Colombo, despite its modest size, has a number of excellent restaurants. Partly, this is because of the diplomats based here, and partly because of the tourist traffic. Whatever the reason, there is always a new spot to try on our short visits from the remote part of the island where we have our beach house.

One old standby we have been visiting regularly since we first began coming here some 15 years ago is the Gallery Café. Located in the late Geoffery Bawa’s architectural offices, it is the one spot every new visitor has to check out. The iconic architect stipulated in his will that the premises would be used to further the cause of art. The present owner, Shant Fernando, has therefore turned the entrance to the restaurant into a gallery that holds an exhibition nearly every month. Paintings line three walls of the courtyard that has a rectangular fish pond in the middle.

Inside is another courtyard with a veranda running along one side. This is the restaurant that serves Sri Lankan, European and fusion dishes cooked to a high standard. I forget how many times I have eaten there, but do not recall a single bad meal, and that’s saying a lot.

Shant Fernando also owns a number of boutique hotels, and one of them is the Tintagel, the old colonial house that was the scene of the Bandarnaike assassination in 1959. Elegantly converted, this smart central Colombo hotel would normally have been out of our reach had not Shant given us a special deal. The restaurant there served me an impeccable duck breast with a side dish of smooth, unctuous mashed potatoes. The duck was a rose pink inside, as it should be.

Xmas gets more flavourful as the menu stretches into duck, lobster and tuna

Speaking of duck, we have decided that this will be the main dish on Christmas. The lady wife ordered a dozen of the birds from a butcher who advertised organic fare, and it wasn’t until Nandi, our talented cook, and I tried one on a practise run that we realised how scrawny the birds were. Chewy and tough, the flavour was good but the texture required fingers to tackle the meat. We have decided to marinate the rest of the ducks in papaya before we curry them for Christmas.

Another item on the menus for the seasonal festivities is lobster. We have several fairly large ones in the freezer, and they will be boiled until they are scarlet red, removed and placed under cold running water to stop them from continuing to cook. A large packet of butter will be melted with some finely chopped garlic and lime-juice to accompany the lobsters. The lobster shells will be turned into a stock for a risotto I’ll be cooking a couple of days later. Chunks of lobster will go into the rice just before it’s ready, together with a large pinch of saffron that will have soaked in half a cup of stock. This way, we’ll get maximum mileage out of the lobsters.

Among the many fish we can get here are tuna that, for some reason, is cheaper than many other species. The other day, a very fresh one arrived at our gate, and I turned it into sashimi, getting over half a kilo of cleaned, prime quality meat. This was then sliced into what I hope were attractive, bite-sized pieces. I don’t claim they were as aesthetically appealing as when they are prepared by a trained sushi chef, but they were still very good. It’s a real treat to have a substantial dish of sashimi without worrying about the price.

We had some excellent seared tuna the other evening at Buckingham Place, a boutique hotel owned and run by a dear friend, Nick Buckingham. Located about 20km from us down the coast, the restaurant has been consistently good under Nick’s supervision. This time they excelled themselves: the tuna was seared just right; and we are talking about seconds of cooking here, so the chef has to be on top of his game not to overcook the fish. The inside was, as it should be, entirely raw. Obviously, for this kind of very undercooked fish, it has to be very, very fresh.

Let me close by wishing my readers a very Happy Christmas and a great New Year.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 28th, 2014