One of several videos we filmed while in Sri Lanka, this video vlog was shot just outside Negombo. Pol sambola (coconut sambol) is a traditional Sri Lankan dish made from coconut, mostly used as an accompaniment with rice, string hoppers, hoppers, and many more meals. Sri Lankan cuisine has been shaped by many historical, cultural, and other factors. Foreign traders who brought new food items; influences from Indonesian cuisine and the cuisine of Southern India have all helped to shape Sri Lankan cuisine. Today, some of the staples of Sri Lankan cuisine are rice, coconut, and spices. The latter are used due to Sri Lanka's history as a spice producer and trading post over several centuries. Kottu is a spicy stir-fry of shredded roti bread with vegetables. Optional ingredients include eggs, meat, or cheese. It was invented in Batticaloa and literally means 'chopped roti' in Tamil. Hoppers (appam) are based on a fermented batter, usually made of rice flour and coconut milk with spices. The dish is pan-fried or steamed. The fermenting agent is palm toddy or yeast. Hopper variants can be either savory (such as egg hoppers, milk hoppers, and string hoppers), or sweet (such as vandu appa and pani appa). Kool is a seafood broth from Jaffna containing crab, fish, cuttlefish, prawns, and crayfish. It also contains long beans, jak seeds, manioc, spinach, and tamarind. The dish is thickened with palmyra root flour. "Short eats" are a variety of snacks that are bought by the dozen from "short eat" shops and restaurants. These are eaten on the go, mainly for breakfast or during the evening. Short eats include pastries, Chinese rolls and patties. A popular short eat among Tamils is the mutton roll, made from tender pieces of mutton with potato and seasoned with spices. This can be a very spicy dish. Mutton rolls are served all over the world wherever there are Sri Lankan Tamils. - - - - - - -