SRI LANKAN FOOD is the GEM of SOUTH ASIA! Must Try

Do it. I'm going for it. Oh, yo, that's like eating the entire clam chowder burger. Oh my god. Where is the country of Sri Lanka? Is it the teardrop of India? What's it known for and why does the food, especially kottu, look so good? We took a trek out to the borough of Staten Island to one of the only Sri Lankan neighborhoods in America to find out. Welcome everybody to a special Sri Lankan episode of Fung Bros Food. We have ventured all the way out to Staten Island and we are nearby Little Sri Lanka. Maybe the only Sri Lankan enclave on the entire east coast. And of course joining us today we've got Sri Lankan comedian friend Shanuk. I'm Sri Lankan. I am Sinhalese. And of course we got Mr. Never Eat Anything Vivek with us. Let's go. Vivek is here to just be the Indian fact checker. Pretty much. Okay. All right. Really excited to do this video because we're going to be having authentic Sri Lankan food. We're going to be going to some grocery stores. We're going to be checking out the community and talking about how cool Sri Lanka is and how they're not Indians. Shanuk, what's something that we can learn in Sri Lanka to like kick this journey off? Mamadeng Badagini. Our first spot is Lakhrawana. It is a Sri Lankan buffet. Let's go. Mamadeng Badagini. That means what? I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I am hungry. Listen, it took like 90 minutes to get to Staten Island. All right. Shanuk, where are we at right now? Because it looks like we have taken a portal to Sri Lanka. You are literally in Sri Lanka right now. And your guys' goal is to sort of, as some of the few Sri Lankans representing in America, to provide like a very authentic representation, right? Because especially if my dad, if you see the decor, he spent more money on the decor than him earning it back. He has so much love for his country. And they've been here for 35 years. And I think it feels like they never left home, but even though they live in New York. So as much as this is a restaurant, would you say it's also almost like a museum or like art exhibit? You can say that. We actually do have a museum down in the block. It's actually mine. So you guys are repping Sri Lanka like as hard as MIA. Shanuk, what are we looking at, man? These are like traditional, like you go to a party, there's going to be like a hundred of each of these just sitting around. Like you'll eat one and then 10 more will come out of nowhere. Like it's like just like a little piece of like dough wrapped and then breaded and then bread. Rolls. I like this little spoon here too. What's up with the pull up in the tongue? That is who I am. It's like curry. There's different types of things that you can see in there. Almost like a less processed sausage. I'm gonna try the vegetable one. We just had the rolls. We're moving on to the Sri Lankan drinks. What are we looking at? Mango juice. Mango lassi. Passion fruit. Cheers guys. Hold on Shanuk. You said at the beginning of the video, you guys are not Indian, but you are. Obviously there's a lot of shared culture. Right. Mango lassi. It does come from India. A lot of culture copied you bro. Shanuk, you got to describe the chip on the shoulder of Sri Lankans. Right. They're looking at you and they're expecting Bollywood dances and you're like, dude, that's like 5,000 miles away. Word. And it's always like, oh, he's talking like, oh, what part of India is that from? It's its own country actually. Hey, you know what? Hopefully after this video today, people might have a better idea. Right. If you were growing up in Sri Lanka, consuming media, is most of the media going to be Bollywood stuff dubbed in like Sinhalese? Like my parents watch Bollywood films undubbed. We just watch it straight in Hindi and like. With subtitles, right? No, not just subtitles. But then how do you guys even understand what's going on? Dude, we want that for the music and the dancing. That's it. That's fine. All right. Next up, we got a godam roti. Yeah. All right, man. This looks super unique. Oh, this looks like fresh roti right here too. Boom. Roti on the plate. Give me your plate. What you got? This is a bony fish. I've been warned to not bite into this. I might just. Godam roti with kingfish. Yo, I love that curry. Oh my goodness. The fish is dense. Yo, that was actually really good. The roti here is so perfect. It's really stretchy, really thin. This is super hot. Oh, give that a five out of five, bro. Rarely do I have fish curry. And when I do, I think there's a high niche rate in America. You know what I mean? Like even when people attempt to do it, it doesn't turn out well. That's really good. I know this is like the most different thing that I've seen since coming here. But you don't recognize this at all. I have like no direct comparison. That's what I would say. Hoppers with lamb curry. Yo, that rice flour, it's really like kind of just disintegrates in your mouth. It just breaks down. It's really, really soft. Really good and just a really experiential way to eat something, I think. Yo, the curry with cracked yolk is fire. Do it. I'm going for it. Do it. Oh, yo, that's like eating the entire clam chowder burger. Oh my gosh. The egg in it makes it so, you know, this is a five out of five for me. If you guys have had any exposure to Sri Lankan food, it's probably the kocha