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| Friday, 25 July 2003 |
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Recipes for all occasions Sri Lankan Cookery Review by Lakshmi A. Perera This is not a coffee table ornament, nor a conversation piece. This beautifully presented book combining ideas and ingredients is a collection of simple recipes for all occassions. Manel turns her attention to simple everyday meals which are joys to prepare. Her methods are like her story telling. The instructions are few. The range of ingredients restrained and readily available. She writes with an affectionate eye over the social and cultural history of our island home. The influence of foreign domination, our eating habits and food that has enriched our cuisine, from kiribath to lampries. She makes it a point to explain the nutritive and medicinal value of various ingredients with such ease not forgetting to mention cultural value of certain dishes. It is written with a love for her country and its people, rekindling the traditional culinary art. It is fun to go through the mouth watering dishes and one will think twice before patronising fast food and takeaway outlets. If you were to spend a little time in the kitchen you could give your family members a real treat of good wholesome food because this unpretentious book is full of easy to follow recipes which will inspire you to delve into the delectable that you will want to try them over and over again. She has very deftly included some imaginative recipes in a reassuring and straight forward style. The very appealing rice dishes and accompaniments attractive and simple. The contents include food values, cookery tips, glossary and captivating photographs that whet your appetite. What is lacking in it is a list of recipes in the contents, which would help the busy housewife through over 95 of them. Variations of well-known authentic dishes are temptingly updated for the modern kitchen, for example the yellow rice that used to be made laboriously in grandma's smoky kitchen. Nor can one forget the numerous sea food and chicken dishes and of course the tempting desserts, sweets and cool drinks. These recipes will tempt the most reluctant housewife into the kitchen. Manel in her inimitable style proves that there is more to Sri Lankan cuisine than rice and curry. The simplicity combined with inventiveness and the footnotes that accompany almost all the dishes offer practical advice and some very witty comments. Going through the book is a calming experience, you can go back to a few decades when she revives and reminds us of oldtime breakfast favourites like boiled batala with scraped coconut and lunumiris, kola kenda, roti and the like. The urban elite may not have even heard of these dishes. She has very cleverly included non traditional dishes, the foods of other ethnic groups like Arab , Malays, and of course Portugese, Dutch, and English, who have left their indelible mark in our kitchens - specially cooking styles like themparadu. When it comes to desserts and sweets they are easy to make as she suggests. Do try the vatalappam either steamed or baked, it will never go wrong. Even divul kiri which no one bothers about these days brings nostalgic memories of the days gone by when it used to be a regular dessert at lunch time, specially for elders, in the absence of curd and treacle. As for the sweets mouth watering to read I am delighted she has not forgotten the old tea time favourites like vandu appa, Ijzerkoekies, Lavariya, sago dodol and numerous aluwas and aggalas which are disappearing from our tea table referred to as tiffin - a word rarely heard now. The age old reciepes passed down from generation to generation are explained with a simple twist. These tried and tested recipes are not recorded anywhere so we owe a deep debt of gratitude to Manel for her efforts. With the changing social patterns our cooking styles too have undergone vast changes. our very kitchen implements like the coconut scraper, grinding stone, the mortar and the pestle have been replaced with electronic gadgets. Manel's book therefore is an eye-opener for us to look around and consume more and more indigenous food like melluns, sambols. She even mentions thibbotu and how to make use of ash plantain skins and of course jak (delectable, even though spelt with a "c" to the outrage of self-proclaimed authorities of English). The trend in cookery writing these days is simplicity and quality of ingredients. Manel has caught this mood perfectly. This book is a must for the housewife, the armchair dreamer, grand ma, all Sri Lankans living abroad, even to gourmet cooks, specially these days when lunumiris, polos ambul and ambul thiyal come in cans, perhaps, soon even kiri hodi. Manel has done a great service to the nation by publishing these recipes. She captures the love for all things native and tells us of their food values as well. This book reflects our philosphy of food, the national attitude to food and drink, prepared with concern with an admixture of intriguing herbs and spices to be partaken with delight. ###### Writings of Nanavira Thera Book I: Writings of Nanavira Thera, Vol. I, 'Notes on Dhamma' The Writings of Nanavira Thera of Bundala, Hambantota, Sri Lanka are contained mainly in 'Clearing the Path', edited by the American Samanera Bodhesako about 25 years ago and sold abroad. It is now out of print. The Buddhist Cultural Centre decided to issue it in its two constituent parts, 'Notes on Dhamma' and 'Letters' with a Forward and Introduction respectively by Dr. John Stella M.A., Ph.D., in order to reduce cost. 