xanawu » sri lankan http://xanawu.com Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:04:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 SanRasa on staten island http://xanawu.com/index.php/2009/11/01/sanrasa-on-staten-island/ http://xanawu.com/index.php/2009/11/01/sanrasa-on-staten-island/#comments Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:03:20 +0000 xanawu http://xanawu.com/?p=4338 I heard there was a ‘little sri lanka’ on staten island, so I booted over there and had lunch at SanRasa restaurant, not too far from the ferry terminal, on Bay street.

The food was worth the two-hour trek (due to weekend subway rerouting, grr) to get there. We started with some yummy fried lentil patties [...]]]> I heard there was a ‘little sri lanka’ on staten island, so I booted over there and had lunch at SanRasa restaurant, not too far from the ferry terminal, on Bay street.

The food was worth the two-hour trek (due to weekend subway rerouting, grr) to get there. We started with some yummy fried lentil patties (masala wale) accompanied by a sweet sauce, followed by a lovely vegetable curry that surprised me with its coconut base. And last but not least was the kottu roti, my raison d’être: kottu roti is basically made by frying and cutting up sri lankan style roti with (hopefully) spicy spicy curry (leaving your stomach burning even hours later).

lentil patties

masala wale

kottu staten

vegetable na...nagarathna?? and kottu roti

SanRasa was much fancier than I expected–not that it was particularly upscale, but it had a nice ambiance and the food presentation was good. I was rather expecting a small takeout joint: I’m used to kottu roti looking like this, not like a pyramid laced with delicate scallion and carrot slivers. Plus, at $10 a dish, this place is considered cheap eats by New York standards (even though that’s twice the price of kottu at Jolee in Montreal, sigh).

Check out a video of street-style kottu roti here.

There is also a feature in the new york times about Staten Island restaurants, including a description of SanRasa and its $11 buffet lunch on Sundays. Worth checking out.

SanRasa
226 Bay Street
Staten Island, NY 10301
(718) 420-0027

]]> http://xanawu.com/index.php/2009/11/01/sanrasa-on-staten-island/feed/ 0 restaurant jolee http://xanawu.com/index.php/2006/06/09/restaurant-jolee/ http://xanawu.com/index.php/2006/06/09/restaurant-jolee/#comments Thu, 08 Jun 2006 22:15:35 +0000 xanawu after playing badminton, ran into K in the metro. was getting quite late so we just grabbed some hoppers and this über spicy shredded coconut thing (which strangely looked exactly like the dried shredded pork you can get at chinese grocery stores) at restaurant jolee on victoria. couldn’t really go wrong at $3.50 for food [...]]]> after playing badminton, ran into K in the metro. was getting quite late so we just grabbed some hoppers and this über spicy shredded coconut thing (which strangely looked exactly like the dried shredded pork you can get at chinese grocery stores) at restaurant jolee on victoria. couldn’t really go wrong at $3.50 for food that will last both of us for at least three meals.

dinner

dinner

amazing how familiar-looking sri lankan food can be. the hoppers are the vermicelli-looking things that you can use to scoop up other food with (K corrects me: they’re patties–not noodles–made from red rice). in addition to the coconut stuff we also took a frozen roti pancake and fried it up with chilis and egg–our own little 蛋饼.

which reminds me, we bought this indian version of frozen 葱油饼 (green onion pancakes) from marché victoria (cheap!! cheap!), and it was phenomenal–way better than any other I’ve tasted. but then, everything at marché victoria is awesome, right?

here’s a pretty good description of restaurant jolee.

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