DINING REVIEW: Sisters' Sri Lankan dishes sing with fresh spices and careful preparation

At first glance, the Sri Lankan dishes at The Curry Leaf, a bright eight-table downtown restaurant, look a lot like Indian cuisine: different curries with rice, pasty lentil dahl and thin, tortillalike bread called roti.

Then you order the chicken curry ($5.49. All prices are for lunch; expect to pay $1 more at dinner), mix a spoonful with rice and taste. The fiery, floral blend of turmeric, coriander, cinnamon, ground chiles and about a dozen other spices is washed away from the Indian mainland by the unmistakable taste of coconut.

There are other differences: the wide use of obscure Sri Lankan ingredients such as rumpe - a dried stalk that tastes similar to bay leaves - and a sour, dried fruit called garaka. But coconut is the main theme. It is everywhere - in the curry, in the dahl, even in the desserts. It shows how the kitchens of Sri Lanka, an island just off India's southern tip, were influenced by Malay and Thai neighbors to the east as well as Indian neighbors to the north. Spice traders from Europe who used Sri Lanka's ports for centuries added their own flavors.

The resulting mongrel cuisine (the best kind) - combined with loving preparation of fresh ingredients - is wonderful. Almost everything here is delicious. The prices are right. The service is friendly and nearly flawless. I can't wait to go back.

The restaurant is the creation of Lara Linander and Lana Hillstrom, sisters of Sri Lankan parents who grew up in Minnesota, ended up in Colorado Springs, and, with no experience in the restaurant business, opened a place serving their family recipes.

Duck your head into the little kitchen and you'll probably see them peeling fresh mangos for chutney, trimming fresh green beans for vegetarian curry, and hand-kneading roti dough. Everything here is made from scratch.

The curries are tailored to each dish. The potato curry ($3.49) is light and glowing yellow with turmeric, while the chicken curry uses Sri Lanka's "black curry" - a mix of spices roasted until they produce a complex, brown sauce. Almost everything gets a dose of coconut, but it is powdered coconut, so the results are not as dense and sweet as some Thai dishes.

Curry Leaf also serves a list of "deviled" dishes: spicy stir-fries with a Sri Lankan accent. And yes, The Curry Leaf kitchen is full of fresh, peppery curry leaves, which flavor nearly every dish.

The food is rich and intense - probably packing more aromatic spices per spoonful than most Americans eat in a week. Stuff the main dish down your gullet all at once, and you'll likely be overwhelmed. These dishes are designed to be eaten Sri Lankan-style, Linander told me.

"We put a pile of rice in the middle of the plate, then put spoonfuls of curry around the outside and then mix rice and curry in every bite," she said.

The rice cuts the richness and makes the flavors sing. The best way to savor Linander's advice is to go with friends, order several a la carte dishes, then spoon out a smorgasbord on your plate.

The small menu is packed with enticements. The eggplant curry ($6.49) may be the ugliest plate ever served in the city, but more than makes up for it in taste. The brown mush swimming with black, leathery skins looks as if the kitchen had stewed an especially large beetle. One bite, however, will have you addicted. Eggplants are deep-fried until the starches start turning to sugar and the sugar starts to caramelize. Then the sweet, savory mash is mixed with spices. It's heaven.
The cutlets ($5.95), similar to Thai fish cakes except the minced fish is mixed with potato and spices before being formed in small patties and fried, are just as wonderful.

The only dish I wasn't thrilled to carry back to my fridge was the fish curry ($6.49). The type of fish changes daily, and I showed up on salmon day. Salmon is a rich fish, and, even with rice, seemed too much for the rich, spicy sauce.

I tried unsuccessfully to get out without dessert, but the sisters can be persuasive. I ended up digging a spoon into coconut caramel custard ($3.95) - a flan flavored with coconut, cinnamon, clove and cardamom.

Yes, it's as good as it sounds. So is the whole place. Go.

THE CURRY LEAF
**** (Fiery and fresh)

Address: 26 S. Wahsatch St.
Contact: 447-0608
Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Monday-Saturday
Entrees: $3.49 - $11.49
Vegetarian: Curries and salads
Liquor: No
Plastic: Yes