Now it’s out with cupcakes and in with sweetmeats
Malini Dias dishing out sweetmeats at Cotton Collection. Pix by Indika Handuwala
With less than twenty four hours to the dawn of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, presents are wrapped and waiting to be distributed, the nekath times memorised or scribbled down last minute and the all important Avurudu kevili standing by, in boxes or air tight packages. Anyone lucky enough to experience an intricately authentic New Year, with its age-old customs and traditions will tell you that the New Year starts well into a few weeks before the actual day itself, when the aroma of freshly made kevum and the fizz of kokis batter in hot oil seem to pervade the house.
Kanchana Lakmali with her goodies at Odel
For most people today, the opportunity of spending time to make their own kevili quite simply is a luxury that time and their professions do not permit. To the rescue comes the neatly packeted kevili available straight off the shelves of any supermarket or bakery. Quite like the increasingly popular cupcakeries and other takeout counters the recent past has seen many in the culinary field taking up the increasing orders for sweetmeats, providing a fast, fresh alternative.
Popular clothing store Cotton Collection too embraced Avurudu, and went the whole nine yards with their cadjun hut “Game Kade”. The smell of frying parippu vade and konde kevums was enticing in itself. Malini Dias stood behind the counter having for the last ten years called sweetmeat making her profession. With everything from konde kevum, kokis to vade and muscat she along with her co-cook preferred to keep to the typically traditional sweetmeats. Despite offering concoctions of tangy mango and olive achcharu which seem to draw the younger customers the demand was more for traditional sweetmeats.
Just two days ago Ranjani Jayawardana too retired her spatula and fried her last batch of kokis before the New Year. Decked in a cloth and jacket she looked very much at home behind her counter at the Barefoot café. Offering avurudu shoppers the convenience of killing two birds with one stone, Ranjani, who hails from Deraniyagala was taking up orders for kokis and handi kevum so that customers could take home fresh crisp kevili.
“LUVAVURUDU” was splashed across the stand at the entrance to ODEL. Resembling a candy counter with its bright, chirpy visual along with equally bubbly Kanchana Lakmali handling the stall, many a shopper would have recognized her and her booth from the Diyatha Uyana Good Market. Established for over ten years, “Dunhinda” as it is called worked in collaboration with ODEL this year to give birth to LUVAVURUDU. The stall resembled the cupcake and chocolate counters located inside the department store offering its customers a variety of avurudu treats made daily at their restaurant in Ratmalana. A popular booth at the Good Market, Dunhinda produces kevili all year around in addition to their all Sri Lankan menu. Laying emphasis on health and well being, their only sugar fix comes in the form of treacle, and rice flour used instead of wheat flour.
The mouthwatering menu was an array of sweetmeats close to home, from the konde and mung kevums, kokis , halapa, aasmi, thala bola to narang kevums, and milk toffee. Much sought after is their mouth watering pani kevum; which is a konde kevum soaked in honey. Other favourites included their interesting variety of kokis; with mixtures ranging from garlic to chili, curry leaves, cumin and kurakkan.
Another culinary entrepreneur giving a twist to her avurudu menu is Nilomi Kurukulasooriya. Her venture “Foodie Colombo” has a growing fan base of those who have tasted Nilomi’s delicious western dishes and scrumptious cakes, pavlovas and other beautiful desserts. This year Nilomi decided to take on an avurudu menu on insistence of her friends and family. Literally up to her elbows in batter till last Tuesday, Nilomi was busy with a hectic week of orders and deliveries. “Being a Christian I didn’t really know what people wanted for Avurudu” she admitted, but didn’t hesitate to add to the menu her succulent date cake and avurudu themed betel leaf cake. An unusual addition to the avurudu table Nilomi’s betel leaf cake appeals to both young and old. “It’s a classic combination of cake, jam and butter cream,” she laughs, referring to the attractive betel leaf shaped cake sandwiched together with jam and smothered with butter cream frosting. As for the kevili Nilomi herself prefers the homemade option to store-bought sweets. “Sometimes the store bought stuff doesn’t taste good,” she says referring to the use of sugar instead treacle, an ingredient she insisted on when making her avurudu sweetmeats.
Offering both the customary New Year goodies along with a few interesting additions Nilomi felt that there was a sort of balance in the orders. “There are lots who ordered cakes and drinks but at the same time wanted the sweetmeats as well.”