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FR
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NOV / 2014
WWW.YAMU.LK
You can’t eat this magazine, but you can read about CuppaCrème inside
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cremalato
Delivery to Colombo and suburbs | 0727 696 352
BY BHAGYA
comparably good.
Cremalato is a brand new gelato delivery service. We tried a
bunch of their flavours and we
think they’re pretty awesome.
The brownie gelato (Rs. 320)
was the first one we tried, and
we were very impressed. It’s
basically a vanilla gelato with
brownies and works brilliantly.
The ice cream was rich, creamy
and had a great consistency. If
you like ice cream with chocolate cake, you’ll love this.
THE GELATO
There have been so many times
when I’ve had a craving for ice
cream, but I just couldn’t get my
hands on any ‘cause I was stuck
at home. So hearing about a
place that delivers ice cream got
me pretty excited.
We ordered from them twice,
the first time around was when
they were sending out free samples, which was also pretty cool.
Right now they’ve got around
twelve flavours which range
between Rs. 290 - Rs. 340 for
225 ml and Rs. 590 - Rs. 650 for
500 ml. Now that isn’t cheap but
compared to places like Carino’s
(Rs. 900 for 500 ml), this is a
steal, and we’d say Cremalato is
The raspberry ripple (Rs. 340)
is one of three fruit flavours, the
others being strawberry and
avocado. They use this same
formula where they use their vanilla gelato as the base and then
mix in the fresh fruit syrup, and
it works. The blueberry flavour is
natural and the vanilla base balances the sweetness brilliantly.
Possibly the best of the local
fruit ice creams I’ve tried.
The coconut (Rs. 290) was
another of their interesting flavours. I’m not a huge fan of coconut flavoured sweets but I’d
be happy to eat this any day.
Think bounty ice cream.
I’m still waiting for someone to
come up with a Milo ice cream,
but until that happens I’ve
found a pretty great substitute
in Cremalato’s cookie flavour
(Rs. 320). They use a chocolate
cookie in it but it actually ‘kinda
tastes like a Milo cookie (I’d pay
good money for those), and
since they deliver it without storing it for a long time, the cookie
is still crunchy.
CONCLUSION
We’re always looking for new
and interesting places, and Cremalato ranks right up there.
Within just a week of opening
they’ve already become quite
popular, and as long they keep
their standards up, we don’t see
that changing.
Tips: Remember folks, they’re delivery only.
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BATH KADE (BATH AMMA)
Galle Road, Colombo 04 | 011 2 556 058
BY SHIFANI
Bath Kade, better known as Bath
Amma’s, is an awesome holein-the-wall rice and curry place
in Bamba. It’s actually a family
home also run as a restaurant for
66 years now.
THE FOOD
Bath Amma’s food is just a big
buffet. They serve rice, and the
options of parippu, chicken curry,
devilled chicken, fish curry, fried
fish, cuttlefish and it goes on. A
basic rice and curry would cost
you Rs. 200 and at most you only
spend Rs. 400 here.
We asked for rice topped with
everything they had. Look at this
plate of awesomeness (above) it only cost me 300 bucks. The
food is actually very tasty - soft,
well cooked meat, great parippu
and seasoning, very spicy. It’s
as authentic as Sri Lankan food
gets. The portion as you can see
is huge so it’s about enough for
two people or one very hungry
guy who hasn’t eaten all day.
his neck, probably her kid.
SERVICE & AMBIENCE
We love Bath Amma’s (their new
name Bath Kade is so generic,
it’s hard to get used to). If you
want to feel like you’re going to
There’s a little hand-painted
green sign outside this little bylane, that says ‘Bath Kade’ with
the menu underneath. Without it
you’d never know this was a restaurant, it’s just like walking into
somebody’s house.
CONCLUSION
It’s a small, clean space with
three table sets, and when we
visited we didn’t see a fan, so it
could get a little warm on an ordinary hot day.
Right there in the eating space,
you’ll see photographs of the
family owners, and children’s
drawings pasted on the walls.
Chandana runs the place right
now, she told me her aachi used
to do the same. You might see a
little kid running around the tables with a water bottle around
your aachi’s little house to have
a big delicious plate of rice and
curry, this is the place. The price
is nominal and the food is kind of
unlimited because when she was
serving me food she said ‘madhinang kiyanna’ (‘let me know if it’s
not enough’). So we have zero
complaints about this one.