'Clearing the Path' was revewied abroad as 'the most important book published in the century'. Nanavira Thera, [Englishman, Harold Musson, First Class in Modern Languages, mathematician, Cambridge University] wrote mainly for the Western elite. His genius is amply described by Dr. Stella, himself a scholar in modern classics, in the Forward and Introduction written at my invitation and of Dr. Kingsley Heendeniya who assisted to make the two volumes available at an affordable price. 'Notes on Dhamma', is a difficult book. It is a tightly written 'philosophical commentary on the essential teachings of the Pali Suttas', in language, idiom and quotations from a galaxy of thinkers such as Camus, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Kafka. Though familiar to a Western reader, it can be incomprehensible in part, to anyone without such background. Yet, the diligent student who wants to understand the Dhamma for his own private fruit and benefit will find in the notes on paticcasamuppada, avijja, sankhara, nama-rupa, phassa, cetana, atta, upadana and other critical concepts in Dhamma, a rewarding experience of the teaching of the Buddha. The editor Bodhesako recommended it to the reader as a 'work book' to 'acquire a point of view that is different from his frame of reference, and also more satisfactory'. Volume II 'Letters' are a selection of 150 letters written by Nanavira Thera from his kuti in the Bundala Forest Reserve to local and foreign readers of 'Notes' who had requested explanation and clarification. Some are 'thinly disguised essays in a wholly modern idiom' and Nanavira Thera himself describes them as 'something of a commentary on the Notes'. Thus, it can be very helpful to read Letters as an introduction to Notes. Nanavira Thera set out to write on Dhamma in 1967 from personal experience of it and says, 'If I do not do it, no one else will'. The principal aim he says, 'is to point out certain current misinterpretations, mostly traditional, of the Pali Suttas, and to offer in their place something certainly less easy but perhaps also less inadequate'. There are aphorisms in his writings that may not be to everyone's liking. For example, he writes that the European has excess of panna over saddha and tends to reject things even if true while the Asian with excess of saddha over panna accepts things even when false! He laments that many persons nowadays do not read the Suttas and are thereby ignorant of what the Buddha actually taught. The Buddhist Cultural Center is privileged to publish the two unique volumes, in its continuous dedicated effort to promote the study and practice of the Teaching of the Buddha throughout the world. 'Notes on Dhamm' is priced at Rs. 275 and 'Letters' at Rs. 575, in hard cover, handy, by photographed printing from the original. ###### Buddhism in simple language Dampavana 3 (pp. 136) Editor/Publisher - Premasiri Kariyawasam This valuable little book contains a collection of discourses delivered by the erudite scholar, Ven. Marapana Saddharmavagisvaracarya Sri Atthadassi Vijithabhidana Maha Nayake Thera, the Chief Sanghanayake of the Kalutara District. He is like a bright star in the galaxy of Buddhist brotherhood, so calm and quiet and devoted to holy life. Dampavana 1 contains a collection of discourses broadcasted through the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), Dampavana 2 contains discourses delivered by the Maha Nayaka Thera on different occasions, and Dampavana 3 contains a lucid account of Buddha's discourses on the Parabhawa Sutta or the down-fall of man. The books offers a good knowledge of Buddhism, and specially helps the laity to understand the orthodox teachings of the Buddha, and to realise the importance of morality. The book has 13 chapters, well written to catch the eye of the reader, which constitute (1) the downfall of man who is antagonistic towards the Dhamma, (2) the discourteous man is a social menace, (3) undue efforts in the wrong way, sans understanding, quickens downfall, (4) he who does not look after his parents, even having the ability to do so, has no bright future, (5) the escheat suffers from all ills, (6) there is no social approbation to him who enjoys his wealth by himself, (7) He who thinks or has a high estimation of himself, has his downfall, (8) Women, wine and gambling close doors to successful living, (9) those who, leaving the good, go after what are bad, (10) those who shoulder too much responsibility bemoans, (11) extreme sensualists face downfall, (12) even of royal lineage, the kingdom of the misfit is open to ruin, and (13) timely exhortations on the Dhamma. Aryadasa Ratnasinghe |
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