When it rains, we cook!

With the unrelenting rain curtailing our planned hikes and pool lounging, we came up with a back-up plan to ensure we did at least some type of activity during our trip.

And so we arranged to take a cooking class in the lodge's kitchen.

Chandima - the lodge's charming sous-chef - was very patient during our lesson as we showed ourselves almost immediately to be fairly useless Sri Lankan cooks.

Watching us try to chop Sri Lankan banana leaves made Chandima immediately uncomfortable until he realized this was perhaps one of our more able culinary skills.  Trying to shave string beans and cut the very hard Rose Apples proved well beyond our capabilities and he was forced to take over in short order.

Luckily, Beth redeemed herself as a surprisingly good Sri Lankan eggplant crusher and Geoff was so fast on the coconut grater that the entire contraption actually flew right off the table!

We were surprised to learn that every dish we enjoyed (all vegetarian!) used the same base and process.  Start with a huge serving spoonful of garlic and onion, throw in some oil and mustard seeds, add tumeric and a hint of cumin and chili, toss in the chopped vegetables and then let simmer for about half an hour.  Every once in a while, the Chef would drip a little of the sauce onto his hand and add some additional flavourings until the rice cooking nearby was ready.

While we waited for the food to cook, Chadima took us on a quick and wet walk around Madulkelle's vegetable garden.   Although small, this garden  seemed to grow all of the fruits and vegetables one could imagine, and then some.  No wonder all the food tasted so fresh! It never ceases to amaze us how many edible plants we have never heard of.

Due to the rain, that very bumpy road to the lodge and our overly relaxed (lazy?) vacation attitude, we ate almost every meal at the lodge.

And every meal was fantastic, with a varied blend of local and international foods.

However, by the 2nd day we had already figured out that we could not possibly consume 3 meals per day, cutting it back to breakfast and dinner, with at most some soup for lunch.

Each night's dinner offered a special menu, which they updated based on what vegetables were available in the garden as well as any special requests from guests.  Our casual hint to Upul (the most tending, lovely and capable waiter) about our desire to have some of our favourites - vegetable kottu roti and stringhopper - during our visit was embraced and made it right onto the menu the very next evening...

If the scenery wasn't enough to make this lodge totally enchanting, the soulful food and creative drinks, paired with the most charming staff, made this lodge a place we would find hard to leave.