The “usual sides” served with nearly every meal include dahl curry (red lentils), coconut sambal and onion sambal. Sambals are fresh, raw relishes, the coconut one prepared with varying levels of red pepper (the finished dish is sometimes snow white and sometimes fire-engine red with spice), lime juice, shallots and Maldive fish (a dried fish common in Sri Lankan cuisine). The onion sambal is flavored with chopped shallots, peppers and lime juice. The fancy creation shown here comes from the incredible Ministry of Crab in Colombo’s posh Dutch Hospital.