Starter Kit. Idea 480 of 500. Cluster 26
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.
The 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.
Ask first
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what a home kitchen must meet to serve paying guests.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask whether a food tour or supper club can be listed for visitors.
Check before you spend
Confirm that the kitchen meets health rules for paying guests, food is handled safely, and the house may be used for paid suppers.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a visitor pay for a set tasting menu?
- What do the ingredients for one supper cost?
- How many guests a week could one kitchen serve?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka House. Chapter Seventeen
"every kitchen on the island side by side, as one national inheritance"
Jaffna's food deserves its own name on that table. Serve it as a cuisine, not a meal.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.