[Serendib] Sri Lankan food on the HK Island

There used to be only one place for Sri Lankan food in Hong Kong and that was Sai Kung which is so inconvenient.
Thanks to Timeout, I discovered this new joint located on this street in Sheung Wan selling Chinese delicacies and this little joint really sticks out.

They serve street food so expect string hoppers and Kottus.

I ordered the string hoppers with potato milk curry and the Cheese Kottu with beef curry.

The string hoppers and potato milk curry came first.

Tried the string hoppers on its own and they were surprisingly flavoured despite looking like unflavoured Chinese rice vermicelli.
These string hoppers are steamed so they are springy and soft and there are about 6 of these hoppers on the plate.

The potatoes were very aromatic because there was a lovely cinnamon aroma and taste to it and you will even find a cinnamon stick as well but the only let down was the potatoes were not soft enough.

The next dish was the cheese kottu,  I was really looking forward to this because I love cheese. It smelt so nice because of the onions and chili but so far nothing was too spicy.

The smell was so comforting because they smelt like the Shatkora kebabs in London.
The side of beef curry I ordered was also amazing because I love the mix of coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cumin.

They sell that curry powder too which is a special blend bottled exclusively for Serendib!!

To finish off, I had their Sri Lankan tea which is just Ceylon tea and it was so good because it was fragrant and not bitter like the ones you get in HK.

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Great Gotu Kola Mallum @ AJ's Sri Lankan Cuisine

The food on my first visit was great so decided to come again.

There was more variety since my first visit and the staff were as good as before, they actually had knowledge on the food that was served and were able to answer about the food not like other restaurants especially Cantonese ones where they regurgitate the name of the dish back when you ask!
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Lamprais 斯里蘭卡蕉葉飯
A Dutch influenced special occasion dish of flavored rice. Served with fish cutlet, eggplant, seeni sambol, egg & your choice of meat, wrapped in a banana leaf.
As I do not know much on the Sri Lankan dishes, the rice was great because it had various things in it so you could sample everything such as the Fish cutlet, Eggplant Moju.

 

The rice was really soft and moist with coconut, and there was cashew nuts too which had a wonderful beany texture and not the crunchy texture. Actually the cashews were soft and creamy and I loved it.
There was also curried potatoes as well and eggplant moju, but I felt the eggplant tasted better as a sidedish because it was sour.
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Gotu Kola Mallum
Menu description: A unique style dish mixed with Gotu Kola, Bell Pepper, Red Onion, Lime, fresh grated coconut and light traditional spices.
This was the dish I wanted to try most because of the Gotu Kola Mallum which is some Sri Lankan leafy green said to have some medicinal properties.
I wanted to try it because it was mixed with lime juice and red onions.
This dish did not let me down!!
The gotu kola was finely chopped and there was no grassy taste. The coconut was dessicated but not dry.
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Eggplant Moju 芥茉醋煮矮瓜
Menu description: Fried eggplant, onions and green chilies mixed in authentic mustard vinaigrette.
I loved this dish as well, the taste was really strong especially the vinaigrette dressing.
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Fish cutlet
The shape of this was interesting like a ball but it was delicious and the chef could not have selected a better fish for this.
The fish inside was silky and boneless unlike other Chinese places where they grind fish bones in with the patty.
The fish was not grounded but mashed up so the texture and fibres were still present.
The fish that they used was mackerel.
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Fish Roti
Tried this before but decided to order it again. It comes with mint sauce but the fish roti itself tastes brilliant with or without sauce.
However this time the colour was not as purple as before but the taste was still as good.
The spices were strong and there was plenty of onions, ginger and spring onions.
Again it is made with mackerel so it tastes really nice and strong spices dose not overthrow the taste of the mackerel.
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Mint Sauce
The mint sauce here is different from the Indian ones which are sweet. I liked this one because it tastes savoury and there is so much dessicated fresh coconut in it that you can just eat the mint sauce on its own.
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Poppaddoms and chutney
They tasted as nice as the first time I tried them there, and also they are different to the Indian poppaddoms because they are thinner and starchy and tastes like crisps. There was no foul oil taste or smell in the poppadoms.
The chutney that came with it was also nice, it was made with pineapples and tomatoes.
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