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Giovanni’s
145, Thimbirigasyaya Road, Colombo 5 | 0770 335 366
BY SHIFANI
Giovanni’s is a new Italian pizza
place on Thimbirigasyaya Road. It’s
pretty much a one-man show, with
Dimuthu making pizzas in a clay
oven right there next to your table.
There’s a small bistro kind of feel
to the place and the pizzas tasted
amazing on our visit.
THE PIZZAS
Giovanni’s pizzas cost Rs. 850 1300. The pizzas are large, very thin,
generously topped, and as far as texture and flavour go, taste pretty authentic. The menu options, chalked
up on little black boards on both
sides of the restaurant, include salami, misti, pepperoni, eggplant, tuna
and onion, mushrooms, caprese,
margherita, ham & mushroom,
chicken and mushroom, nepolitana,
4-cheese and spicy chicken.
We think their pizzas are on par with
some of Colombo’s best. Seeing as
how they’ve only been opened for
two weeks, we’ve got high hopes.
We got two half-and-halfs - the first
had 4-cheese and spicy chicken.
Giovanni’s pizzas have a very rough,
sloppy, freestyle sort of topping - but
we’re not complaining. It works. The
4-cheese is definitely a safe bet if
you visit here, and as the name suggests, is just dripping with good old
mozarella cheese and more. There
was a lot of meat and veggies on
our spicy chicken as well. The pizzas
here seem like they’re very obviously
home-cooked, by someone who has
been making Italian pizzas for quite
a while.
Our other half-and-half had chicken
& mushroom and a special ‘experiment’ that the chef hadn’t put up on
the menu. He said he was just trying
it out, and it was my personal favourite - it basically just had huge square
chunks of mozarella, basil, fresh
tomato and a tangy sauce poured
over it.
I don’t say this often but looking at
the pictures we took at Giovanni’s,
it’s one of those places we just felt
like going back to the next day - the
pizzas were that good, and not in a
predictable sort of way either, since
it felt like everything followed the
chef’s own special recipe.
SERVICE & AMBIENCE
Giovanni’s is a small place, and the
guy in charge Dimuthu says he prefers to keep it small, following the
tradition of street-side Italian pizza
places. You get just two tables and
the cooking area downstairs, so you
get to see the whole pizza making
process. There’s Italian pop art and
photographs on the walls.
But if you want to stay away from
the oven heat and want some A/C,
there’s also a comfy room upstairs
with windows looking out on the
street and mellow music.
We loved the service, which was ba-
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sically the chef chatting away with
us and other customers like he knew
everybody so well. That’s the nice
thing about small places, it’s easy to
form a relationship with customers.
Dimuthu is quite friendly and open
to questions about the restaurant
and how he does what he does,
and might surprise you with an unexpected new cooking experiment
or two.
Conclusion
Giovanni’s impressed us on our visit.
The pizzas were delicious and filling,
and we spent only Rs. 2500 for three
people, the place was charming, and
the service was pleasant. So as far
as fresh, hot-hot Italian pizzas in
Colombo are concerned, this is one
place you should give a shot.
Tips: If you’re going late at night, call
first - since he doesn’t have a specific
closing time (if he’s done selling 50 pizzas by 9, he closes shop!).
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WAFFLE CORPORATION
279B, R.A.De Mel Mawatha, Colombo 3 | 0779 001 345
The Waffle Corporation on R.A. De Mel Mawatha, is a brand new cafe
that specializes in recreating Belgian style waffles. They’re still sorting
out some technicalities but their stuff is pretty great.
BY BHAGYA
THE FOOD
So apparently waffles are becoming a thing now in Colombo
with Wafflery and now these
guys, which is brilliant ‘cause
waffles are awesome. The
Waffle Corporation is different
primarily because they do a variety of different waffles based
on Belgian waffle recipes. You
can choose from two different
waffles, namely the Liege waffle and the Brussel waffle.
The Liege is quite different from
the regular waffles since it’s
made using a dough instead of
a batter which makes it similar
to a bread, while the Brussel
waffle is closer to the conventional waffles, being crispy on
the outside and smooth on the
inside. They’ve got a bunch of
different toppings to go with
these which include fruits, berry
coulis and stuff like nutella, all
of which are priced under Rs.
