Travel

Culinary competition of Aitken Spence Hotels

Text and Pictures Ganga Illeperuma in Ahungalla

From ancient times other cultures have been in contact with Sri Lanka to obtain the spices that grow here. The best cinnamon, cloves and other spices are indigenous to Sri Lanka. People arrived to trade in spices and also left some of their culinary practices as well.

In spite of its tiny size, Sri Lanka boasts an amazing variety of food and styles of cooking. The island has a rich heritage of indigenous dishes and its regional cooking is strongly individual and varied. For example, Kandyan Sinhalese cooking, with its emphasis on hill country vegetables and fruits; coastal cooking, making the best of the abundant seafood with which the land is blessed; Tamil cooking, closely linked to that of southern India, which is especially prevalent in Jaffna, in the north.

In Sri Lanka, as in any other country, the most typical food is cooked in the villages - getting precise recipes is almost impossible. They don’t cook by a cookbook. A pinch of this, a handful of that, a good swirl of salty water; taste, consider,

adjust seasoning. That’s the way Sinhalese women cook, and no two women cook exactly alike.

Even using the same ingredients, the interpretation of a recipe is completely individual. Ask a cook how much of a certain ingredient she uses and she’ll say, ‘This much’, showing you with her hand. Spoon measures would be looked upon as an affectation.

In addition to regional characteristics, some of the most popular dishes reflect influences from other lands. After a hundred years or so it does not matter that this or that style of cooking was introduced by foreigners who came and stayed, either as traders or conquerors - Indian, Arabs, Malays, Moors, Portuguese, Dutch and British. The dishes they contributed have been adapted to local ingredients, but retain their original character. They are not presented as Sinhalese dishes but accepted and enjoyed as part of the richly varied cuisine.

Sri Lankan hotel industry has a very big responsibility about the quality of food.

The Aitken Spence Hotels introduce many food varieties to the hotel industry today. They organised a culinary competition at Heritance Ahungalla hotel recently and all hotels under the Aitken Spence participated in that event.

During that event chefs made different food by using ingredients which are endemic in their village. Finally the board of judges selected the winners and gave awards to them. “Sri Lankan food is delicious forever.

We want to introduce many varieties of food to the hotel industry and today this is the effort to share the culinary experience among our hotel’s chefs. Because of this event chefs who work in our hotels can study about the new food from the other chefs and they can use them in their hotels in the futureâ€� said Gemunu Goonewardene, Director of Aitken Spence Hotels.

Finally guests had time to enjoy the food from different chefs. Among the food I tasted were pork with pineapple, pala bath, ando curry, kurumba curry, mushroom tempered, papol mustard curry, banana blossom and local almond curry with avocado gravy. As a drink I had cream of kurumba and for dessert halapa, narang kawum and dan sauce from Ramada Resort at Kalutara. Really it was an unforgettable culinary experience for us too.

Coral Sands Hotel

A perfect location for sea bathing:

Located on the beach at Hikkaduwa, the Coral Sands Hotel with its fine sea frontage down the southern coast provides the best of facilities to its guests. In leisure, you can indulge in various water sports activities in the surrounding area.

The hotel boasts 72 rooms each with a balcony with a view of the ocean. The broad, clean beach and the large garden, make this an ideal setting for a memorable beach holiday.

The restaurant with the beautiful view of the sea which could accommodate up to two hundred guests, offers culinary excellence.

The brilliant sea view adds pleasure to dining guests. The coral reef’s, gorgeously coloured and fantastically shaped and marvellously beautiful tropical fish are in close proximity to the shoreline in Hikkaduwa.

So this area is very suitable for diving and Coral Sands Hotel provides all facilities for diving to the guests.

The hotel has an excellent diving school which not only offers expeditions to excellent diving sites in close proximity to the hotel but also the opportunity to obtain padi and udi diving licenses, from internationally trained diving instructors

The hotel has two swimming pools which face the Indian ocean. When you stay at this hotel you can visit Kosgoda turtle hatchery , Martin Wickramasinghe Folk Museum and Madu Ganga.

Hikkaduwa is famous for coral and guests who visit this hotel can see the coral by hiring boats. Hikkaduwa Coral Sands hotel is situated in a perfect location at Hikkaduwa beach indeed.

