East Coast Breakfast · Dried Fish & Rice Noodles
Karawala Curry with Indi Appa
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Ji-Elle / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
It's a common breakfast across the east coast, yet the fish in it isn't fresh from that morning's boats at all — it's been salted and sun-dried, sometimes for weeks.
Steamed rice-flour noodle nests (string hoppers, or indi appa) are served with a fiery, tamarind-sharp curry of sun-dried fish, coconut milk and chili, ladled out at breakfast stalls and small eateries across Batticaloa and Trincomalee alongside pol sambol.
Why it's made this way: Salting and drying fish let east-coast Tamil and Muslim communities stretch the catch through lean months, and pairing it with steamed rice noodles became a staple of the region's everyday morning meal.
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