500. This menu is temporary, so
you can expect the prices and
selection to change a bit.
We tried the savory waffle with
chicken and cheese (Rs. 450),
but besides that they’ve also
got one with pol sambol. This
one tasted good and was actually very filling. They use a
homemade chicken curry which
is perfect for the Sri Lankan
palate and it works well with
the melted cheese. The hero of
the dish is definitely the waffle
though, which in itself tasted
pretty great with just the right
texture.
For dessert we went for the
chocolate and marshmallow
waffle (Rs. 450). We actually
couldn’t finish this one off since
we were just too full, which
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is depressing ‘cause it tasted
great. It’s pretty damn sweet
though so it’s not for everyone, but then again who orders
chocolate and marshmallows
and expects anything but super
sweet. One thing we liked was
that they make the chocolate
sauce when orders come in as
opposed to having it stored.
They’ve got a good location opposite ANC, and they said students can come in, grab something to eat and hang around
to study. We’d say it’s best for
groups of four, since seating is
limited for the time being. Oh
and get this, it’s actually run by
a 21 year old.
CONCLUSION
We also tried out the Pinkish
smoothie (Rs. 390) which has
bananas, pears and strawberries. This one wasn’t very sweet
but the flavour of fruits came
through very well which is what
a smoothie should be all about.
They’ve got a few other options
for smoothies as well, priced at
around Rs. 400.
SERVICE & AMBIENCE
The Waffle Corporation is a small
place so the service is actually
very warm and welcoming. It’s
only been a few weeks since they
started off so they’re still getting
the place together.
Colombo seems to have new
eateries coming up by the day,
and the Waffle Corporation, with
their distinct waffles and toppings
is definitely one to keep an eye on.
Tips: You can mix and match the
toppings so mess around and come
up with something awesome.
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TONG NI BBQ
59, Walukarama Road, Colombo 3 | 11 5 922 120
Colombo has a ton of Chinese eateries, but Tong Ni BBQ hidden away
on Walukarama Road (behind Subway), is one that is truly unique. The
food is good and you get to cook it right on your table. It may not suit
everyone, but we found it entertaining.
BY BHAGYA
THE FOOD
We actually first came across
Tong Ni BBQ about a month
back, when we were fruitlessly
searching for parking at Subway. We weren’t quite sure if
they were open at the time so we
gave them some time before we
dropped in. Their menu is one of
the most extensive we’ve come
across at any Chinese restaurant
in Colombo. They’ve got barbecue options for pretty much every type of meat and fish, as well
as unconventional parts like beef
heart, pig legs and chicken liver.
These range between Rs. 600 Rs. 1300. Besides their barbecue
they’ve also got the usual favourites like HBC, sizzling dishes and
what not. You can expect to pay
around Rs. 2500 per head, which
we think is fine.
The table set up here is somewhat similar to what we’ve seen
at Korean restaurants with a
barbecue placed right in the middle of every table. All the dishes
come to the table marinated
from the kitchen so that it can
go straight on the barbecue. This
time around we decided to embrace the theme and go try out
a bunch of their barbecue meat
dishes.
We chose the chicken gizzard
(Rs. 600) since it’s not an option
that’s usually available at other
places. You can either cook the
meat yourself or have one of the
waiters do it for you. The catch
though is that you need to know
the cooking times. We decided to
let the waiter handle this one, and
it came out pretty well. Well seasoned, with the distinct texture
of the chicken gizzard coming
through.
The barbecue pork strips (Rs.
900) were very similar to what we
got at Han Gook Gwan. It’s pretty
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much 12 strips of bacon so not
much explanation required. Just
make sure to keep an eye on it
because it can go from perfectly
cooked to overcooked in a few
minutes.
For seafood we went with the
cuttlefish (Rs. 680). With this
one we asked the waiters how
long it would need to cook and
ambitiously cooked it ourselves.
Surprisingly enough it turned out
pretty well. Once again, the marinate was on point so the flavour
was good and at Rs. 680 the portion is enough for 2-3 people.
Their seafood fried rice (Rs. 600)
was decent but not one of the
best we’ve had. We were happy
with the price to portion ratio
and the seasoning, but we would
have liked to have seen a bit more
seafood in the rice.
