Food, Beverages and Life Style

 ලංකාවේ ආපනශාලා

ගෙදර උයන ආහාරවලට පමණක් නොව කඩෙන් මිලදී ගන්නා ආහාරවලටද ප්‍රමිතියක් තිබිය යුතුය. නිවසේ හා ආපනශාලාවල බදින ලද ආහාරවල ඇතුළත තෙල් ගතියක් තිබෙන්නේ නිසි ප්‍රමිතියකට බදින්න නොදන්නාකම නිසාය. ලෝකයේ හොඳම තේ තිබෙන්නේ ලංකාවේය. එහෙත් අපි නිසි ප්‍රමිතියකට තේ කෝප්පයක් හදාගන්නවත් දන්නේ නැති ජාතියක් ලෙස සැලකිය හැකිය. එක්කෝ කහට මදිය. නැතිනම් සීනි වැඩිය. ගෘහණියන් අතරින් රසවත් තේ කෝප්පයක් හදන්න දන්නේ කලාතුරකින් කෙනෙකු පමණය. මේ ලක්ෂණය ආපනශාලාවටද පොදුය. ආපනශාලාවලින් තේ බොන විට හොඳ තේ කෝප්පයක් බොන්න ලැබෙන්නේ කලාතුරකින් තැනක පමණය. අප පුනරුදය වැඩසටහන් සඳහා දුර ගමනක් ගොස් ආපසු එමින් සිටියදී අප්‍රියාවකින් තොරව මුහුණ කට සෝදා ගැනීමට ලැබෙන පහසුකම් සලකා අපි අඹේපුස්ස තානායමට ගියෙමු. එය විදේශ සංචාරකයන්ට බර තබා පවත්වාගෙන යන තානායමකි. සරල ආහාරයකින් පසු අපි බොන්න ඇණවුම් කළේ කෝපිය. කෝපි කිරි හා සීනි වෙන වෙනම ගෙනාවේය. ඒවා මිශ්‍ර කොට කෝපි කෝප්පයක් හදා ගෙන එය බොන්න ගත් විට රසවත් කෝපි කෝප්පයක් වෙනුවට අපට බොන්න සිදුවූයේ පල්වතුර වැනි කෝපි කෝප්පයකි. කෝපි බඳුනේ තිබූ කෝපි ප්‍රමාණවත් තරමින් ඝනව හදා නොතිබුණි. කිරි භාජනය පරීක්ෂා කළ විට එය අඩුවෙන් පිටි දමා හදා තිබෙන කිරි බව හඳුනාගත හැකිය. මා තානායමේ සේවකයන් අතර සිටි ප්‍රධාන පුද්ගලයකු කැඳවා ඔහුට ඒ ගැන පැමිණිලි කළෙමි. අපට ඉක්මනින් ඝනට හැදූ කෝපි බඳුනක්ද, හොඳින් උණු කරන ලද නැවුම් කිරි බඳුනක්ද, ඒවා පිළියෙළ කරගැනීම සඳහා අලුත් පීරිසි කෝප්පද ලැබුණි. වැඩි මුදලක් ගෙවන විට ඒ සඳහා ලැබෙන දේද මුදලට සරිලන උසස් තත්ත්වයක තිබිය යුතුය. අවසානයේ අපිට හොඳ කෝපි කෝප්පයක් බීමේ වාසනාව හිමිවිය.

 I did not read the above piece from Victor Ivan.
What he stays is true!
Unfortunately he does not say anything about our spirits, that is our Arraku.
Food, Beverages and Life Style

This a post from my Lenovo Tab.
Thanks to IBM for selling its copyright to China that I can afford a good tablet for one tenth of the price of Apple's iPod.

Since the title contains life style, I will cut through and swipe at everything including cricket.

Yes cricket was a life style and gentleman's game.

 
Not any more since corrupt bookies and politicians riding high.
 

I took a wise decision not to watch Ceylonese Cricket and almost simultaneously not writing about it.
That has saved me lot of good time and diverted my interest to high spirits especially wine.
I know Ceylonese enjoy spirits more than cricket now.
When we lose the solace is within the bottle of spirits too.
The other aberration was stop drinking Ceylon Tea.
I used to drink over 20 cups when the blend was pretty good with excellent flavor.
But that all changed since all the local blends are adulterated and horrible.

 
Let me bare the facts.
 

All the good tea is auctioned in the bourse and what was not purchased is sent back to the dealer.
He mixes this with tea dust that was used as manure in the good old days and wraps it with Kheels, Arpico and other supermarkets brand names.

