Idea 480 of 500. Cluster 26: The cities, one idea each
Jaffna: the food the rest of the island does not have, odiyal kool, the crab curry and everything the palmyrah gives, cooked where it comes from and shown off to the world as a cuisine of its own
The mechanism, from the book
Every city has one thing it could be known for, and most are not yet known for it.
Every idea in cluster 26 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Find a Jaffna cook who makes odiyal kool, the crab curry and the palmyrah dishes, and agree a fee for a set dinner for visitors in a family home or a small restaurant. Write a one-page menu that tells where each dish comes from. Run it for two groups at a trial price, and ask the hotels in Jaffna to sell it. The proof is a hotel booking guests in every week.
- Who pays first
- A visitor in Jaffna, or a Sri Lankan coming home, who wants to eat the food the rest of the island does not have.
- What leaves today
- Jaffna's food is eaten at home and not yet sold as a cuisine; a named dinner with its story turns it into income and a reason to visit.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. SeventeenOne Building
One building, and what a city could be known for
More from cluster 26
- 476Colombo: a night market on the Galle Face Green run to a standard, every weekend
- 477Colombo: the Pettah as a managed market street, cleaned, lit and sold to visitors as the best bazaar in Asia
- 478Kandy: the lake promenade with cafés and evening performances, not only the temple
- 479Galle: the coral coast, the gardens of Hikkaduwa and the reef under Rumassala, where a visitor or a Sri Lankan abroad becomes a coral mum or a coral dad, with a coral in their name, the way people name a star, and a photograph of it every year as it grows
- 481Trincomalee: the summer beach town, sold for the months when the south-west coast has its monsoon
- 482Negombo: the first and last evening of every visit, 15 minutes from the airport, with the fleet coming in to the beach, the churches and the lagoon sold as the island's welcome and its send-off
Idea 480 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.