For veges we tried their celery
with cashews (Rs. 880) which
was good on its own but didn’t
really go well with the rest of the
dishes. This was probably a mistake on our part when ordering
though.
AMBIENCE & SERVICE
Tong Ni has a good mix of both
contemporary and classic Chinese elements, with some tasteful wallpaper adding to the ambience. It’s very clean and well
managed, but they’re still pretty
new so we have to see if they
keep things up over time. This is
also a pretty decent option for a
small gathering since they’ve got
VIP rooms upstairs which are
private and with tables for larger
groups.
The service was also quite fast
with the stuff coming to the table
in under ten minutes. Cooking on
the barbecue also takes around
ten minutes but we didn’t really
mind that at all. The waiter are
very friendly, enthusiastic and attentive, but they do tend to hover
quite a bit. The place is run by a
Chinese family but there are eight
local waiters so communication
won’t be an issue.
CONCLUSION
Tong Ni BBQ is a great addition to
the Chinese eateries in Colombo,
and a must try for those who are
looking for something different
from the status quo. Their theme
is unique, the price is okay and
most importantly, the food is
good.
Tips: Make sure you ask the waiter
for an apron since oil does tend to
splash a bit when the BBQ is on.
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CuppaCrème
5A, Robert Road, off Quarry Road, Dehiwala | 779 112 956
BY SHIFANI
CuppaCrème is a home-baker
that you can count on if you’re
getting red velvet cupcakes and
chocolate biscuit pudding.
The Range
The CuppaCrème menu is small,
but it’s good quality. The cheesecake was pretty delicious - soft
and creamy, though the floor of
the cake was quite tough. She
makes them in massive cake
form - the ‘small’ order for Rs.
3300 was quite big, enough for
about 8. She makes red velvet,
chocolate and vanilla buttercream, and carrot cake in the
same range. CuppaCrème is a
good go-to place for cheesecake.
We also had chocolate brownies
- 25 pieces for Rs. 1500, which
we though was quite decent.
They tasted fine - soft and chocolatey, neither dry nor too cakey.
It is so difficult to find good
chocolate biscuit pudding and
we don’t know a whole lot of
home bakers that make it either,
so I’m pretty grateful for the option at CuppaCrème. A Small
pudding, which is actually about
8 fat pieces, will cost you Rs.
1500 - which we thought was
a great deal because this was
some very good pudding. The
highlight was the super creamy,
thick chocolate coating on top.
We also got some of her cupcakes - her menu includes vanilla buttercream, chocolate buttercream, red velvet and carrot
cake. They come in small sizes
(minimum order 24) and big
sizes (minimum order 12), some
of the small ones for as low as
Rs. 65. The chocolate cupcakes
were just alright, they didn’t impress much, but the red velvet
was amazeballs - soft and sweet
with pure cream cheese frosting
dripping over the top.
Conclusion
We’re definitely big fans of CuppaCrème, mostly because of
the pudding and red velvet cupcakes. You’ll spend about Rs.
1500-2000 for this stuff, a rate
on par with a lot of home bakers,
but considering the quality here,
we think it’s well worth.
Tips: This is a good bet for party
orders.
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C215 STREET ART
Slave Island
BY SHIFANI
So a lot of people have been talking about the beautiful work on
the walls of Slave Island, by French
artist C215. I personally found
out first on StreetArtNews. We
thought we’d head down to Slave
Island and check it out ourselves.
Here’s the low-down.
THE ART
C215 is Christian Guemy from
Paris. He’s well known for his graffiti or wall art which has been plastered on the walls of India, Brazil,
Jamaica and Ireland to name a
few. He came to Sri Lanka in September 2014 and made his mark
on Colombo 2, literally. He left art
everywhere.
Most of the pictures we saw were
portraits of people who live in this
area, while we also saw images
of an elephant, a cat and a goat.
You won’t see these images on
the main road by the way - they
are snug inside little alley ways
and inside the homes of crowded
neighborhoods.
How does stencil graffiti work? In
this case, you take a photograph
of a person, print it out and make
a stencil out of it - over which you
apply spray paint.
The best way to find these images is by befriending the people
who live here. Suranga, Ramzi
and Nethmi (the girl in the picture
above) showed me around the
neighborhood, took me into their
friends’ homes, and pointed me
in the right direction. They were
super friendly and Nethmi was
the most insistent, interviewing
me about my intentions and asking me to take photographs of her
friends.
