Abstract:
Food habits are among the oldest and most entrenched aspects of many cultures that exert
deep influence on the behavior of people. The cultural background determines what is eaten
as well as when and how. In every part of the society, people have diverse feeding habits that
have been inherited from generation to generation. Among various dimensions of food
selection and intake, a combination has been used in different cultural contexts to classify
food. East Coast Muslims of Sri Lanka claim a different dimension in their gastronomy. The
study was based on the author’s own experience, observations, recordings, and interactions
with locals of Sainthamaruthu Divisional Secretariat area. When started to live in the study
area the author experienced a different explanation model in their gastronomy. What I intent to
find in the research study more specifically were my two research objectives which were
precisely reliving on my research goals. They were to find out cultural dimensions of hot, cold
and Kirandi among East coast Muslims and to examine the explanation models of hot, cold
and Kirandi related to their food culture. Sainthameruthu Muslims share a unique explanation
such as kaduppu and kirandi when they select food.
