Doha: Sri Lankan restaurants in Qatar have been satisfying taste buds of Sri Lankan people for long, but now they have began to rule over the hearts of food lovers of other countries.
Due to authentic taste, tempting aroma and calming ambience, these restaurants have become hugely popular in Qatar.
One of the main reasons for their increasing popularity is that the restaurants are going extra mile to ensure that the food they serve to customer is 100 percent authentic. They source vegetables and other food items from Sri Lanka to make sure that supply chain remain problems do not come on the way to serve their customers.
“Authenticity of food means offering dish with genuine ingredients, taste, texture, and to some extent way of presentation of the country of origin,” Tennison Desilva owner of ‘New White Oceanic Restaurant’ told The Peninsula. New White Oceanic Restaurant has total six restaurants across Qatar.
He said that the management decided from day first to offer authentic Sri Lankan cuisines. “To keep the original taste foods we hired only Sri Lankan cooks and even their assistants,” said Desilva, who is also President of Sri Lankan Business Council in Qatar.
Another restaurant ‘Panini Coffee Shop’ serve a wide range of Sri Lankan food and sources vegetables and other ingredients from its home country.
Rice wrapped in banana leafs, vegetable, chicken and mutton kottu, chicken devil, ithiyappam, pittu are among the famous dishes hit among Sri Lankans and other expatriates.
He said that ‘New White Oceanic Restaurant’ opened its first branch on Al Rayan road 17 years ago at that time there was not any Sri Lankan family restaurant. The restaurant made a deal with a supplier to bring food items from Sri Lanka like rice, vegetables and spices.
“Almost all ingredients come from Sri Lankan, some vegetables we are using from local market during winter season when Qatari farms start producing vegetables,” said Desilva.
“However, during summer time, we import 100 percent items from Sri Lanka. Moreover, leafy vegetables come from Sri Lanka round the year because they are not available in Qatar.”
Desilva said that the most famous dish at New White Oceanic Restaurant is Sri Lankan fried rice, followed by Sri Lankan Kottu Roti, made of flour and vegetables with eggs or chicken as per tastes of customers.
“Kottu is a mixture of parotha and vegetables, prepared in a very special way by chopping and it includes a number of herbs and species to increase the tastes,” said Desilva. He said that another famous dish is ‘Appa’ (hoppers), a type of pancake made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk.
He said that Sri Lankan Appa is very crispy which makes it different from others.
The restaurant also offers Sri Lankan styled Chinese dishes such as noodles, fried rice, chilly chicken and soups and a number of vegetable items.
