PlateCulture: Sri Lankan Home-cooked Dinner by Chef Dyllon

PlateCulture, a platform which connects people who loves cooking and hosting dinner with foodies who enjoy authentic home-cooked meals, believes will soon prevail as a new dining trend in Malaysia. If you are a home cook, showcase your culinary skills through Plate Culture. If you are adventurous food lovers, check out PlateCulture website to pick your favourite chefs and cuisines. Book your date and visit their home to savour a delicious meal churned out right from their kitchen!

Apart from home-cooked food, through PlateCulture, guests can embrace the fun of dining with a bunch of strangers. By the end of the day, you are not only leaving with a satisfying tummy, but also make some new friends whom you can keep in touch with. Each session has limited seats, hence it won’t be like dining in restaurant. Plus, you may get the chance to have close conversation with chefs.

We eagerly tried out Ceylonese cuisine prepared by Chef Dyllon and his wife last week. Chef Dyllon came from Sri Lankan and settles down in Malaysia. He missed his mum’s home-cooked meal so much that he started to learn Sri Lankan home dishes. As time goes by, cooking turns out to be his passion, unexpectedly. And now, he is all ready to be part of the PlateCulture family, serving guests with his healthy, comfort Sri Lankan dishes, prepared with love.

Steamed Tapioca (Manioc) with Chili-Onion Condiments (Lunu Miris)

Began with a small plate of boiled tapioca and sweet potato served with spicy hot chili-onion condiments and freshly grated coconut. While pairing of tapioca with coconut are familiar to us, as mum used to made this for us at home. But pairing it with salsa-like hot chili-onion condiments are interesting. We Google about the sauce, and found that it is called Lunu Miris, a type of classic Sri Lankan spicy sambal which is a great favourite among Sri Lankans. Correct us if we are wrong. We started to like the sambal. Feels like bringing a bottle back home and toss with salad. Sounds not bad huh?

Sri Lankan Coconut Rotti

A traditional Sri Lankan flatbread made from coconut and flour, rolled into cookies-size dough then flipped on both sides on hot pan until cooked without any oil. Very similar to our chapati, but more rustic, less doughy in texture. Goes well with curry gravy.

Sri Lankan-style Fish Cutlet

Sri Lankan-style Fish Cutlet, the third appetizer in our PlateCulture dinner with Chef Dyllon.  Mashed canned sardine fish mixed with potatoes, pepper and spices, shaped into ball, coated with flour and bread crumbs then deep fried to golden brown. This is our first time trying out sardine in meatball form. Flavourful and juicy fillings, thickly jacketed with crispy exterior. Non oily at all. So delicious.

Main course is a hearty plate of basmati rice with coconut sambal, pickled papaya, mushroom cooked with chilli and curry chicken.

Mushroom was our favourite, and coconut sambal went well with rice too. Very much like the grated coconut in our Malay kuih pulut panggang.

Stir-fried Noodles

Summergirl said she didn’t want to have rice, hence Chef Dylan was kind enough to offer her a plate of noodles with curry chicken instead. So sweet of him. It was a simple stir-fried noodles with vegetables, akin to the chao meen we had in Hong Kong, minus sesame oil.

Ice-Cream with Jackfruit

Our meal ended sweetly with a small bowl of ice cream, garnished with jackfruit slices and treacle. Nothing special but the noteworthy point went to Treacle, a type of sweet honey syrup extracted from the sap of Sri Lankan Kithul Palm Trees.

This is our first time having Sri Lankan cuisine and we have already grown fond of it. Excellent 5-course Sri Lankan dinner at only RM26, it is all worth it! Will visit PlateCulture to check out more scrumptious homecooked meals by talented chefs!