Sri Lankan cuisine is one of the most distinctive and flavourful in all of Asia – built around fresh coconut, aromatic spices, river fish, jackfruit, and the extraordinary depth of slow-cooked curries – and a cooking class with a local host takes you through ingredient selection, spice preparation, clay pot techniques, and the assembly of a full rice and curry spread that you then eat as a shared meal. Leaving a Sri Lankan cooking class with a notebook of recipes and the flavours of a meal you made yourself still on your palate is one of the island’s most practically useful and genuinely enjoyable travel experiences.