Rambutan

What Cookbook Author Cynthia Shanmugalingam Eats for Dinner | Eater

"While promoting her debut cookbook (an Eater favorite), she is racing to open a London restaurant of the same name, spending long days on a building site managing finishes, shipping chairs from Sri Lanka, interviewing staff, and collaborating on cocktails and bar kit with a friend. The kitchen leans on Sri Lankan home cooking—seafood, especially prawns, is central and commonly eaten with pillowy white 'White Bloomers' bread—and the menu is rooted in quick, intensely flavored preparations: a prawn curry that comes together in about 15 minutes with onions and curry leaves fried in coconut oil, homemade Sri Lankan curry powder (roasted chiles and spices), coconut milk and tamarind for brightness. She also makes a finishing oil from prawn heads and shells cooked with curry powder to amplify the dish’s prawn flavor, underscoring a focus on comforting, authentic flavors executed with practical, hands-on care." - Ali Slagle