Meals also usually include malum, a salad of chopped leafy greens and coconut, crispy poppadoms (a large circular piece of thin, spiced bread), dal (a type of lentil stew), coconut sambal (a spicy condiment), home-made chutney and of course, fragrant steamed rice.

BBC: Foodie paradise in Sri Lanka's hill country

It was always the same: a great wedge of papaya with limes, a crisp thin omelette with green chilis mixed in, two slices of inch-thick white-bread toast, a dollop of red jelly and of margarine, and a pot of coffee with milk.

CNN: From Our Correspondent: On a Magical Hill