The locals have no option but to drink this dirt daily.
 

Just like all the high grown tea, the high quality rice is exported and rice with high content of arsenic, especially the brown rice is left for local consumption.
I do not eat rice now and I am trying my best to convert the near and dear ones from this rice addiction.

It is the best health advice that I dispense only in private circles.

So, tea is out  and the rice is out.
 

Any other option left?
 

Thankfully Ceylonese coffee is still very good not like the dirty horrible Indian Nestcafe.
 

I was a coffee addict and it took many years of sustained effort to wean myself off.
 

I was a living example of caffeine syndrome which I read in a nursing journal.
 

I found  a good Thai Brand.
 

I am back to original myself except no lack of sleep.
Unlike my dog my liver can deal with any amount of alcohol and coffee.

That was an ominous sign in twilight years.
 

So, I decided to cut on caffeine.
Starting with Coca-Cola.
 

There is not a single brand of soft drink without caffeine in the local market.
 

That is the very reason our youth are bad in sports including cricket.
 

The good old king coconut is not within the reach of the poor since our developers are clearing the remaining coconut plantations and there is no regeneration program in sight for coconuts.
 

I would wound up with banana cakes.
Except in one place in Kandy all the banana cakes are horrible.
I had good hope that UNP would resurrect the economy.

I was sadly mistaken.
 

They are not worth the paper money they print from borrowed money.

Everything, is horrible including food, life style and politics.
I excuse myself off from my blog post several years ago, in this site praising Ceylonese delicacy's including banana cake.

Sorry guys and girls.
  
 Reproduction

What has happened to our (Short Eats) Food Industry? 

With lot of tourist coming to Ceylon, they love our delicacies food and this piece is current and relevant.

Yesterday I found a foreign tourist looking for Kassipu.
 
I do not think he will come back.

It is afflicted by the "Seven Deadly Diseases"  mentioned by the “Quality Guru”, W. Edwards Deming.
 
Let me be brief about his impact on industry and the service sector.
His power of non judgmental analysis and the statistical prowess in doing so made him famous in Japan.

He laid the foundation for post war recovery of Japan and its rise as an industrial country.
 
He was ignored by the Americans till late eighties and he was honored after his death. 

This piece is about our retail food outlets, especially in Kandy not about any industry.

It is a waste of time talking about Colombo food habits.
 
Kandy food vendors were known for good quality food except of course during the Sirimavo’s time.

It was good until latter few years of Mahinda regime when it started coming down.

Let me give few examples.

1. “Parrippu Wade” was of good size and one would fill your tommy.
 
2. “Umbalakada Wade” was fabulous even during war time.
There was a big sized Umbalakada (Maldive Fish).
 
3. Egg roll had a full egg.
 
4. Sandwich had enough cheese and butter.
 
5. Banana cake was fabulous.
 
6. Tea was of good quality.
 
7. Coffee was excellent.
 
8. Pol Sambol had Umbalakada and real chillies.
 
9. Thala Guli had real Thala (Gingerly Seed).
 
10. Kithul Hakuru and treacle were out of heaven.
 
I have stopped drinking OUR liqueur in mid nineteen eighties, when I realized all were adulterated including toddy.

I have to refrain from talking about milk rice, Aggalas, Kavums and few more items.

Home made stuff became commercial entities and I stopped eating them.
 
What happened towards the end of the regime,

I will give an indication.
 
The wade started becoming smaller and flatter.

“Suduru” disappeared.
 
Umbalakada became lean.
 
Egg became half and later quarter and still later tiny bit smashed in.
 
No spices at all but a rotten piece of chili without (only the covering) the seeds.

Then we got rid of the regime and for about six months the food quality went up marvellously.
 
Then with the Coalition government well established, the rot and the food quality started going down.

I think this is a deliberate ploy spearheaded by Mahinda Golays and Balayas, within the regime.

 
My latest grouse is, I bring some cooked fish for my dog.
The portion has become very small and there is hardly any meat but bones (I remove them thinking my blind dog will choke).

He is just close by me and I haven't got any to give.
 
Kiri Hodda is dilute and no spices except lot of Karapincha.
 
I think we should start burning Karapincha with a bit of chillies to get the devil out of the current flamboyant system.

W. Edwards Deming
The "Seven Deadly Diseases" include:
    1. Lack of constancy of purpose
    2. Emphasis on short-term profits
    3. Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance
    4. Mobility of management
    5. Running a company on visible figures alone
    6. Excessive medical costs
    7. Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers who work for contingency fees