My wife likes to experiment… with food.
My wife likes to experiment …with food. Fortunately there is lots of inspiration to create new dishes in the Sri Lankan Hill Country.
Moving to the Sri Lankan Hill country provided lots of opportunities for my wife to experiment with food.
GlenMyu Estate was completed during the glacial pandemic. At that time there was a limited amount of produce coming to the hill country.
The supermarkets in Sri Lanka don’t have a wide range of groceries. Especially compared to what you get in the western world.
You can still but some unhealthy ultra processed goods. However, you do not get the variety on the shelves. For example, we only have two variations of bacon; streaky and back, (and only a couple of different brands).
So, having lived in Sri Lanka for the last seven years we are used to having little choice. We have to be a bit creative with what we can get and grow.
The peak effect of the financial crisis in Sri Lanka between March 2022 and November 2022. This resulted in some of our supermarket shelves being empty of certain goods. We managed without butter on several occasions and ether was also shortages of milk.
Our tastes have changed
At first I missed the variety of produce which was on our doorstep in London. It’s amazing how quickly you wean yourself off of salamis, french cheeses and cadburys chocolate. I do still like to eat these items every so often. But now, I mainly wait until my annual trip back to the UK.
We experiment with what we can grow
My wife loves cooking and I am confident enough to say that she has a real love and flair for it. Having learnt to cook in the UK (she raves about Delia Smith) and completing a short Corden Bleu course in London, Ru is really good. Our guests love the dishes that she serves and the reviews of GlenMyu Estate regularly rave the food.
GlenMyu Estate is a five acre property in the Sri Lankan Hill Country.
The main property hosts three guest bedrooms in the bed and breakfast part of our offering.
We are slowly developing the estate into an organic garden and fruit forest.
Our organic vegetable garden is operating well. We are still working out how to improve our production so we can serve more of our home grown produce to our guests.
We still support good local suppliers for the produce that we cannot grow. It is important that we support the local business community, people and suppliers.
My wife has been experimenting with food that we grow
We are lucky to live on a paradise island. Fortunately, we can get great produce that has not travelled many food miles. The fruits and vegetables that we cannot grow don’t have to come too far.
Although we are not near the coast, fish is brought up fishmongers to the Hill Country.
It came take as little as three hours and therefore we can get fresh fish daily.
Fish is an important part of many Sri Lankans’ diets.
Experimenting with food. Moving towards a plant based diet.
Living with animals (we have a cow, lots of ducks and chickens) we are eating more of a plant based diet. Unlike the UK, we are not confident of the animal husbandry in Sri Lanka. We now prefer to eat more fruit and vegetable based meals.
Historically, Sri Lankans mainly ate a vegetarian or vegan diet as that was the main produce available.
This makes it easy to eat a plant-based diet in Sri Lanka.
It’s healthy and good for the planet so we have no reluctance to change our diet.
I might even lose a few pounds which would make my wife very happy!
No need to fight against the tide.
It makes sense for my wife to experiment with the foodstuffs that are easy to source. There is no point us trying to source expensive steak from Australia to serve to our guests. Especially when they can get one for half the price back at home.
As we have no control over the suppliers of pork, chicken and other meats we think there is no point in pushing to find a supplier.
Our guests have been delighted with what we serve and lots of them select our plant based dishes once they have tried Ru’s cooking.
What does my wife experiment with?
At the present time she is concocting and experimenting with dishes using soya as a base.
Making our own soya milk has been quite easy.
Soya ice cream will be perfected to give our vegan clients another dessert alternative to sorbet and coconut cake.
Filling Sri Lankan roast paan with a soya and other flavours is another offering that we will provide to our guests in the future.
Using jackfruit in dishes is a staple for Sri Lankans.
Jackfruit was in the headlines as a vegan superfood around five yeas ago.
We are fortunate to have several Jackfruit trees growing in the garden. They are different varieties and we use them in curries, for our pulled jackfruit burger and the jackfruit nuts are used as a savoury snack (great with beer or a G&T!).
My wife will continue experimenting with food.
Ru really enjoying trying different dishes.
She used some of our neighbours as Guinea Pigs.
They don’t mind as I am normally the first taster before it is adjusted prior to our neighbours getting to sample the new dishes.
Keep an eye on our menu
If you are interested in what my wife is experimenting with please have a look at our food menu from time to time.
I’m happy that my wife likes to experiment.
It’s great that my wife has the inspiration in the Sri Lankan hill country to experiment and try to create new dishes.
And I don’t mind sampling the food that she comes up with.
So, I hope that she continues to experiment with different foods for a long time in the future.
Stay at GlenMyu Estate and sample Ru's new dishes.
A stay at GlenMyu Estate is a unique experience and you can sample Ru’s new dishes.
We only have three bedrooms and you will need to book early during the peak holiday season.
The estate is usually within an hours drive of the major sightseeing locations such as Nine Arch Bridge, Ella Town, Upper Diyaluma Waterfall, Lipton’s Seat, Bambarakanda Waterfall and many more,
GlenMyu Estate is listed on Booking.com and Airbnb.
Contact us by the WhatsApp button on our website for direct booking rates.
