I never thought that I would ever sit down and actually
write an ENTIRE post about a prawn curry. But I have to. This post has been a
couple of years in the making. Better late than never I say. So here goes.
I have been a great fan of traditional rest house meals.
Especially the traditional rest house breakfast. The fresh bread and string
hoppers; the sambol and fish curry and kirihodi makes me salivate just by
writing about it. However very rarely does one order extra items when consuming
the traditional breakfast. Because there
is no need for it as the food is plentiful. Unless you are travelling with a
bunch of hungry mates, no let me rephrase my word extremely hungry mates to
Wilpattu and you need to break journey.
Which is how I came across the Puttlam Rest House sprawled
across a huge compound in all its dilapidated glory. It is as good or as bad as
rest houses come. You get the same old fashioned sixties style furniture which
seems to be too big for the space and the terribly kitsch curtains which haven’t
been washed in ages and loud music blaring away from a television or radio.
Sometimes if you are unlucky from both.
My mates wanted something special in addition to our
breakfast and taking the advice from a waiter we ordered the prawn curry as
extra.
Cue Drum Roll
followed by fanfare.
The prawn curry
looked absolutely sensational. Quite a generous portion of medium size
prawns lying in a thick red fragrant gravy which looked absolutely delicious.
And when the first mouthful entered my lips I wanted to stand up and wave my
hands in ecstasy like a spaced out hippie at a rock concert.
The taste was so wonderful. Out of this world! The curry had
a tinge of Thai red curry in it maybe because they had used lemon grass as a
spice. The prawns were so fresh and tasty they melted in your mouth. A trick to
learn oh your prawn aficionados is that the bigger the prawn the lesser the
taste.
And since then we were hooked. Every time we go to Wilpattu
we make sure we stop here for breakfast and we and enjoy extra portions of
prawn curry.
In fact one of these days I am going to drive all the way to
Puttlam just so that I can enjoy the prawn curry once more. It is so worth it!