WHERE?
We’ve been told that there are
three main zones in Slave Island
where you can find C215’s stencil
art. We wandered around randomly, looking for the stuff and found
plenty of it, though we’re not sure
we covered it all.
1. The end of Dawson Street. Heading here, just before meeting Vauxhall Street, you’ll catch the colourful lines of the portraits of an old
lady and a little girl on opposite
walls, on your right.
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RANDOMLY PLACED EDITORIAL
What’s an editorial doing here? Well, we forgot to do it till we
finished laying out the magazine and it had to go somewhere.
This month we’ve got a lot of cool food places (Cremalato, literally, Tong Ni BBQ, Bath Amma’s and more). We’ve also got one
overlooked but awesome bar (ZaZa) as well as some interesting stuff to see, like this street art in Slave Island.
EDITORIAL
Indi Samarajiva
Shifani Reffai
Bhagya Goonewardhane
ADVERTISING
Dinesh
779 776 445
[email protected]
QUESTIONS
[email protected]
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hope you’ll learn about and patronize our advertisers, we think they’re cool.
Also, this month,check out our website (and app) for daily updates. We’ve got some
interesting stuff planned, included a bumper issue for December. Happy exploring!
2. Off Vauxhall Street. Step down
off the road and you’ll see a colourful image of a little girl on the wall
- and if you make friends with the
neighbors here they’ll take you all
throughout their homes and their
private alleys to show you amazing portraits against colourful
walls. Watch out for the elephant
and the goat here.
one of my favourites. Big shout
out to our friend A Life Of Satudays
for guiding us to the C215 kitty!
of these Slave Island neighborhoods forced me to get to know
the people who live here and figure the stories behind the stencil
CONCLUSION
portraits. The images on the walls
are quite beautiful on their own
and the people you meet along
the way even more so - definitely
worth the trip.
3. Tuk-tuks on Vauxhall Street. They
were parked here and you get
some cool stencil art on them, of
portraits and a baboon.
4. New Ferry Lane. Also known as
‘Nava Lane’, it’s the lane on your
left, right after you pass Rio Cinema. You’ll find the stencil of a giant
kitty head here against a teal wall,
very easy to miss and definitely
We think C215’s work here is pretty epic. The concept is obvious
and ingenious - his art in the heart
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zaza bar
231, Galle Road, Colombo 04 | 011 4 520 130
BY BHAGYA
ZaZa Bar at Casa Colombo is
one of those bars that doesn’t
really get much attention. We
dropped in to have a few drinks
and were quite
impressed.
of liquour. It’s pretty simple to
make but seeing how popular
arrack is, we’re surprised more
bars don’t offer arrack based
cocktails.
times.
The tequila sunrise (Rs. 600)
was a bit subtle when it came
to the tequila hit, but still tasted excellent. This is the more
popular variant of the tequila
sunrise that comes with orange juice and grenadine.
Probably one of the tastier
cocktails we’ve had in recent
TAPAS
DRINKS
ZaZa
seems
like it’d be expensive,
but
it’s not. Prices
range from Rs.
350 - Rs. 1300
for
cocktails
and a bottle of
beer is around Rs. 300. The
best part is their Happy Hour,
one-for-one on drinks and tapas from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.
The arrack sour (Rs. 350) is the
cheapest of the cocktails and
it’s pretty good. Basically arrack and lemon juice with a bit
We don’t generally try gin
based cocktails but we decided
to try the Casa Kick (Rs. 600),
which is one of their signature
cocktails. It’s
a mix of local
gin, grenadine
and lime juice.
I myself preferred the tequila sunrise
but my friend
who happens
to be a fan of
gin, preferred
the Casa Kick.
When it comes to food, ZaZa
offers mostly tapas, but if
you’re looking for something
more filling you could just head
over to HVN. The tapas menu
offers a good selection of
meat, seafood and vegetarian
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options, all of it priced between
Rs. 300 - Rs. 700 for sizeable
portions.
The crumb fried calamari (Rs.
300) served with a mango
chutney dip was our pick of
the bunch. This one at only
Rs. 300 is an absolute steal.
