Cooking with the Inmates

I am woken by a series of spine-jarring potholes a few hours into the seven-hour drive from Colombo to Monaragala. The sun is starting to rise, revealing flat green rice paddies that stretch into jungle-clad mountains. We are in the heart of central rural Sri Lanka, in a town called Madampe.

Bleary eyed, I blink twice when I see what looks like a fish market on the side of the road — we are about 100 kilometres from the coast! Rickety wooden tables piled high with fish run for metres along the edge of the road. We stop to stretch our legs and have a look.