SRI LANKA - <i> From Christmas cake to spicy curries, the island’s food has found a home in Los Angeles.</i>

Brandy-soaked fruitcake might not be what one would expect to find in Sri Lanka, given its location off the southern tip of India. There, the majority of people are Buddhist, the climate is tropical, and coconut milk-based curries flavored with lemon grass and pandan are typical.

But so is European-style Christmas cake, thanks to years of occupation by the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally the British.

Sri Lanka may be thousands of miles away, but the cake is flourishing in Los Angeles, where it is in demand by emigrant islanders. About 40,000 Sri Lankans have settled in the United States, and the largest single group is in Southern California, according to Indra de Souza, information officer with the Sri Lankan embassy in Washington.

At the Siri Lanka Curry House in Hollywood, Kusala Siriwardhane is gearing for a rush of holiday cake orders. Siriwardhane calls the dessert “rich cake,” flavors it with crystallized ginger and tops it lavishly with almond paste.

This eating place, located at the corner of Highland and Fountain avenues, is the only Sri Lankan restaurant in Los Angeles and one of very few in the United States. Others are the Curry Village in San Jose and the Sri Lanka Curry House in Minneapolis.

Siriwardhane and her husband, Bandu, chose the Hollywood site because they felt the area attracts adventurous people who would respond to a cuisine that is virtually unknown. The word Siri in the restaurant name is not a misspelling but taken from their surname.

Sri Lankan food is rich in spices, sometimes blistering hot, and incorporates Sinhalese, Indian, Muslim and European influences. The Sinhalese are the majority ethnic group on the island followed by Tamils, Muslims and a mixture of others including the Burghers, who trace their ancestry to Europe.

“Sri Lanka shares to some extent the cultural history and background environmental features characterizing so much of South and Southeast Asia,” said Ratnam Swami, a Sri Lankan Tamil who lives in Santa Monica. “Nevertheless, its cuisine is significantly different from those of India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and all the others in that quarter of the globe.”

Rohan Wanigatunga of Rona Trading Company, an importer of Sri Lankan food products, says, “Our food is between South Indian and Thai. It is not as oily as South Indian food and yet spicier than Thai food. I think it could become popular.” A typical Sri Lankan meal might include curries, dal (lentils), vegetables, rice and spicy accompaniments known as sambols. Distinctive ingredients are Maldive fish, a dried fish of the tuna family that is processed in the Maldive Islands and exported only to Sri Lanka, and goraka, a small, acidic, dried fruit that is used with fish and pork.

Sri Lankan curry powder imparts a different taste from Indian curry powders. Siriwardhane makes her own, roasting each spice to a dark brown and adding roasted rice and coconut. Wanigatunga imports two styles, a dark roasted blend for meat and fish curries and a lighter unroasted powder for vegetables. Sri Lankans typically cook meat or fish with the lighter powder and sprinkle on the dark blend just before the dish is served, he said.

Sweeteners include jaggery, which is a form of brown sugar made from juice extracted from the flower of the kithul palm, and treacle, a molasses-like product that is also processed from palm flower juice. A popular dessert is treacle spooned over yogurt.

Sri Lankans drink water with their meal but also enjoy refreshing fruit drinks made by diluting bottled fruit concentrates with water. Passion fruit, papaya, mango and pineapple are popular flavors.

A Sri Lankan specialty served on festive occasions is lamprais. The word comes from the Dutch, and the dish is “much the same as the Dutch rijstaffel,” said Roma de Zoysa Tira, a Sri Lankan caterer in West Los Angeles. (Rijstaffel, or rice table, is the Dutch name for an Indonesian meal of many dishes served with rice.)

The difference is that lamprais comes wrapped in a packet that contains just one serving. Tira places a portion of six different curries and sambols on a bed of rice, wraps them in a banana leaf and bakes the packet. The major component is a curry that includes four kinds of meat--pork, chicken, mutton and beef. A beef meatball, called by its Dutch name, frikkadel, is also added. Other components are eggplant and green banana dishes and onion and dried shrimp sambols. The rice too is elaborate. Tira sautes cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and curry leaves in ghee (Indian-style clarified butter), then stirs in rice and adds chicken stock.

Operating under the name Roma’s Kitchen, she prepares about 500 packets a week and is staging a lampries party just before Christmas. “Not many housewives can spend two days making it. Everything is cubed, then deep-fried, then cooked in coconut milk,” she said.

Kusala Siriwardhane requires advance orders for this dish and describes it on her restaurant menu as “the ultimate festive meal in Sri Lanka.” “Most Sri Lankan festivities are based on cooking and eating,” she observed.