Crispy, well seasoned calamari
rings served with one of the
best dips that we’ve had in
a while. The other dishes we
tried also came with sauces,
but this one in particular went
brilliantly with all of it.
The chicken lollipops (Rs. 450)
were pretty decent as well
and easy to eat without being
messy. It’s served with a coriander and ginger salsa which
was pretty good but we found
that it actually tasted better
with the mango chutney dip.
The chicken was cooked well
with a nice addition of sesame
seeds to the batter which adds
a nice texture.
service.
The final tapas we tried was
the roast beef kababs (Rs.
300). This would be the only
one of the three that we would
say came in a small portion,
but that’s mostly because we
weren’t really interested in the
salad. Besides that, the kebabs
themselves tasted good with a
slight spiciness which worked
well with the coriander marinade.
The look of ZaZa is pretty
unique, much like the rest of
the hotel. They’ve got some
neat cane seats with cushions
that are illuminated and a nice
spot next to the pond. The only
part we didn’t really love was
that it’s quite dark inside with
the only real lighting coming
from the lamps on the tables.
SERVICE & AMBIENCE
ZaZa Bar isn’t really one of
the first places that comes
to mind when people think of
bars in Colombo, but we think
it should be. It’s a bit dark but
the drinks are good, the tapas
were excellent and they’ve got
one of the best happy hour offers around.
We were very impressed with
the service at ZaZa the night
we dropped in. We informed
them that we’d only be there
for about an hour so we needed all of the above to be served
as fast as possible. The drinks
were ready in no time at all and
the tapas came to the table in
less than 15 minutes, so kudos
to Casa for stepping up their
CONCLUSION
Tips: It’s buy one get one free on
drinks and tapas from 5.30 pm 7.30 pm.
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GOOD MARKET (LAKPAHANA)
14, Reid Avenue, Colombo 7 | 0770208642
BY SHIFANI
Good Market isn’t just once a
week anymore. Besides Diyatha
Uyana (Thursdays) and Racecourse (Saturdays), you can now
get Good Market’s fresh, organic
food straight from local vendors,
on the Lakpahana premises
(across from Racecourse).
LOCATION & AMBIENCE
Lakpahana’s huge sign board
and wooden eaves are hard to
miss from the main street, right
opposite the Racecourse building. When you walk in through
the big gates and turn to your
left, you’ll see the Good Market
shop. This space actually just
used to be a storage space but it
was transformed by Good Market to give off a cosier vibe than
their regular temporary events.
It’s got a lot of clean white walls,
wooden paneling and plenty of
soothing green around the shop.
Along the side of the shop is a
patio space with chairs and tables so it’s a bit like a cafe.
Inside are shelves of sealed food
and fresh veggies and fruits,
much of the stuff you get at
the Thursday stalls at Diyatha
Uyana. It’s not only a shop, so
there’s organic, healthy food
available off the counter at both
ends of the shop - by Good Market, LifeFood and The Brown
Bean Coffee.
THE STUFF
You get a range of things here,
and everything is roughly priced
between Rs. 250 and Rs. 1000.
The good thing about Good Market is that the stuff here goes
through heavy screening to
make sure they are completely
organic (none of the typical
chemicals used in supermarket
stocks), and that they make nice
with the environment and produce some social benefit. The
whole project is described as a
‘social enterprise’.
The fruits and veggies are
brought in fresh every day and
on the day we visited were from
farms in Anuradhapura and Nuweraeliya. They were roughly for
about Rs. 20-45 for 100g, which
is more than at the supermarket, but if you are health conscious and prefer getting stuff
directly from farmers (we were
told Good Market charges a very
low margin for village products),
then this is one of the very few
easily accessible places that
make the connection possible.
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This is a super place to stop at
for organic but tasty jars of chutneys, mango curries and canned
chillies, at about Rs. 300-500 a
jar. Besides some names we’re
used to seeing at Good Market like Hansa and Mama Aida,
some of the other interesting
things we spotted were ayurvedic lotion products (Rs. 3001000), Greenfield Farm organic
tea (Rs. 320), Dunhila bee honey
(Rs. 700), mini ice cream jars
by Carino (Rs. 300) and even
gluten-free fudge brownies by
Yumi (Rs. 625). The prices vary,
so there’s stuff from Rs 150 to
1500.
