Biriyani is a close cousin of the Spanish dish paella and the Italian dish risotto. It is rice cooked in stock with other ingredients added to enhance the flavour of the rice. Biriyani has a distinctive aroma; when cooked it emanates a fragrance detectable from a distance. It is one of the most delicious of all Sri Lankan food preparations of rice. To the rice are added spices, stock, ghee and vegetables or meat to enhance the flavor. The beauty of biriyani comes from the technique of cooking the rice in stock with the meat and vegetables in the same pot- allowing the flavours to seep into the rice as it cooks. Biriyani may be embellished with currants, mustard seeds or coriander leaves to make it more appetizing and meat such as chicken, mutton, beef and even prawns added.

There is also ‘Lamprais’ a Sri Lankan delicacy concocted with rice boiled with in turmeric, coconut milk and spices yellow in colour topped with an onion sambol with plenty of Maldives fish chips. Another accompaniment is Brinjal Moju, a pickled salad. It is lumped with a boiled egg mildly tempered with a large chunk of breast of chicken or mutton wrapped in Banana leaf in a neat square package, which enhances the flavour. Pittu made its way to Sri Lanka with the Malay regiments brought in by the Dutch and the English, now a staple main dish in Sri Lankan cuisine. Pittu is a mixture of fresh rice meal, lightly roasted and mixed with fresh, grated coconut steamed in a bamboo mould.