“There is a world elsewhere.”
— William Shakespeare
Serendipity is, it turns out, derived from Serendib—the name the ancient Persians gave to Sri Lanka.
The name proved fateful, for on that island the stains of empire spiral into ornate motifs; they speak to many different cuisines, without ever quite mimicking them. Though Sri Lanka’s colonial ‘visitors’ left their marks in all sorts of ways, its food is distinctly, spectacularly its own.
Born in England to Sri-Lankan parents, Cynthia Shanmugalingam describes herself as an “insider-outsider”—someone who sees the world through the lens of her heritage, but can only look back at it wistfully, the flare and flavours and acquired memories of the old country dulled by neither time nor distance.
Cynthia’s restaurant—opened last year in Borough Market—aims to piece these impressions together; with her adduppu, she is quite literally keeping the family flame alive by serving their stories and traditions on her plate.
Autumn stands for bright colours, and so, this October, Supper Club will take place in one of London’s most vibrant restaurants: Rambutan.
We could really get into this serendipity thing.