roti, right? Like this is like the, like we said, like the hamburger of Hamburg, Germany. Is it weird for you as a Desi person to see another Desi country just eat pork for you? Yeah, it is. Well, beef would be even weirder, but like pork is like not really a big thing in India at all. Kocha roti. I mean, as a, I'll tell you this, you'll live a lot longer if you don't drink, smoke, or even live in a western society too. So, but that shit's fun. Wow. That's on another level from the ones that I've had. Dude, I've had some kocha roti before at like some street stalls and like small businesses, but. The street ones hit in their own way though. Oh my gosh. You wasn't playing around. She was choking on the smoke. Like it was some straight zaza. Devil's shrimp. Gotta blow on it, guys. Oh, wow. I know why they call it the devil's shrimp, but that was really, really good. I like the spice here. It wasn't too spicy, but it's just enough to give you that kick. And it was kind of sweet. Overall, I don't know what you think, man. I don't know. You have some of the peppers. What do you feel about the spice, man? The spice level is pretty good. It's not as spicy as my mom makes it. Okay. But that's still really good. That is one of the hottest sizzling plates I personally have been around. You guys got to come here and try the devil's shrimp. All right, you guys, wrapping up our savory dishes here at La Cruana prior to dessert. We got a lot of dishes and some of these look really familiar. Yeah, man. I mean, this is lump rice. The banana leaf is like traditional Sri Lankan food. Basically have a rice on the bottom of that with a curry and just the seasoning on top like that. That's really good. Wow. All right. Honestly, is this better than the one your mom would make? This is really good. It's not that spicy of a dish. Now, in Sri Lanka, would this dish maybe be a little spicier? It'd be fire. Okay. Five out of five here. Five out of five for the lump rice. You got the biryani, which is actually, honestly, Indian influence. But it's got its own look to it. This is a string hopper kottu. That's the noodles. It looks like noodles, but it's a string hopper kottu. This is the hatamalu. It's like a vegetarian curry with like dal and a bunch of like veggies in it. So you're eating this a lot nowadays. Oh, big time. Whoa. Way more of like pineapples and tropical. Sweet, yeah. This might be the original version of the Hong Kong cafe dish, the Singaporean style stir fried rice noodles. It's super spicy, actually. It's really good. Of all the dishes we had and we still got more to go, which one was your favorite? I feel like for you, you got to say it was the lump rice. It was the lump rice, dude. You said it was better than your mom. Sorry, mom. I apologize. I'm going to go with the godom roti. For me, like a perfect breakfast because it was actually like lighter than you would think. Yeah. I got to go with the devil's shrimp. That sizzling hot devilish plate that almost killed us. This is the top one, huh? Yeah, this is the stuff. How many times you had this in your life? Thousands maybe. Wow, I really taste those spices. Oh my gosh, look at this honey and yogurt. That was good. I got to say that that was my favorite. I loved all the desserts though. I actually really like that mango mousse. All right, Sanuk, where did we land? We landed in Little Sri Lanka. We're in the corner of Victory and Seaburr on Staten Island. It's Little Sri Lanka. It is little, but we got a lot of stuff in this one spot. Baby Sri Lanka. Baby Sri Lanka. All right, what are we looking at? I got to see Sri Lankan restaurant and I see Ceylon Curry. Oh, but this place, my mom will always come here to get some quick Sri Lankan bites for us. Like she wants some like string hoppers done quickly. So come here, grab some, bring it back home. We got a quick dinner. I see de Blasio. I see Bourdain on the wall. All right, we got two restaurants. We're going to hit them up quick. We're going to order a couple of things from each spot. Let's do it. This is the Harold and Kumar pairing. Is this the best Sri Lankan food? Yes, I'm the best. I'm the one, so you had to tell me. Are you very confident because Anthony Bourdain ate here? If it was good enough for Bourdain, it's good enough for us. All right. All right, so we have our Sri Lankan kind of lunch food. Yeah, it's got the roll with the egg in it. So that's the real egg roll because there's an egg inside of it. Lunch is rice, some dal, some onions, sambal, chicken. This is coconut sambal. Oh, I'm really excited. I had that at Dosaman in Washington Square Park. Yeah, it was good. Wow. It's got a kick. It's a little spicier here. I feel like I really like this mixed plate because it's actually not that heavy. It's not too creamy. It is still pretty spicy, but it's actually pretty light. For me, I'm going to go ahead and give this a five out of five. This was good. Hitting on a whole nother level. She's trying to pep talk. Yeah, I can't eat coconut. This is the street food from some street gods. Okay. We got a fish roll. We got an onion roll. He said there's an egg roll. The main thing that I think we're looking for out of all this is right here. Shanu, can you break down this coconut roti? You got a coconut roti? Yeah. So this is like basically a staple of Sri Lanka. You have some breakfast, lunch, dinner. It's coconut