While shiny new restaurants and bars open up practically every other week with their fancy soft openings, hard openings and high society guests, Currymuch, in comparison, sort of just turned up one day on the corner of Braybrooke Street, quietly, with minumum fuss and bother.
Out of the many new places we’ve visited this year, this is the one we’re most exited about – the slighter posher-than-your-average bath kade. Why? Because they work with the Sri Lankan palate instead of against it – they take the things we love, and without changing them too much, they make them just a little bit better.
Take the humble roast paan for instance. This is a hard, oily slice of bread – delicious when dunked in a spicy chicken curry, or slathered with lunu miris. But try and make a sandwich out of it? Impossible. Which means our snack boxes are often filled with boring slices of prima – slim, flimsy, and just not as flavourful as a crunchy roast paan. But Currymuch simply breezes past these obstacles. They either shave down the bread or smash it a bit (actually I think Alphonso sits on it), but somehow the paan is squashed into a flatter sort of shape and two pieces are pressed together to make great breakfast sandwichs. Pol sambol and omlette. Chicken and green chilli. These are excellent on the go meals – tasty, filling and affordable at just Rs. 100. The chicken filling is honestly delicious, and again they do something a little bit different here, taking minced chicken instead of mushed strips of breast. Packed with onions, chilli and a spicy sauce that holds it all together, this just became YAMU’s favourite breakfast.
We like Currymuch. They extend the greatest of Sri Lankan cuisine and go straight to the heart of what locals love – rice, paan, and wobbly desserts. There’s no pretension, just honest, well made Lankan food. If our praise seems a bit effusive, well, they deserve it.