Coral Sands Hotel in Hikkaduwa includes the provision of business and banquet facilities too. The hotel has a business center where guests can conduct important corporate events said Siri Goonawardene Managing Director of Coral Sands Hotel.

The unconventional setting will surely add some drama to the boardroom boredom making it a delightful combination of work and relaxation.

GI

Jetwing Club is all about caring and loyalty

Jetwing Club; the Jetwing Hotels program that rewards loyalty has been revamped and was launched in a spectacular fashion at the Jetwing coastline in Negombo recently. The new Jetwing Club will offer guests an attractive scheme to effortlessly accumulate points for the benefit of all Jetwing Hotels and a range of privileges through partner schemes.

The new program of a Jetwing Club will place its loyal customers on three attractive tiers namely Silver, Gold and Platinum.

The launch of the new Jetwing Club took off in style when a themed reception of Pirates landing in the caves at Jetwing Beach, which is one of the three Jetwing members of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World. The event was a gathering of a consortium of Jetwing innovators and its most valuable guests.

The size of the Jetwing Club family has grown year by year, whilst Jetwing continuously surprises its valued guests with product and service innovations.

The scheme that was launched in 1998 with a simple discount based rewards has now diversified into a treasure trove of a variety of benefits which include priority reservations, room upgrades, innovative food, novel beverages and a host of unique pleasure and adventure excursions. The brand new Jetwing Club website was launched by Prof. Arjuna Aluwihare, a longstanding Jetwing Club Member, at the Jetwing Beach seaside gardens even as the sunset and the Pirates came to claim their Cocktails.

Over hundred Jetwing priority clients were hosted to an elegant experience where they were presented with the treasure of the ultra new Jetwing Club Membership Card.

The timing of the re-launch of Jetwing Club is considered to be ideal, as the tourism industry in Sri Lanka gears for a busy season ahead, the constantly growing domestic market remains a core area of interest to Jetwing Hotels, and we believe that it is our responsibility to reward the friends of Jetwing said Trevor Reckerman, Head of Marketing of Jetwing Hotels.

Jetwing St Andrew’s commemorates:

World Tourism Day

To mark the 30th Anniversary of World Tourism Day, Jetwing St Andrew’s organised a series of discussions and presentations targeting the youth of Nuwara Eliya recently.

Students from Beacon Hill Academy, Gamini Dissanayake Foundation, Sussex International and Republican International attended this highly anticipated event.

Areas such as global challenges facing tourism and tourism for young work force were presented by Renuke Coswatte, Manager of Jetwing St Andrew’s. Here, the discussion was on climate change, economic, social and political impacts on tourism. Tourism industry expectations of the young work force were also discussed with the participation of students.

Air Arabia and Travco Group to launch new low cost carrier in egypt

* Air Arabia ‘Egypt’ to operate as joint venture between Air Arabia and ‘Travco Group’

* Carrier to serve Europe, Africa and Middle East markets

* Airline to contribute to the growth of travel and Tourism in Egypt and the region

Air Arabia, the first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC) in the Middle East and North Africa, and Travco Group, the Middle East’s largest travel and hospitality group announced today the signing of a joint venture agreement to launch a new low cost carrier based in Egypt.

The new carrier will serve Europe, Africa and Asia markets and will represent Air Arabia third hub after UAE and Morocco. Building upon Air Arabia’s existing services to 57 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the new airline will contribute to the on-going development of the Egyptian travel and tourism sector as well as offer a larger base of customer best value for money air travel.

“The enormous commercial success of Air Arabia in the six years since the carrier was launched makes clear the strength of its business model, which we are confident will allow air Arabia ‘Egypt’ to reach new heights,” said Hamed El Chiaty, Chairmen and CEO of Travco Group.

“As the country’s most qualified tourism and hospitality group, the Travco group will provide its own keen insights into the European and Egyptian markets as well as the wider region.”

“On behalf of the Air Arabia Group, I am delighted to announce this new partnership with the Travco Group, that will expand air Arabia services in Egypt and across the wider Europe, Africa and Asia region,” said Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Al Thani, Chairmen of Air Arabia.

“At a time when the global aviation industry is witnessing serious challenges as a consequence of the worldwide financial crisis, we continue to move forward with our strategic expansion strategy, as demonstrated by this important announcement. Through this new partnership, we look forward to replicate the success Air Arabia has already achieved from its existing hubs”