Seeni Sambol, Egg and Cheese Sandwich
Cynthia Shanmugalingam · Rambutan: Recipes from Sri Lanka
On our first few days in Colombo at the start of the holidays when we were children, we always wanted to eat all that we couldn’t back in England: milk hoppers from that van guy at the Bambalapitya flats, sticky mangoes from Wellawatte market, crunchy fried falafels of shrimp vadai bought at the seaside at the Galle Face.
Our Colombo cousins were deeply, deeply unimpressed at this boring and earnest traditionalism, disappointed that we were so square that we could not bring even stories of burgers or pizza from home. I don’t know who we thought we were kidding, but we sort of doubled down on our own hot air, and pretended that we thought the fast food joints that began opening in Colombo in the Nineties – KFC, Pizza Hut and, of course, McDonald’s – were gross.
And so it wasn’t until my twenties that I walked guiltily into a cool, air-conditioned McDonald’s on Galle Road and inhaled that unmistakable whiff of French fries. Behind the smiling staff in hairnets, I eyed up the board and