roti. This is actually really soft and good. Like usually it's kind of like a bit harder. I like this one a lot. Like these are what my mom called malapang, usually called fish buns. So one has fish, one has spicy onions in it. Malapang. Fish curry bun. I've never had one in my life. It's good. Guys, these two spots that we went to, Ceylon Curry and New Asha Restaurant, guys, definitely check them out. If you ever come to Staten Island, little Sri Lanka, flavors I've never had before. All right, you guys, we've arrived at the Sri Lankan grocery. And one thing that I want to point out is how cool the Sinhalese language looks. Yeah, these are all like sounds, so it's all phonetic, right? So it's not like A, B, C. These are just like sounds of like words you would say. Let's head into the grocery. Hey, you know what I noticed? And I saw this in a video. Sometimes when Sri Lankan people, they're saying yes, they actually say, they go side to side first. So this, it could be yes, but in the US we might think it's no. Next city. All right, you guys, we are pretty much near the end of our Sri Lankan food crawl through little Sri Lanka and Staten Island. We got some Sri Lankan snacks from the store. What is this? Lemon puff, elephant house popsicle. What's this? It's a potopi. What do you think it is like about that makes Sri Lanka so interesting? You were talking about how the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, there's some other ethnicities, there's some Chinese live in Sri Lanka. Yeah, I mean like Sri Lanka has a lot of different cultures that like have influenced it. It is its own kind of like, I think Sri Lanka really wants to be its own thing, its own people, its own identities. And like all that has come together to make us Sri Lankan diaspora. As we move into this time in America where everybody wants to be seen, everybody wants a representation, every type of gender, ethnicity, community, identity, right? Like, are you with that? Like, yo, I think we've got to be as nuanced as possible or is there some sense you're like, I just want to make it simple for people. It would be a disservice to like my parents and what they work for and like what they believe in me to being them to like, it's all cool, like whatever it is it is. Like the nuance is what allows you like find the beauty in culture, right? As first gen immigrants, we have like the privilege of having nuance. We're like, our parents weren't allowed to have that because they just had to like figure out, I'm in a foreign land, like how do I survive? But I think it depends. I think that if the more assimilated second gens, they almost start to view it just like the dominant narrative which is painting groups with broad brushes. And that's like what we're doing in this video right now. We're trying to like show that everybody's an individual but also show that it doesn't have to be like in a contentious way. Yo, I got to say real quick, these sesame balls are rock hard. Yeah. These are like, I can't even. Did the two Chinese guys end up eating? I like the flavor though. Do you hear this? I mean, what are you trying to do with your art or what are you even want people to know? Yeah. Because at some point if we are trying to fill people's minds with these new identities and all these nuances, sometimes we have to boil it down and sometimes we have to simplify. Sometimes we have to simplify the message and the mission and everybody can have one. But what is like the message and mission here that as you would say as a Sri Lankan American? Yeah. I mean, I think in my own art, I try my best to like be unapologetically like that set up. That style is what I want my art to be. It's also like the beauty of that culture. Like what that culture is like the love that I get from like my family, my friends, all the people that are in my life that are Sri Lankan. I think more people know that Sri Lankans are like a warm, welcoming group of people who like, if you come into our house, we will take care of you. You're going to eat well, you're going to drink, you're going to like, you don't need anything when you come to our home. Any last words about Sri Lanka? Because I know you knew about it, but you hadn't really been out. I expected it to be way more similar to be honest, which was like, again, like pretty, pretty shitty of me to do. I think the biggest thing is also just learning like how, like the, the hospitality of it, I think is a lot, was like super cool to see. You can follow me at Indian Maisel on Instagram or at V Netrakanti on TikTok. You can follow my work on, at Shanuk, just my regular name S-H-E-N-U-K-E on Instagram or check out my website. Shanuk, what's your last name? Tassara. Tassara. Is that, is that, is that a foreign last name or is that a Portuguese last name? All right, everybody. Thank you so much for watching that Sri Lankan episode in Staten Island. Yo, shout out to Shanuk, Vivek. You guys showed us around. We got to dive into the culture. In the comments down below, let me know one, what you guys know about Sri Lankan food or culture. And two, let us know another ethnic enclave around the New York, New Jersey-ish area that you guys would want us to check out because taking these trips out, you know, it does take time, but it's usually worth it. All right, everybody. Thanks for watching. And until next time, we out. Peace.