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| Tuesday, 3 June 2003 |
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KILINOCHCHI, Monday (Reuters) The house special in the trendiest restaurant in the LTTE-held Kilinochchi is a chicken dish called a landmine. The dish with the explosive taste is made at a new restaurant that could compete with the best in the capital, Colombo, but is in the dusty town 250 km to the north, and the headquarters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The "Seran Suvaigam" diner is a result of a 15-month truce and peace process that has given hope for a permanent end to the island's 20-year ethnic war and has led to some businesses springing up, despite complaints aid is coming too slowly. The restaurant was set up by the LTTE to cater to affluent Tamils and the odd tourists who show up in the North. "I'm shocked. I did not expect to find such a place here," said Shervana Raghavan, from India, after a tasty lunch in the restaurant's air conditioned dining room. Neatly dressed waitresses wearing white beret-like caps serve everything from rice cakes and vadais - a spicier version of a doughnut - to curries. It is much more up-market than the typical rural restaurant on the island. "We serve east and west cultural food," said Sasi Nagarajah, a 27-year-old who moved into restaurant management after being an accountant. "We have food from India, Sri Lanka and the West," he said. The rebels, who have always had a knack for business, are setting up a range of ventures in their areas. "The restaurant is part of a group selling groceries, making textiles, jams and cordials and milling rice," Nagarajah said. The rebels are not ignoring free-market realities - the manager's salary gets bumped up if he pulls in more customers. Most people in the North are still struggling to make out a living as there are few jobs that pay more than a nominal salary. About a million people were displaced by the fighting, with about 400,000 believed to have returned home since the February 2002 ceasefire. But living conditions have not improved much since the truce. The danger of landmines, with an estimated two million spread across the countryside, is behind the tongue-in-cheek nickname for the chicken pancake roll, called a midhi veddi - landmine in the Tamil language. "It has chicken and egg inside. No beef or mutton," said Nagarajah with a smile. Susi, an 18-year old waitress, said she had trained for four months in "catering technology" and wanted to learn Sinhalese and English. Few Tamils speak Sinhala, the language of the majority, and fewer Sinhalese people speak Tamil. English can be a problem and Nagarajah said he was planning to correct a few errors in the menu. Entries in a book of customer comments took a light-hearted look at that and more serious matters. "It is not fine apple juice," one customer wrote about a menu item, apparently pineapple juice. "And it is not fride fish." "This place is okay but think of the thousands who can't afford to come here," another customer wrote. |
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