies,
tomatoes, tomato sauce.
- [Trevor] It's all going in.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, it's all going in.
- [Trevor] And why is it
called the dolphin kottu?
- [Ruzaina] So a normal kottu
is made in a flat griddle,
and it's cut up into pieces and
they make that really
loud noise, remember?
A dolphin kottu is made
in a wok like this.
So first they make a
pool of water like that,
and then put long cut up pieces that
something looks like a dolphin
- [Trevor] Of roti?
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, of roti.
- [Trevor] Oh, and what's
he putting in here?
- [Ruzaina] Gravy.
- [Trevor] Gravy.
- [Ruzaina] Seafood gravy sauce.
- [Trevor] Seafood gravy, wow.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, and
then they put this long
cut up slices of roti, and
then it jumps up and down.
- [Trevor] Oh, and here's the roti.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah.
See how big and thick it is?
- [Trevor] Yeah.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, it
looks like it's swimming
and jumping up and down
in a pool of like dinner
- [Trevor] Like dolphins in the ocean
- [Ruzaina] Yes, like
dolphins in the ocean.
- [Trevor] Oh, and an egg.
Awesome.
- [Ruzaina] Egg and extra chicken
- [Trevor] Oh, and chicken
- [Ruzaina] Fried chicken.
- [Trevor] That looks awesome.
Wow.
The dolphin kottu.
So you can see the onions,
you can see the chicken.
- Yeah, curry leaves and vegetables
and spices and chilies,
so it's gonna be
- Thank you.
- Something really nice.
- [Trevor] So what did we get here today?
- [Ruzaina] So this is egg roti.
- [Trevor] Egg roti.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, the egg rotis are good,
and they're both stuffed with egg.
And they put fried chicken, right.
This is slices of fried chicken.
And this is like an onion sambal,
so it's onions, green chiles,
tomatoes and lime and peppers.
So that's like a
- [Trevor] Spicy and peppery
And this is what we came here for, right.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, this
is what we came here for.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
- Mm. Oh.
- Mm, that's really good.
- Oh wow.
It's like a spicy, fried
roti that's peppery
with so many spices, you can taste those
curry leaves and the onion.
Bit of a secret tomato-y
goodness in there.
- [Ruzaina] Yeah, the gravy sauce.
- [Trevor] The gravy just
saturates into that kottu.
You guys gotta check out Ruzaina's awesome
YouTube channel in the description below.
Go subscribe now.
She has a ton of amazing videos,
and that was just the best day ever.
- Thank you for visiting
Sri Lanka, Trevor.
I hope you enjoyed your stay,
especially our local cuisine.
- It was just amazing.
