A Day Which Revolved Around Cooking In Mama’s Kitchen, Tangalle, Sri Lanka, 9 January 2026

Mama, ooh (any way the wind blows)…

We were very keen to try our hands at cooking in Mama’s Kitchen and chose this middle day of our break for that purpose.

Still we played tennis first thing and then took some breakfast in the normal way, but rather than enjoy the wonders of our villa, we set off at 12:20 for the rudimentary location, just beyond the rice paddy field, where “Mama”, assisted by one of the chefs and Manju, would teach us how to cook Sri Lankan style food.

While I am quite familiar with Southern Asian cuisine and have experimented with Sri Lankan cooking before, this was a more comprehensive tour d’horizon of the art. An entire multi-dish meal (our lunch) needed to be prepared form scratch.

Mama and chef explained, demonstrated and taught. Manju translated.

If in doubt, adopt a cheffy face and posture, then have a slurp.

Now look what we’ve done!

Janie in particular took a shine to the salad, Gotukola Sambol, for which I have added a BBC Food link which includes alternative ingredients which might help back at home. Mukunuwenna Mallum is a similar, warm salad, the recipe for which was one of a couple of dozen recipes that Manju forwarded to us after the event.

He didn’t share a recipe for the Prawns Tampopo, but, closer to home, Tooting Mama (you couldn’t make it up) has a great recipe for those. If you just want the ingredients and instructions, click here. Manju didn’t share the chicken curry recipe either, now I come to look through them all, but here is a BBC Food version which is very similar indeed, and all the ingredients can be readily obtained at home.

Thoroughly exhausted from our efforts, we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon – in my case reading and in Janie’s case having a facial in the spa. We subsequently had a simple room service supper before retiring at the end of that day.

A very special and memorable part of this holiday.