With rice and curry at an average $6 per person, ginger beer at $1 and a brilliant view on the side, Mama's remains a stalwart in this town. You will definitely not mind waiting (everything is fresh - take a book) as they ply you with freshly-made and extremely good poppadoms.  On a very good day (sunny, hot) your view will be that of the dishevelled and very charming houses and rooftops where TV satellites and TVs in general are king, the lighthouse and the historic buildings dotted around, not to mention the bright blue sea. On a 'bad' day you'll see all of those but the sea will the rough, which, unless you have any intentioned of swimming, you will not mind anyway.

The food is un-Europeanised and gorgeous. Most of the time in Sri Lanka nobody asks you how you'd like your level of 'heat'; they deliver it 'their' way and 'their' way is medium. The formula is almost always the same: a massive bowl of rice, jackfruid, chopped green vegetable, pumpkin (with the skin on), soured mango (chutney, but not as you knew it), red dhaal (lentils) and a small portion of protein, in this case, chicken and prawns. Availability depends on what is in season and in the area. In the South, fish is plentiful (and very, very good). In the centre and Tea country it makes sense to eat meat. Chicken is always free-range and wild boar is illegal.