We don’t know anything about Sri Lankan food but we’ve seen it on TV.  Bourdain did one episode from Sri Lanka and like most good food travel shows, this made us want to taste the dishes we saw.

So when a friend told me that a new Sri Lankan restaurant had opened for business right in Sai Kung town, we were eager to give it a try.  The name of the restaurant is AJ’s Sri Lankan Cuisine.  The map on Open Rice isn’t quite accurate here – walk to the end of Sai Kung Hoi Pong Street, make a left and it’s right next to the Sai Kung Wholesale Fish Market and the very popular Sweetheart Dessert.

P1020052You can glimpse owner RJ standing in the doorway (the restaurant is named for his son).  RJ used to work at both Anthony’s Catch and Anthony’s Ranch and struck out on his own with his native food about a month ago.  And the restaurant is already a hit – he told us that on Friday and Saturday nights, he’s full.  There’s a couple of tables outside, the main restaurant inside has about 8 tables and out back there’s an outdoor patio with room for 30.

We told RJ that we’d never had Sri Lankan food and would go 100% on his recommendations and he was happy to oblige.  Even better – aside from the 3 dishes we ordered, he brought us 2 extra dishes on the house!

Our first dish was one of the free ones, called Fish Cutlets on the menu, it was minced fish meat and spices covered in flour or batter and deep fried.  Not at all greasy and a nice bit of spice.

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(Sadly, the photos to follow won’t be as nice as this one.  Still getting used to the new camera and still dealing with pink eye.)

We followed that up with a dish called String Hoppers.  The menu explained that it’s a popular street food in Sri Lanka, a local variant on pasta mixed with spices, onion, egg and a choice of meat (we went for pork, $69 I think).  P1020047

Sorry that the photo’s so crappy, but at least you get some idea of what it looked like – it looks like fried rice, right?  Again, not heavy on the spice but nice flavor as a side dish.

P1020048Here’s one of the rotis on the menu, recommended as the best choice with a curry.  Very different from a Malaysian roti, it was light and fluffy and indeed went well with the curry.

We went for a beef curry ($49) – just a curry in a bowl, nothing special worth photographing.  We’d asked for medium spice and I found it was well within the limit of what I could handle (might be brave and ask him to go all the way next time).  The curry itself was thinner than Indian curries I’ve had but quite nice and the beef was tender.

To go with it, we had Elephant brand cream soda, imported from Sri Lanka.  P1020044

RJ explained to us that he doesn’t have coke or other regular soft drinks yet, so we could feel free to bring our own along next time.

Although we were quite full at this point, he insisted we try the one dessert on the menu, sorry I can’t recall the name but here’s a pink-eyed photo of what it looks like:
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The main taste was cinnamon but a mix of other flavors as well.   Very nice.  (If you’re wondering how we managed to get two free courses, no, I didn’t mention BC Magazine.  He was just responding to our curiosity and also our enthusiasm for what we’d eaten.  He seems to be a very friendly guy and I think has a good idea of how to create a base of loyal customers.)

The price of the dinner was $240 (not counting the two free courses, of course).  Never having had Sri Lankan food before, I can’t say how authentic this might have been but everything seemed really well prepared and tasty.  We’ll gladly go back there again and want to work our way through the curries, rotis and other dishes on the menu.

Later on, down by the Sai Kung waterfront, quite busy on a Sunday evening, to be expected with this gorgeous weather, I had to stop and look at these two displays:

P1020040P1020041Not knowing enough Chinese characters, the first sign seems to be saying stop drugs and bombs – I wasn’t aware that bombs are an issue here but I suppose an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?  The second sign, peace all?  I can get behind that.

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