e-news - SriLankan - USA

SriLankan
Food Festival
“Heritage Days” highlights authentic Sri Lankan Cuisine
and Culture.
The Restaurants Associates (RA) at the World Bank and
the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington, D.C. inaugurated
the first day of “Celebrating Sri Lankan Cuisine, a special
country promotion, launched under the RA’s “Heritage
Days” luncheon series on Tuesday, February 23, 2010.
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Apart from stunning, spicy entrees, the luncheon also
NORTH AMERICA
highlighted Sri Lanka as a premiere travel destination,
following the “New York Times” recent designation of Sri
Lanka as the number one place to visit in 2010.
Mr. Dillan Ariyawansa, SriLankan Airlines’ Senior Vice
President in the U.S., Canada and Caribbean, also
attended the lunch to boost travel prospects.
Two leading chefs namely, Chef Gerard Mendis of
Hilton, Colombo and his colleague, Chef Madhawa
Weerabaddhana, specially flown from Sri Lanka courtesy
SriLankan Airlines, featured a colorful spread of seafood,
curries and vegetarian dishes laced with authentic Sri
Lankan spices at the inaugural luncheon.
The occasion was attended by as many as two hundred
guests, including a large number of senior executives
representing the World Bank, the IMF, the Office of the
USTR and the US Departments of State, Commerce and
Defense.
“Welcome to Sri Lanka”, Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya
greeted the busy executive dining room. “As I was
arriving at this restaurant, I saw a SriLankan Airlines hostess,
I saw a Sri Lanka Tourism video playing and I smelled
the Sri Lankan food. I felt like I was in Sri Lanka. I believe
our food will tempt all our guests to visit Sri Lanka on their
next vacation.”
The guests, who were highly pleased with the feast, were
deeply appreciative of the Restaurant Associates and the
Sri Lankan Embassy for the rare opportunity given.
With over 240 guests, the second day luncheon, 24th
Feb., the bank’s executive dining room saw the highest
number of diners at in the entire history of “Heritage
Days” series so far.
On 25th and 26th February, Chefs Gerard and Madhawa
offered their specialties in the bank’s larger cafeteria,
which serves over 3,500 meals a day and the World
Bank’s International Finance Corp.(IFC) dining room
respectively.
On March 2, 2010, the chefs staged a special Sri Lankan
dinner at the prestigious Time Warner Center in New
York City for an exclusive gathering of leading corporate
executives, who represent several key industry sectors,
including travel trade.
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