{"id":41363,"date":"2015-05-14T22:10:46","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T02:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=41363"},"modified":"2015-05-14T22:12:23","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T02:12:23","slug":"kottu-house-brings-taste-of-sri-lanka-kottu-to-lower-east-side-manhattan-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=41363","title":{"rendered":"Kottu House Brings Taste of Sri Lanka “Kottu” to Lower East side in Manhattan, NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

By
\nLigaya Mishan<\/strong> | pix by: Ben Russell<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A<\/strong> devil\u2019s face with goggle eyes and swollen tongue stares from the window of Kottu House. It\u2019s only a vinyl decal, meant to evoke the wooden masks \u2014 often flanked by cobras, peacocks or flames \u2014 that guard the entrances of Sinhalese homes in Sri Lanka, warding off evil.<\/p>\n

Inside, the same face is projected above the bar in random glow-stick colors, to the low pulse of trance music.<\/p>\n

\"Counterclockwise<\/a>

Counterclockwise from top right: minchi sambol, a beautifully bright paste of fresh grated coconut and lime; pol sambol, a tumble of red onion and tomato; and racked by chile, the ruthless conflagration that is lunu sambol.<\/p><\/div>\n

Apart from a Buddha statue in a corner, Kottu House doesn\u2019t abide by the usual tropes of New York City\u2019s Sri Lankan restaurants, many of which are clustered in Tompkinsville, on the northeastern shore of Staten Island. There, they cater primarily to the neighborhood\u2019s population of some 5,000 Sri Lankans. Chelaka Gunamuni, who opened Kottu House in March on the Lower East Side, seeks a wider audience.
\nContinue reading the main story
\n
\nHe arrived on Staten Island at age 15, after a childhood divided between Panadura, on Sri Lanka\u2019s southwestern coast, and Milan, where his mother and his uncle ran a restaurant. Now 30, he lives a few blocks from Kottu House, which serves as a bridge of sorts, between generations and worlds.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The short menu at Kottu House on the Lower East Side focuses on kottu, a Sri Lankan street food assembled along the lines of fried rice or chow fun, with shreds of godamba roti, a griddled flatbread, in lieu of rice or noodles.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Apart<\/a>

Apart from a Buddha statue in a corner, Kottu House doesn\u2019t abide by the usual tropes of New York City\u2019s Sri Lankan restaurants, many of which are clustered in Tompkinsville, on the northeastern shore of Staten Island.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Lion<\/a>

Lion Stout beer, brewed in Sri Lanka, is on draft.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Demure<\/a>

Demure black-and-white ancestral portraits are mixed with snaps of young men clowning for the camera.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Calamari<\/a>

Calamari come ornamented with paprika and frankly hot Sri Lankan chile powder.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Crispy<\/a>

Crispy prawns gain creaminess from a liberal helping of coconut milk.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The chicken kottu has a pleasing tug of bitterness, from Sri Lankan curry powder roasted until it\u2019s as dark as coffee.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Chelaka<\/a>

Chelaka Gunamuni, who runs the restaurant with his mother, Sandya De Silva, known as Madu, in the kitchen<\/p><\/div>\n

On the wall, demure black-and-white ancestral portraits are mixed with snaps of young men clowning for the camera. With his mother, Sandya De Silva, known as Madu, ensconced in the kitchen, Mr. Gunamuni tends to the front of the house \u2014 all three tables of it \u2014 in stubbly beard and tattoos, one a recent birthday gift from his wife. They\u2019re expecting their first child next month. It is an ambitious time.<\/p>\n

The short menu focuses on kottu, a Sri Lankan street food assembled along the lines of fried rice or chow fun, with shreds of godamba roti, a griddled flatbread, in lieu of rice or noodles. (A version with mung-bean noodles is also offered, perhaps in deference to the regulars at Babycakes, the longstanding gluten-free bakery next door.) In the morning, Ms. De Silva cooks several curries and sets them aside, letting the flavors multiply. Each kottu is made to order, beginning with a saut\u00e9 of onions, garlic and ginger, followed by cabbage, tatters of roti and scrambled eggs. Curry is added last, along with a toss of finely chopped carrots and leeks, crunchy streaks through the hash.<\/p>\n

Not all kottus are equal. Those made with chicken and tofu have a pleasing tug of bitterness, from Sri Lankan curry powder roasted until it\u2019s as dark as coffee. Crispy prawns take a gentler roast, but they gain creaminess from a more liberal helping of coconut milk. The stealth ingredient is tomato sauce, a souvenir from Ms. De Silva\u2019s time in Italy, albeit missing Mediterranean herbs. It infiltrates kottus strewn with beef and tilapia, along with fat tomato wedges, still juicy, that offset the salt.<\/p>\n

This is intriguing, but a maverick kottu called the Little Italy is not. Littered with shards of chicken sausage, it calls to mind a dismantled pizza, less deconstructed than slasher victim.<\/p>\n

Appetizers are a parade from the fryer: disks of lentils; slim wallets of ground beef, haunted by carrots; little spheres of salmon \u201ccutlets,\u201d with crisp, bristling shells and velvety insides. Calamari come ornamented with paprika and frankly hot Sri Lankan chile powder. Sadly, an even hotter early edition, riddled with green chile, was recalibrated after diners found it too spicy. Better to do the recalibrating yourself, with dabs of minchi sambol, a beautifully bright paste of fresh grated coconut and lime; or pol sambol, a tumble of red onion and tomato; or, racked by chile, the ruthless conflagration that is lunu sambol.<\/p>\n

Traditional touches include tea presented with jaggery (palm sugar); Lion Stout, brewed in Sri Lanka, on draft; and, for dessert, watalappan, a cardamom-scented coconut-milk flan, seeded with cashews crushed and whole. But there is also a lovely flan speckled with coffee, leaning Latin.<\/p>\n

And the hot sauce, for anointing everything fried? That\u2019s sriracha. Mr. Gunamuni could have bought Sri Lankan hot sauce from a grocery on Staten Island, but it\u2019s made with ketchup, he explained with some horror. \u201cIt\u2019s not good,\u201d he said firmly. \u201cSo I didn\u2019t bother.\u201d<\/p>\n

courtesy: NYTimes.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ligaya Mishan | pix by: Ben Russell A devil\u2019s face with goggle eyes and swollen tongue stares from the window of Kottu House. It\u2019s only a vinyl decal, meant to evoke the wooden masks \u2014 often flanked by cobras, peacocks or flames \u2014 that guard the entrances of Sinhalese homes in Sri Lanka, warding …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Kottu House Brings Taste of Sri Lanka “Kottu” to Lower East side in Manhattan, NYC’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41363"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41378,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41363\/revisions\/41378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}