Don’t ask for tikka or korma at Rice N’ Spice

When customers come into her family’s restaurant in Anaheim looking for naan or chicken tikka masala, Dewmini Gamalath can’t help but chuckle.

“A lot of people don’t know what Sri Lankan food is,” said Gamalath, whose parents, Sandya and Tissa Gamalath, own Orange County’s only Sri Lankan restaurant, Rice N’ Spice, which opened earlier this year. “People confuse us with Indian food. My brother and I were reading the reviews on Yelp, and people were upset that we didn’t have naan to go with the food, or chutneys. But we don’t have that!”

While India and Sri Lanka, an island nation southeast of India, are geographically close, their cuisines are distinct.

Indian curries are primarily cream- or tomato-based, Dewmini explained, whereas Sri Lankan curry uses coconut milk as its base. This gives the dishes a lighter taste — and also makes them vegan-friendly.

Sri Lankan curries also feature main ingredients not typically found in Indian curry, so dishes like cashew curry and jackfruit curry are popular staples at Rice N’ Spice.

“We have our similarities with Indian and Thai food, but it’s completely different,” she said. “People are pleasantly surprised with the food. Even though it’s curry, when you taste it, it’s different from other curries that you’ve had before.”

In addition to the curries, Sri Lankan cuisine also features distinctive starches — and no naan.

The most common are hoppers, crispy crepes made from rice flour and coconut milk in the shape of bowls.

“You can make a taco out of it, or you could tear it off and eat it like bread,” Dewmini said.

Rice N’ Spice makes plain hoppers, a version with an egg cooked into the bottom, and a dessert variation with sugar and coconut milk. Another type is the string hopper, made of rice flour and hot water into a white patty of thin, vermicelli-like noodles that can be used to soak up and eat curry with.

Sandya said that owning her own restaurant has been a dream of hers “ever since [she] was in Sri Lanka.

As a child, she would practice cooking at night after her mother went to sleep, and then started formal cooking classes at the age of 12. She then received a diploma in cooking from the Asia Lanka Culinary School in her home country.

When the Gamalaths moved to Tustin in 2000 to escape the Sri Lankan Civil War, which spanned from 1983 until 2009, she took a job as a preschool teacher, but continued cooking on the weekends. Years later, the family moved to Anaheim, and Sandya started catering for events at her Buddhist temple and the local Sri Lankan community full-time.

This year, Sandya’s lifelong dream came true and the Gamalaths opened their own restaurant, becoming the only eatery serving Sri Lankan cuisine in the entire county.

“They used all their savings and put every penny into this place,” Dewmini said.

In addition to serving the local Sri Lankan community — which Dewmini said is “thousands” large throughout the Orange County — Rice N’ Spice has also attracted Sri Lankan Americans from as far as Phoenix, as well as non-Sri Lankans interested in the fare.

The secret to her food’s taste, Sandya said, is her signature curry powder, which she makes from scratch. In addition to curry leaves, the spice mixture includes coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom and lemon grass, which Sandya roasts and then grinds every morning.

“We have regulars who aren’t Sri Lankan, and if we run out of things, they’re like, ‘What? You don’t have that?’” said Dewmini.

“I’ve had people wait 40 minutes for jackfruit curry,” added Sandya, noting that the restaurant has become a way to share the culture of a little-known island nation.

“I try to make the food as authentic as possible,” she said, “so it’s just like you’re eating in Sri Lanka.”