What children eat in Sri Lanka, mild dishes and fruit

Children eat well in Sri Lanka, because under the chilli the island's food is rice, coconut, lentils, eggs, bread and fruit. Choose the mild dishes, ask for the hot relishes on the side, and say "no chilli" for each dish you order.

Which Sri Lankan dishes are mild?

Many of the island's everyday dishes are gentle on their own. The heat usually arrives in a small bowl beside them.

• Milk rice (kiribath). Rice cooked in coconut milk until soft, cut into pieces. It is eaten at breakfast and on special days, and it is very mild. It usually comes with a hot onion relish, so ask for that apart.
• Hoppers (appa). Thin, bowl-shaped pancakes made from a batter of rice flour and coconut milk, crisp at the edge and soft in the middle. Children like to tear them. An egg hopper has an egg cooked into the bottom. Ask for it without the relish.
• String hoppers (idiyappam). Little nests of steamed rice noodles. They are eaten with a thin coconut milk gravy called kiri hodi. Ask whether there is green chilli in it.
• Dhal (parippu). Lentils cooked soft with coconut milk. It is usually one of the mildest things on the table, and with rice it is a whole meal for a small child.
• Coconut roti (pol roti). A thick flatbread with grated coconut in the dough.
• Rice and curry. Rice in the middle with several small curries around it. Some are mild and some are not, so taste each one before it goes on a child's plate.
• Curd and treacle. Buffalo curd, thick like yoghurt, with kithul treacle, the syrup of a palm. Most children ask for more.

What is hot, and how do you spot it?

• Pol sambol. Grated coconut ground with chilli and lime. It is orange or red, and it is hot.
• Lunu miris. A relish of red onion and chilli. It is the usual partner of milk rice and hoppers.
• Kottu. Chopped roti fried on a hot plate with vegetables, egg or meat. It is loved everywhere and usually spicy. Some places make one with cheese. Ask for it without chilli.
• Short eats. The pastries, rolls and patties sold from glass cases often have pepper or chilli inside. Break one open and taste it first.

Black pepper is used a lot too, and it can surprise a child who has been told there is no chilli.

How do you ask for no chilli?

In English, and clearly. "No chilli, please. It is for a child." In places that see visitors, this is understood.

Two details help.

• Say "no", not "a little". Travellers often report that "less spicy" still comes out hot. For a cook who eats chilli every day, a little is a lot.
• Say it for each dish, and ask for sambols and relishes on the side, so the adults can add them.

Miris is the Sinhala word for chilli. You will hear it in lunu miris. The whole sentence is "Karunakara miris danna epa, meka lamayata": please, no chilli, it is for the child. In Sinhala script: කරුණාකර මිරිස් දාන්න එපා, මේක ළමයාට.

At Ohana you do not need the sentence. Food here is not spicy unless the dish says so, and the menu marks each dish that is. On request, the kitchen leaves the chilli out.

What about fruit?

Fruit is the easy part. Banana, mango, papaya, pineapple and watermelon are on every breakfast table and at stalls by the road.

King coconut is the island's golden coconut, sold whole along the roads. Its water is sweeter and lighter than that of the green kind, and most children take to it.

With us, the Royal Fruit Platter, 7,900 LKR, is mango, papaya, pineapple, watermelon and banana on one big tray for two or three, with passion fruit spooned over. Coconut Water, the water of the king coconut in a glass over ice, is 800 LKR.

What should you carry?

This follows the general advice of the United States health agency CDC for travelling with children. It is not medical advice, and your child's doctor knows your child.

• Water you trust. Bottled or filtered, in the child's own bottle.
• Clean hands. Wash with soap before eating, or use a hand gel.
• Sachets of oral rehydration salts. If a child has a stomach upset, fluids are the main thing. See a doctor straight away if your child seems dehydrated, has a fever, or has blood in the stool.
• Familiar snacks for the car and for the hungry half hour before the food arrives. Kitchens here cook to order.
• A travel seat. High chairs are rare along this coast.

Which of our dishes do children eat?

The Little Ones menu is short and real.

• Kids Fish and Fries, 2,800 LKR. Real snapper, cut into fingers here and coated in crunchy crumbs, with fries and our own mayo.
• Kids American Pancakes, 1,800 LKR. Small and fluffy, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and our own chocolate sauce.
• Kids Toast and Eggs, 1,500 LKR. Firm boiled eggs, halved, with sourdough toast in little triangles.
• Little Watermelon, 800 LKR. Fresh watermelon juice in a child-sized glass with a straw.
• Babyccino, free. Warm frothy milk, with no coffee in it.

The Little Ones are served all day, and we have high chairs and a changing table.

From the island's own kitchen, our Milk Rice, 1,850 LKR, is red rice cooked in coconut cream with a layer of caramelised coconut inside, served with banana and toasted nuts. The Papaya Curd Bowl, 2,300 LKR, is buffalo curd in half a papaya with granola. And Steamed Basmati Rice, 800 LKR, goes with anything.

Tell us about any allergy. Ours is one shared kitchen, and the full menu lists the allergens of every dish. A whole day with children at our bay is in Dikwella with kids, other family tables nearby are in kid-friendly restaurants in Hiriketiya and Dikwella, and how we look after families is on our page for the south coast with kids.

Good to know

• Food at Ohana is not spicy unless the dish says so.
• Breakfast is served from 08:00 to 11:00, lunch and dinner from 11:00 to 21:00, every day.
• Filtered water is on the house.
• Prices are in LKR, plus a 10% service charge.
• We are at Turtle Beach, Dikwella, less than five minutes by road from Hiriketiya.