Wije Food Centre is a small rice & curry spot located down the Kaduwela Road. Buddhika couldn't stop talking about all kinds of pork they serve, so even if it's a bit away from where we are, we gleefully made our way to the place to get a taste.
Food
You can get rice and curry, with a protein of your choice – fried fish, fish curry, chicken curry, and of course, pork. They have fried rice and paratha too, as well as kottu in the evening.
From what we gathered, they do carry a range of pork – devilled, fried and such, but on the day we dropped by the selection was quite limited.
The Pork Fried Rice (Rs. 400) was served warm. Fluffy and cooked well the rice was surprisingly less oily than it looked. The abundance of carrot, leeks, onion and the bits of fried egg all added to the texture and made things interesting.
There were around 6/7 chunks of pork hidden in the rice waiting for us to gobble down. We think that they've given a light fry to the pork curry, making the outer layer a tad firm while keeping meatiness intact in the middle, alongside its curry flavours. This struck us as an oddball but heck if it wasn't delicious.
The normal/half portion of rice covered the entire plate and there was more than enough for one.
We got a Rice and Curry with Fried Fish (Rs. 300). It was a plateful of yellow rice, accompanied with a piece of deep-fried, beans and parippu curries, wambotu moju and a cucumber & pineapple salad. Again, the rice was cooked well, seasoned to be on the milder side with a slight turmeric aroma and had a pleasant yellow colour.
The flesh of the deep-fried fish fell off the bones easily. It wasn't too salty while the middle was soft with a slight creaminess to it.
Parrippu was spot on with the curry flavours and had plenty of moisture while the beans curry was milky as anticipated.
The salad was quite fun with its sweet, and fresh crunch, while the wambotu moju was alright. It had this weird bitter and sour notes, which we didn't happen to like.
We paired the Chili Pork Curry (Rs. 400) with three Parathas (Rs. 30 each). The paratha was a bit firm from the outside with a soft middle with a hint of sweetness all throughout. I’d eat them as they are, with no curries.
The Chili Pork Curry weirdly tasted a lot like a chicken curry but had a lot of spices infused. Thankfully, they hadn't gone overboard with the chilli, so the meaty flavours nicely fell through.
The pork pieces were chunky while the majority were meaty pieces with a few fat bits here and there. Soft and falling apart in the mouth so easily, it was chewy, and pure porky goodness. The oily pieces just melted in the mouth bursting with curry flavour. The pairing of paratha and pork curry went extremely well, we even ordered some more separately as a takeaway order.
Service & Ambience
This might look like a streetside kottu kadey, but don't let that fool you. Its inside is spacious enough and can hold about 20 – 25 people at a time. Plus, it's clean.
There are always people moving around with food and orders so, it can get a tad loud. But the wait staff is fast and the food arrived very fast, so nothing to complain.
Conclusion
Wije Food Centre whips up a good pork curry, among other things. The portion sizes are generous and you get your money's worth. If you are nearby wanting to fill up on a good serving of rice with pork, this is the place to visit.
