Sri Lankan embassy promotes cookbook 'Rice and Curry' in US

The New York Times honours new volume:

Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya joined Washington-area guests last week to celebrate the release of Rice and Curry, a new cookbook by Sri Lankan-American author Sarath Fernando who has worked to popularize Sri Lankan cuisine in the United States.

The cookbook, which includes 208 pages of traditional Sri Lankan recipes, from patties and cutlets to shrimp and crab curries to fruit dishes and puddings, was recently honoured in The New York Times 2011 List of Notable Cookbooks as part of the Times' Holiday Gift Guide.

Rice and Curry is not just a cookbook, but an abbreviated encyclopedia of Sri Lankan cuisine, with sections that explain the nation's abundant spices, a trip to a Sri Lankan market and even a short profile of Leela, an ever-present cook who made traditional dishes in Fernando's household as a boy in Sri Lanka.

Fernando attended Harvard and Colombia Universities, and today lives in Baltimore, but travels frequently, including many trips back to Sri Lanka. His cookbook fuses both worlds, updating old-time recipes that call for exotic Sri Lankan ingredients with staples found in the United States.