January 2025…// Uga, the boutique Sri Lankan hotel group renowned for its world-class hospitality, is delighted to serve up a magnificent outdoor dining experience at its Cultural Triangle resort, Uga Ulagalla. A celebration of the traditional Sri Lankan cooking rituals and recipes of yesteryear, Kamatha at Uga Ulagalla is now available year-round at the private 58-acre estate close to the ancient city of Anuradhapura.
Kamatha at Uga Ulagalla will see guests dine ‘the old school way’, while they learn about Sri Lanka’s most beloved recipes and traditional cooking methods. An outdoor, family-style dining experience, it features a menu of 25 local Sri Lankan dishes lovingly prepared in front of guests by local women using traditional methods and cooked over a cinnamon wood fire.
“We are thrilled to be able to share some of rural Sri Lanka’s most sacred and ancient traditions with our guests through the introduction of Kamatha at Uga Ulagalla,” commented Uga Owner and Managing Director Priyanjith Weerasooria. “Post Covid, we’ve seen an increased desire from guests for outdoor dining and it doesn’t get more authentically Sri Lankan than this. Harking back to a bygone era and set in the center of our working paddy rice field, Kamatha brings intrepid travelers and the local community together, through a journey of flavor exploration and the celebration of our country’s most precious cooking traditions and rituals.”
The meal will be served at Uga Ulagalla’s very own Kamatha (a traditional open-air rice paddy dining pavilion beside a traditional village homemade from clay earth walls and thatched roof), a sacred setting where festivals and celebrations related to rice cultivation are held, as well as the location of the final harvest.
Each night, the Uga culinary team prepares a beautifully laid family-style table beneath the stars, where guests will be transported back in time as they dine on cinnamon wood chairs, surrounded by paddy fields with their toes in the sacred earth. On this epicurean adventure, diners will sample traditional dishes, explore old-world ingredients, and even participate in the process, learning from these talented home cooks and discovering their favorite recipes along with tried and tested methods.
An experience as educational as it is delicious, guests will uncover how the ways of a bygone era are reflected in the myriad fragrant spices and seasons and discover the ancient utensils and food preparation methods still in use after 2,000 years. The dishes will be presented and served in front of diners’ eyes by women from the local community in the same, traditional way they would use in their own homes, using family recipes that have been passed down through the generations.
The thoughtful multi-course menu incorporates vegetables harvested at Uga Ulagalla’s very own organic farm, as well as lake fish and free-range meats sourced locally and traditional breads and old-world rice, the signature crop of Uga Ulagalla’s paddy fields.
Guests can sample stand-out vegetarian, fish and meat dishes ranging from Brinjal moju (sweet and sour aubergine) to mutton curry and fresh, fried lake fish, served with a range of traditional accompaniments including string hoppers, corn pittu, and three varieties of home-grown rice. Those with a sweet tooth will be spoilt for choice with a selection of Sri Lankan treats, including habalapethi aggala (sweet rice-flake balls) and lavariya (sweet string hopper pancake), all washed down with a steaming cup of Sri Lankan ginger tea with kithul hakuru jaggery.
Kamatha at Uga Ulagalla is available to book daily from 7-10.30 pm and is priced at $55 (£43*) per person for guests staying on a half-board basis, and $110 (£86*) per person for those staying on a bed and breakfast basis. Capacity is limited to 15 diners in total, so guests are advised to book early to avoid disappointment.