THE FOOD
Even if you’re not planning on
shopping for groceries, you can
hang out here and have a tasty
but healthy snack. From the
Good Market cafe stall, there’s
tofu, salads, gluten-free brownies, vegan cookies, jaggery cake,
orange cake among a few other
things, for Rs. 100-300. It might
not sound appetizing in a list
but that’s only because we’re
constantly told that cholesterolheavy things are the tastiest kind
of food. We got two tomato and
cheese quiches (Rs. 180), they
were packed with well steamed
veggies and cheese and tasted
fresh and pretty great.
At LifeFood at the other end, you
get very tasty, thick fruity juices
and smoothies for around Rs.
300. We got a fresh, cool Avacado smoothie that came in a
glass jar. They also have some
roti wraps, fruit salads and noodle dishes (Rs. 300-600). The
Brown Bean Coffee has got a
long list of coffees, milkshakes
and mochas for about Rs. 250.
CONCLUSION
We’re definitely fans of the Good
Market shop. It’s smaller and
feels more private than their
weekly markets, and if you’re
someone who wants to stay in
shape and eat healthy, you get
a decent selection of tasty, organic food here, for good prices
considering the standard. The
paved floors and green outside
also make it a pleasant place to
chill out at on a cool day.
Tips: The Good Market folks want
to maintain the same chilled out
music-and-hangout vibe you get
at Diyatha Uyana, so the space is
up for grabs if you want to set up a
small performance event without
spending a lot.
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JETWING LIGHTHOUSE
Dadalla, Galle, Sri Lanka | 091 2 223 744
BY INDI
The Lighthouse in Galle is an
iconic hotel. We can say that
it’s reputation is well deserved.
Even their cheapest rooms (Rs.
18,000, roughly) are really nice
and the location, architecture,
service and food are all really
good. It’s a reliable splurge.
THE LOCATION
Lighthouse juts into the ocean
just before Galle town. It has a
beautiful view and from most of
the rooms and the public spaces,
stunning sunsets. The best view
is perhaps over the pool, which
our room (314) overlooked.
Lighthouse itself also has won-
derful architecture, being a Geoffrey Bawa hotel. There are the
classic traits of being open to
nature, having rocks and stuff
built in, and long, beautiful corridors.
It’s a beautiful hotel. The location
is also excellent since it’s near
Galle Fort, which has so much
going on in terms of restaurants,
shops, etc. You’d need to drive or
take a tuk into the Fort, but once
there it’s completely walkable.
THE ROOMS
The rooms are wonderful but,
as usual, we never got a proper
picture inside. The Deluxe Room
(Rs. 18,000) is the cheapest
available (this was a local rate
and a bit off-season, FYI). It has
a balcony with aforementioned
stunning views, TV, big bed with
duvet, and a lot of nice extras like free coffee and tea, a safe,
an iron, a nice writing table overlooking the ocean.
The true measure of a hotel is
the bathroom, and this bathroom is quite nicely designed.
There’s a tub in the center,
shower to the right and toilet to
the left. It’s quite a big bathroom,
as big as some hotel rooms I’ve
been in.
THE FOOD
We actually didn’t really eat here
besides the breakfast. They had
a good selection - bacon and
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eggs, hoppers, healthy choices,
etc - but we just weren’t that
hungry. The thing about Galle is
that there are really good restaurants in the neighborhood, some
better than Colombo, and we did
most of our eating out, mainly
for review purposes.
CONCLUSION
The ambience of Lighthouse is
default lovely because Bawa designed it and it has cool art like
the Laki Senanayake sculpted
Personally I really like my house
(and bathroom). Lighthouse is
one place that we actually felt
If you look at the older review of
Lighthouse online you can see
how their fine dining options are.
SERVICE & AMBIENCE
Jetwing (the company that runs
Lighthouse) is one of our favorite hotel chains. They actually
practice an environmental/local
ethos and you can feel it in their
hotels, including here. Lighthouse service is of international
quality, but it’s also distinctly local. We actually went as a holiday so no one knew we were reviewing the place, and they were
all super nice and professional.
It’s a well run ship.
staircase above. It’s also in a
great location, plus they take
care of the grounds pool, and
rooms really well, so we like it.
bad leaving. The hotel is really
connected to its location so you
feel quite comfortably wrapped
in the sunset and beach. Truly
an iconic hotel.
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