Important occasions include the Sri Lankan New Year in April and the celebration of Buddha’s birthday, enlightenment and death on Full Moon Day in May. This year, the Sri Lanka-America Assn. of Southern California marked the new year with a potluck picnic that attracted some 500 participants. Local Sri Lankans are widely scattered, and the organization serves to bring them together and spread news of their homeland, said Irvin Pietersz of Bellflower, who heads the group. Pietersz is a Burgher of Dutch descent.

Two Sri Lankan Buddhist temples in Los Angeles help to preserve the culture and its religious traditions. The Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara at 1147 N. Beachwood Drive in Hollywood was founded in 1978 by Ven. Walpola Piyananda. Vihara is a Sinhalese word for temple. The chief incumbent there now is Ven. Pandit Ahangama Dhammarama. An avid gardener, Dhammarama tends a variety of Sri Lankan plants including temple trees, the kithul palm and mango and guava trees. An outdoor shrine pairs a figure of Buddha with a small bodhi tree, revered because Buddha is said to have been enlightened under such a tree in India.

Walpola Piyananda is now president and chief incumbent of the Dharma Vijiya Buddhist Vihara at 1847 Crenshaw Blvd. The Crenshaw temple brings together Sri Lankans of all faiths--Hindus, Muslims and Christians as well as Buddhists. One of the directors is a Tamil Hindu, a note of unity that contrasts with the strife between Tamil separatists and Sinhalese that has disrupted Sri Lanka for years. “As a community, we are united, not separate,” Piyananda said.

A recent ceremony at the temple demonstrated the role of food in Sri Lankan Buddhism. On a Saturday afternoon, Sumana de Soyza gathered with relatives and close friends to observe the 14th anniversary of the death of her husband, Dr. Tony de Soyza. The women brought a variety of cooked dishes. These were offered first to the Buddha and then to the monks, a form of alms-giving that is considered meritorious.

First, portions of the food were placed in small bowls on a tray. As De Soyza carried the tray to the altar, each guest touched it to show participation in the offering. Afterward, the saffron-robed monks gathered at a dining table, and the visitors ladled the food onto their plates. When the monks had finished, the food was set out for all to eat.

The dishes included fish, shrimp, cashew nut and jackfruit curries, fried mushrooms, moong dal (yellow lentils), a tofu stir-fry, kangkong (a leafy green) with green chile, vegetable cutlets, bitter melon, fresh coconut sambol with Maldive fish, a red onion and tomato salad, yellow rice cooked in coconut milk, white rice and coconut milk sauce. The desserts were fresh fruit and yogurt with treacle.

The following recipes are from Kusala Siriwardhane and can be grouped with rice for a Sri Lankan meal. There are two curries, one made with chicken, the other with pumpkin, and two accompaniments. Mallung is a finely chopped vegetable and coconut mixture that is sprinkled over rice and other dishes. Seeni Sambol is an onion relish flavored with tamarind and sweetened with sugar, which is called seeni in Sinhalese.

The dessert is the fruitcake, which will attain its full flavor if sprinkled with brandy, wrapped in foil and allowed to mellow for a month.

Siriwardhane imports special ingredients such as treacle and jaggery herself and is considering marketing her curry powder. The spices, curry powders, teas and other products imported by Wanigatunga are sold only through distributors at present and not in markets, but he is planning to open a shop in Pasadena.

A good grade of Indian curry powder may be used in preparing Siriwardhane’s curries. For more authentic flavor, try the formula provided by Heather Jansz Balasuriya of the Sri Lanka Curry House in Minneapolis in her cookbook, “Fire and Spice.”

SRI LANKAN-STYLE CHICKEN CURRY

5 pounds chicken thighs

10 cloves garlic, crushed

1/4 cup vinegar

Salt

2 tablespoons corn oil

1 onion, chopped

10 cloves garlic, chopped

5 or 6 thin slices ginger root, crushed

2 stalks lemon grass, lower solid portion only, sliced

5 tablespoons curry powder

2 tablespoons chili powder

3 (14-ounce) cans coconut milk

2 tablespoons liquid tamarind concentrate

Remove skin from chicken thighs. Place in large baking pan. Add crushed garlic, vinegar and salt to taste. Cover and marinate overnight in refrigerator. Next day, bring to room temperature and bake at 350 degrees 45 minutes, until just done.

Heat oil in Dutch oven. Add onion, chopped garlic, ginger and lemon grass and cook until lightly browned. Stir in curry powder and chili powder and cook 1 minutes.

Add chicken pieces and cook 5 minutes, stirring to coat with mixture. Add coconut milk, tamarind concentrate and season to taste with salt. Cook uncovered 30 minutes. Makes 8 servings.

