reddottours

What do sailors have to do with Sri Lankan food? Everything. 🌶️

For centuries, Colombo was one of the busiest trading ports in the world. Sailors and settlers arrived from Arabia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Britain, India and beyond, and every single one of them left something behind in the food.

The spices. The techniques. The recipes that got passed between ship crews and market traders and families until nobody could remember where they originally came from. That’s Sri Lankan food, a living record of everyone who ever passed through.

We arrange a food tour through Colombo that follows that story on foot. It takes you from isso wade at Galle Face Green to a 150-year-old tea house serving the same milk tea sailors would have recognised, through Pettah Market, down a street that’s been serving curries for over two centuries, and ends with a tuk tuk ride to a pub that was serving soldiers during World War II.

It’s one of those mornings that makes you understand a place completely differently.

Save this if Colombo is on your list 🍛