Cooking up a Storm
The Not So Secret Beach
We have a peaceful night (no drums) and a leisurely morning at our Airbnb before walking 2 km to Secret Beach.
On the way we get trapped in a jam-up of motorcycles, tuk tuks, cars, vans & buses fighting for space on a one lane road with traffic in both directions. Even pedestrians are unable to walk through as there is literally a finger width of space between vehicles and street walls.
The reason for the traffic jam are the whale watching boats all returning to the harbour at the same time and disgorging their passengers.
Once we get past the harbour entrance we continue unhindered to the not so secret Secret Beach. Roadside food stands and large signs line the narrow and steep road to Secret Beach, the worst kept secret ever.
We do pass local homes and lots of beautiful flowers along the way.
It is worth the trek. The beach is small but picturesque. There is a natural pool surrounded by rocks and a small opening that huge waves crash over.
There is a pretty restaurant across the back of the beach offering loungers ($4.50 CAD rental fee for the day) or tables with food or drink purchase. All the shaded loungers are claimed (yep, not so secret), so we grab a table with a view and some lunch.
I have a large amount of grilled calamari with salad and chips. Originally I was asking the waiter if I could switch out the fries for vegetables, but he looked so confused that I ordered it as is and had John eat the fries.
Fishing is huge in the area and the seafood is so fresh and tender. Yum, yum yum
Sri Lankan Cooking Class
We head back to our accomodations for a quick shower and rest before heading out to do one more walk on Mirissa Beach and then to our cooking class at No 1 Dewmini Roti Restaurant.
The class starts at 4pm. It is quite intense. We make nine dishes. There are six people in the class; Germans, Austrian, Russian and us. John is the only guy in the class. I think he was the favourite helper. Our teacher kept saying “Good boy!” to him. By 7:40pm, we are ready to eat.
It is delicious, specially the pumpkin curry, bean curry, pineapple chutney, dahl and pompadoms. John also loves the potato sambol. We also made eggplant curry and chicken curry, rice and coconut roti. It was all good, Our chef was a very good teacher. The class including the huge meal after was only $25 CAD per person.
After eating our work it’s a tuk-tuk ride back to the Airbnb. From our balcony we are treated to a short firework display by some local fisherman and then it’s off to bed.
