Life style

The Homes in Ward Place in its early days, When it was known as the Harley Street of Ceylon

Published

2 years ago

2021/06/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

(Continued from 16 May)

by Hugh Karunanayake, Dr Srilal Fernando, and Avinder Paul

The large four-acre property with the name Tyaganivasam (previously named Jaffna House) was the home of J Tyagarajah, member of the Monetary Board, and son of Namasivam Mudaliyar Tyagarajah. The grounds of Tyaganivasam included the property on which Cargills Pharmacy stood. Tyagarajah was also a Director of the Central Bank. He served in this capacity for more than two decades, never failing to attend meetings of the Monetary Board, and is reputed to have not claimed a cent for the expenditure incurred by him, a remarkable example of service to the nation. Part of the Tyagarajah property is now home to the University Grants commission.

With two major hospitals in close proximity, and despite the presence of Cargills Pharmacy at the opposite end of De Soysa Circus, the need for a pharmaceutical outlet in Ward Place was almost a sine qua non. The void was filled by the opening of the Lanka Pharmacy at 6, Ward Place by David Silva, who named it after his son Lanka Silva, who stepped into the father’s shoes on leaving school. Lanka Silva was a champion athlete at Royal College of the early 1950s. “Manohari” The impressive home of Sir Arthur M De Silva ENT Surgeon was located nearby. His daughter married Justin Kotelawela, brother of former Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawela, in 1948.

Proceeding on the same side of Ward Place at No 16 stood Veerin the two storied home of Dr LAP Britto Babapulle a leading Veterinary surgeon of the time. Dr Babapulle was known as the owner of the largest number of tenement houses in Colombo, mostly located in the Grandpass area. His daughter, Andrea, lives in the house today.

A few properties away is Sukasthan Gardens, a cluster of homes built on the grounds of the former stately home of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan named “Sukasthan”. It was inherited by Ramanathan’s daughter, Sundari, who eventually sold it. Gynaecologist Dr PR Thiagarajah lived in one of the houses that were built there. Another well known resident of Sukasthan Gardens was LS Boys, a Director of Gordon Frazer and Co who lived in a house named “Shiel.” Proceeding further at No 36 was the home of Physician Dr VEP Seneviratne. Around here were the homes named Chetwynd and Donnington belonging to DF Peiris, built around the turn of the Twentieth century.

DF Peiris’s daughter, Maud, married Thomas Lambert Fernando, the grandfather of Dr Srilal Fernando, a joint author of this memoir. Donnington was later occupied by ARM Ameen, Consul for Egypt. Chetwynd was later owned by DF Peiris’ younger brother, the father of orthopaedic surgeon Dr Rienzie Peiris. Adjoining Donnington and located northwards was “Greylands” the home of Mudaliyar JCS Fonseka a stalwart of the Orchid Circle of Ceylon. At No 48 was the home of former Minister Montague Jayawicjkreme on whose large property many houses have since been constructed.

Proceeding towards Borella on the left side of Ward Place are the two major government health care institutions the Victoria Memorial Eye Hospital and the Dental Institute. The Victoria Memorial Eye Hospital was built in honour of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 and constructed in 1906. Designed by architect Edward Skinner in traditional Indo Sarasenic lines, it is characterised by its red brick façade and the many turrets of Sarasenic design. Further down the road is the Government run Dental Institute. The Dental Institute was set up in the 1930s with Dr W Balendra as its first Director. Dr Balendra himself was a resident of Ward place. Alongside was Volkaart gardens where homes of the Directors of Volkaart Brothers were located . Further on was the home “St Brycedale” of Dr Richie Caldera, Obstetrician in Charge of the De Soysa Maternity Home located on Regent Street running parallel to Ward Place. At No 53 were four homes built around the 1960s one of which was the home of Dr Chris Raffel.

A home in Ward Place and two eminent doctors, father, and son, also from Ward Place featured in a much publicised murder trial called the “Duf

f House Case” in the 1930s. White House in Ward Place was a large elegant home belonging to Solomon Seneviratne who was married to the sister of Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike. Solomon Seneviratne himself owned broad acres and his country home was situated on his coconut estate in Kotikawatte, Angoda. Solomon’s son Stephen was like the father educated at Royal College, and later at Cambridge University, where he qualified as a Barrister. He did not practice at the bar and spent his time managing the cattle farm which he inherited. He soon became a keen and enthusiastic cattle breeder with an expert knowledge of animal husbandry.

He married Lilian de Alwis, sister of Leo de Alwis, who was married to a daughter of Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike. Leo’s wife was a sister of the late Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike. The life of Stephen and Lilian was tumultuous. They had many quarrels regarding Stephen’s intention to sell his home, White House. The couple lived in Duff House at No 4. Bagatelle Road rented out at Rs 100 a month, a considerable sum as rent in the 1930s.

Lilian had a troubled pregnancy which ended with the birth of their only child Terrence. She did not have a warm relationship with the son as she blamed him for her difficult pregnancy. Lilian was found one day dead in the living room of the house having inhaled chloroform. The case tested the strength of the family relationships within the Bandaranaike extended family. Here was Sir Solomon’s brother-in-law’s son accused of the murder of Sir Solomon’s so

n-in-law’s sister. The police were notified and Lilian’s family, particularly her brother Leo de Alwis, was convinced that Stephen had forced his wife to inhale a lethal dose of chloroform.