CURRY HOUSE CURRIED PUMPKIN

1 pound peeled pumpkin, cut in small pices

1/2 cup water

Dash turmeric

Salt

1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded dried coconut

3 or 4 cloves garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons ground mustard

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons corn oil

1/4 onion, chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon curry powder, about

Combine pumpkin, water, turmeric and dash salt in saucepan. Bring to boil and boil until pumpkin is just tender. Drain.

Meanwhile, combine coconut milk, dried coconut, garlic, mustard and sugar in blender and blend well.

Heat oil in large saucepan. Add onion and cook until browned. Add pumpkin and cook 2 minutes. Add blended mixture and simmer 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Turn into heated serving dish and sprinkle with curry powder. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

MALLUNG

1/4 pound trimmed broccoli

1/4 pound trimmed cauliflower

1/4 pound cabbage

1/4 pound collard greens

5 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons Ground Mustard

5 tablespoons unsweetened shredded dried coconut

Juice of 1/2 lime

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

Salt

Combine broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collard greens, garlic, mustard and coconut in blender or food processor. Process until finely ground. Add lime juice, turmeric and season to taste with salt.

Place in microwave-safe dish, cover and microwave on HIGH 2 minutes. (Vegetables will be blanched, not cooked.) Serve as condiment to sprinkle over white rice or curries. Makes 3 1/2 cups.

Ground Mustard

Mustard seeds

Grind mustard seeds in spice grinder or small food processor until pulverized.

SEENI SAMBOL

(Onion Relish)

1 pound onions, cut in thin slices

Oil

2 ounces dried shrimp, ground fine

2 ounces crushed chile, or to taste

2 tablespoons sugar

Dash salt

1 tablespoon liquid tamarind concentrate

2 tablespoons coconut milk, optional

Deep fry onions in oil until browned. Drain.

Spoon some of oil into another pan. Add shrimp, crushed chile and onions and cook and stir 5 minutes. Add sugar, salt and tamarind and cook until blended. Add coconut milk if mixture is dry. Makes about 2 cups.

KUSALA’S RICH CAKE

Butter

1 pound raisins

1 pound golden raisins

1 pound currants

1/2 pound candied cherries

1/2 pound crystallized ginger

1/2 pound mixed glazed fruits

1/4 pound raw cashews

3/4 cup flour

2 pounds sugar

12 egg yolks

1/3 cup strawberry jam

Brandy

2 tablespoons vanilla

1 tablespoon almond extract

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 pound semolina

6 egg whites

Almond Paste

Powdered sugar

1 egg white, beaten

Butter thoroughly 2 (13x9-inch) baking pans. Line with double layer of grease-proof paper and brush with melted butter.

Cut raisins in 3 or 4 pieces. Wash and dry currants. Cut ginger and cherries in small pieces. Shred mixed glazed fruit and chop cashews. Mix fruits and nuts with flour.

In large mixing bowl, cream 1 pound butter and sugar until light. Add egg yolks 1 at time, beating well after each addition. Add jam, 1/4 cup brandy, vanilla, almond extract, lemon peel, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and nutmeg. Mix well. Add semolina and beat well. Add mixed fruits and nuts and incorporate thoroughly. Beat 6 egg whites until stiff and fold into mixture.

Divide mixture between 2 prepared pans and smooth evenly in pans. Bake at 275 degrees 3 hours. Cover with brown paper during last 2 hours to prevent burning. Remove cake from oven and cool slightly before turning out on wire rack to cool completely, preferably overnight. Remove paper and wrap in foil.

For more moist cake, sprinkle 1/3 to 1/2 cup brandy over each cake before wrapping.

Cake improves with storage and should be made at least 1 week before serving. Ice with Almond Paste 1 or 2 days before serving.

Divide paste mixture in half. Knead until smooth. Roll out each half on pastry board lightly dusted with additional powdered sugar. Cut to fit top of cake. Repeat with other half. Brush tops with beaten egg white. Place paste sheet on tops and trim sides. Press tightly with rolling pin. Makes 2 large fruitcakes.

Almond Paste

1/2 pound blanched almonds, ground

1 pound powdered sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon brandy

1 tablespoon Sherry

Mix almonds and sugar in bowl. Add egg mixed with brandy and Sherry. (Or combine all in food processor.) If mixture is too moist, work in little additional powdered sugar. If too dry, add brandy to moisten.

Food Styling by Minnie Bernardino and Donna Deane

* RELATED STORY: Page H33

“Fire & Spice” (McGraw-Hill, $19.95), a new cookbook by Heather Jansz Balasuriya and Karin Winegar, is one of the first devoted to Sri Lankan cooking, a cuisine that remains little explored in the West.