{"id":2077,"date":"2016-11-10T14:39:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T14:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mercuryholidays.co.uk\/oyster\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2017-03-16T09:05:15","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T09:05:15","slug":"exquisite-eats-indian-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/food-drink\/exquisite-eats-indian-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"Exquisite eats from the Indian Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"<span itemprop=\"reviewBody\"><h3>Scrumptious Sri Lankan food<\/h3>\n<p>Sri Lanka is a food lovers dream. A diverse assortment of locally grown spices, fruit and vegetables combine with recipes introduced by foreign traders &amp; colonial powers creating a truly unique cuisine. &#8216;Rice and curry&#8217; is the national dish of Sri Lanka and features on almost every hotel menu. Usually comprising of a miniature banquet of small dishes made from fresh vegetables, chicken or fish and a medley of coconut milk, chilli and spices it epitomises the country&#8217;s status as one of the original spice islands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to try:<\/strong>\u00a0Polos (young jackfruit curry made with rich spices and coconut milk) served with rice and Coconut Sambol (shredded fresh coconut, chillies, red onion and lime).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2114\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mercuryholidays.co.uk\/oyster\/wp-content\/uploads\/56682776_l-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/56682776_l-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/56682776_l-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/56682776_l-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/56682776_l-360x240.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Keralan cuisine with a kick<\/h3>\n<p>Known as the &#8220;land of spices&#8221; due to it&#8217;s spice trade traditions, Keralan cuisine is liberal in its use of local spices. An abundance of seafood, chillies and tropical fruits has heavily influenced the region&#8217;s cooking, \u00a0ith rich curries made using coconut milk and stir-fried seafood common on hotel menus. You&#8217;d be wrong in thinking the fruits of the sea feature in every dish, though, beef or lentil curries are just as common (and tasty) and incredibly popular. Try Chemmeen curry (a signature Keralan dish &#8211; prawn curry made with blended fenugreek, fennel &amp; mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chillies, coconut milk &amp; mango).<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to try:<\/strong> Chemmeen curry (a signature Keralan dish &#8211; prawn curry made with blended fenugreek, fennel &amp; mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chillies, coconut milk &amp; mango).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2116\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mercuryholidays.co.uk\/oyster\/wp-content\/uploads\/31734001_l-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/31734001_l-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/31734001_l-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/31734001_l-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/31734001_l-360x240.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Mouth watering Mauritian meals<\/h3>\n<p>For such a tiny island Mauritius has an incredibly rich and diverse food culture, with a combination of Creole, French, Chinese and Indian flavours. The most common ingredients used in Mauritian recipes are tomatoes, onions, garlic and chillies, which are cooked with a variety of spices to create a delicious sauce known as rougaille. Vegetables, meat or seafood are then cooked in the\u00a0rougaille and eaten with pickles &amp; dhal or rice. While the Indian population has had a big influence on the cuisine Mauritian curries are unique in that they rarely contain coconut milk and typically use European herbs such as thyme and feature more unusual meats and seafood such as duck or octopus.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to try:<\/strong> Prawn rougaille (King prawns cooked in a thick tomato sauce flavoured with garlic, paprika, chilli, parsley &amp; thyme).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2117\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mercuryholidays.co.uk\/oyster\/wp-content\/uploads\/31064663_l-1024x676.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"676\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/31064663_l-1024x676.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/31064663_l-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/31064663_l-768x507.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/31064663_l-100x65.jpg 100w, https:\/\/mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/wp-content\/uploads\/31064663_l-759x500.jpg 759w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><div class=\"cb-divider clearfix\"><span class=\"cb-title\">GETTING THERE<\/span><\/div><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Tempted to take a trip to taste them?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Choose from a hand-picked selection of hotels all at unbelievable prices.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"cb-button cb-blue cb-normal cb-none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercuryholidays.co.uk\/sri-lanka-holidays\/\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"follow\">SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"cb-button cb-blue cb-normal cb-none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercuryholidays.co.uk\/maldives-holidays\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"follow\">MALDIVES HOLIDAYS<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"cb-button cb-blue cb-normal cb-none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercuryholidays.co.uk\/mauritius-holidays\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"follow\">MAURITIUS HOLIDAYS<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scrumptious Sri Lankan food Sri Lanka is a food lovers dream. A diverse assortment of locally grown spices, fruit and vegetables combine with recipes introduced by foreign traders &amp; colonial powers creating a truly unique cuisine. &#8216;Rice and curry&#8217; is the national dish of Sri Lanka and features on almost every hotel menu. Usually comprising [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Exquisite eats from the Indian Ocean - Inspire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mercuryholidays.ie\/inspire\/food-drink\/exquisite-eats-indian-ocean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exquisite eats from the Indian Ocean - Inspire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scrumptious Sri Lankan food Sri Lanka is a food lovers dream. 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