Hello there!
I’m Dinusha and welcome to The Stove & I.
As a child, I loved to eat. I had little rolls of puppy fat to prove this (well, not anymore. The puppy fat I mean). Despite my rather large appetite, I never cooked at home. I was born and raised in Sri Lanka where meals were these elaborate affairs of five to six different dishes and that’s excluding sides and dessert. Perhaps this is why I avoided the kitchen.
Then I got married and moved to Dubai. It was there, in this little apartment kitchen overlooking a fountain, that I cooked my first ‘grown-up’ meal.
My passion for food began much later in life. Sometime in 2012 I had this eureka moment…what better way to combine my love of food, writing and photography than to start a blog! So here we are.
I live in southern Ontario, Canada with my husband and our eleven-year-old son.
Thanks for stopping by.
xx
Dinusha
If you have a burning foodie question or just want to say hello, email me at: dinusha@thestoveandi.com
You can also find me on Instagram and occasionally, on Twitter.
A few places I’ve popped up in:
Food eMag DXB, 1st Edition, Feb 2014 (pg: 10-11)
Food eMag DXB, 2nd Edition, Apr 2014 (pg: 40)
World Nomads Passport and Plate 2015 cookbook, Jun 2016 (pg: 56-58)
© Dinusha Jayatillake and The Stove & I, 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dinusha Jayatillake and The Stove & I with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
The Stove & I 
Hi Dinusha, I just wanted to let you know that I have nominated you for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award 🙂 I have found your blog through Fooderati, and I love everything about it, especially your latest post about the Foodie Friday Market, I have been long searching for one in Dubai !!
http://lapetitepaniere.com/2014/01/05/dragons-loyalty-award/
Hi Linda,
Thank you so much for the nomination and for your lovely comment, I really appreciate it. Do pay a visit to the Ripe market, it’s a great way to start the weekend! 🙂
Love the blog title and the design. Lovely pictures too! Sophie
Thanks for your comment Sophie. I’m so glad I bumped into your blog – loved reading your beautifully written posts! Dinusha
Hi Dinusha. I’m from Malaysia and here we have a local favourite breakfast (but nowadays all day long) food called Nasi Lemak which literally translated means Rice Fat, the fat coming from cooking the rice in coconut milk. I have read before that Kerala has a similar rice dish and today I searched and found it on one food blog: http://pachakam.com/Recipes/Coconut-Rice-in-Kerala-Style-5167 However, what I would like to know: is there a chilli gravy called sambal which is cooked with anchovies and lots of onions, and of course, ground red chilli paste, in Kerala cuisine? I am quite certain that a lot of Kerala dishes have found their way into Malay cooking and Malaysian food, including fried banana fritters, which is a tea time favourite, and “teh tarik” which is “pulled tea” – a tea with milk and sugar which is “pulled” between two large mugs to cool it down before serving. Perhaps you can throw some light on this?
Hi Jeyalakshmi,
I am quite a novice when it comes to Kerala cuisine since I am Sri Lankan. However, the cuisines of Kerala and Sri Lanka have a lot in common – we use a lot of spices and there are even common dishes like ‘appam’ (hoppers), ‘idi appam’ (stringhoppers) and ‘pittu’, to name a few. My husband is from Kerala and his mom and sisters are great cooks so I have eaten a fair share of Kerala food.
Coming to your question, there is a type of sambal which the Keralites call ‘chamandi’ which is made by grinding coconut, chillies, salt, onions etc. into a fine paste. This is usually eaten with rice. In Sri Lankan we have a similar sambal which we call ‘pol sambol’ – this too is made out of grated coconut, chillies, onions, Maldive fish (which is a type of dried fish) and lime juice (you can find a recipe for this in my blog: https://thestoveandi.com/2013/12/05/the-humble-pol-sambol/. However, I have never come across a sambal which is gravy-like…I can ask my mom-in-law if there is a dish similar to the one you described.
Hope I have managed to shed some light on your question!
I am quite fond of Malaysian food myself…who can say no to a nice bowl of laksa or a nasi goreng!! Is the latter originally from Indonesia or Malaysia?
Thank you so much Dinusha for taking the time to reply to my queries. Yes, I saw the sambol recipe in your blog. It looks so yummy. We have this in Malaysia too, thanks to the Sri Lankan Tamil people. It is one of my favorite things to eat with puttu. The other is of course banana and brown sugar😜. If you have any luck with the info from your MIL, so let me know. Fried rice or nasi goreng as it is called in Malay is a regional dish, usually prepared with left over rice, can be found here, in Singapore, Indonesia and perhaps even Thailand. I think it is Chinese in origin but has been modified by ethinic groups.
Mom in law will be visiting soon – I will definitely ask her! 😊