Dr S C Paul who was a close friend of Sir Solomon gave expert medical evidence to support that contention, which was rejected by Stephen who said that his wife was depressed and could have inhaled chloroform which Stephen kept for his animal husbandry.

Stephen was however charged with the murder of his wife before Justice MT Akbar. Stephen’s defence was supported by the expert medical evidence of Dr SC Paul’s son Dr Milroy Paul. In his direction to the jury, Justice Akbar ignored aspects of evidence that would benefit the accused, and consequently, the accused was found guilty of murdering his wife and sentenced to death. This was in 1936 when there was no Court of Criminal Appeal, so the accused appealed to the Privy Council which overturned the judgment of Akbar and acquitted Stephen. The Privy Council also made some scathing observations on the findings of the trial judge which led to Akbar suffering depression and submitting his resignation from the bench. Finally, it seemed that the murder trial ended in the trial of the presiding judge!

There were two other older well known homes on Ward Place.. One was Chateau Jubillee occupied by Adrian St V Jayewardene, Supreme C

ourt Judge, and brother of JR Jayewardene’s father EW Jayewardene. The other was Fairy Hall built in 1880 the original home of Dr Simon de Melho Aserappah and his wife Emily Wake. It was part of the large homestead on which 20 years later Rao Mahal and other homes were constructed by the family of Dr SC Paul who married Dr Aserappah’s daughter Dora.

Interior of the Dr PH Amerasinghe home designed by Architect Minnettte de Silva

The house 53/3 Ward Place designed by Geoffrey Bawa for Dr Chris Raffel was sold by Dr Chris and Carmel Raffel to Ajit Saravanamuttu who resided there until his death in 2006. Next door at No 55 was “Villa Mirelle” the home of Dr Percy Kulasinghe also situated on a large block which has since been subdivided with a new road named Kulasinghe Gardens hosting several houses. In the adjoining block at No 57 stands today the hotel Jetwing Colombo. Dr Kulasinghe was for many years a Director of the Ceylon Insurance Co founded and managed by fellow Ward Place resident Justin Kotelawela.

At No 61 was the home of lawyer FR de Saram and wife Miriam (nee Pieris) acclaimed aesthete and oriental dancer in an era when women were rarely seen on stage. Her elder son Rohan de Saram is the internationally famous cellist. The De Sarams engaged renowned architect Geoffrey Bawa to design a new additional home on the grounds now bearing No:61/6. Another Rohan, Rohan Perera at 57/2 and his brother Dr Hari Perera, Psychiatrist, the sons of the eminent lawyer HV Perera had their homes also in Ward Place.

At No:65 a house named “Taprobane “was the home of proprietary planter SR Muttiahpillai owner of the 1,250 acre Naluwella Group in Balangoda. His son M Rajendran managed the family properties in Balangoda until the initiation of Land Reform, and was awarded an MBE in recognition of his services to agriculture. The Muttiahpillai Caddillac in metallic blue colour was an ubiquitous feature of life in Ward Place in the 1950s. The passing of time and the demand for quality blocks of land has led to the breaking up of their large tract of land. A new road goes through the property now with the name Muththiahpillai Gardens, serving many new homes.

Dr W Balendra the dental surgeon’s home stood next door at No 67 next door to whom lived Dr May Ratnayake at No 69. Somewhere here stands the home of gynaecologist Dr PH (Chandra) Amerasinghe designed by renowned woman architect Minnette de Silva. She also designed the home of Chandra’s brother, Dr Asoka Amerasinghe in 5th Lane. Chandra was snatched away in his prime, from injuries resulting from an accident arising from a fun filled motor cycle ride.

The architect VS Thurairajah built a block of Flats at No 75 which was almost entirely leased out by the Marga Institute on its establishment in 1972. By 1975 Marga was in its own home at 61 Greenlands Avenue now known as Issipatana Mawata. Dr AC Arulpragasam ENT Surgeon and Dr Rajah Cooke both from the extended Paul family lived at No 77 as part of the large landholding adjacent to the Paul home “Rao Mahal “. Rao Mahal was built by Dr Simon De Melho Aserappah one of the first overseas qualified doctors who returned from England in the 19th Century. His daughter Dora married Dr SC Paul whose descendants still live in the original homestead in Ward Place where the

Paul family still retain a large extent of land on the site.

Dr Gunaratnam Cooke lived at 77 Ward Place, and Egerton Paul, another son of of Dr SC Paul, lived at No 85. Dr S.C Paul’s son, Dr Milroy Paul was the acclaimed surgeon who obtained his Master of Surgery qualification in the UK and was given the signal honour of delivering the “Hunterian Lecture” to the Royal College of Surgeons in England. He inherited Rao Mahal. Prof Milroy Paul’s son, Avinder, has collaborated in this present enterprise on homes in Ward Place and his knowledge and memory has helped us immensely in putting together this piece for the readers of The Ceylankan

Ward Place was closely associated with the development of the medical profession in Sri Lanka, and its early residential character was dominated by the medical profession. From the beginning therefore it was a highly gentrified area within the metropolis. Many successful doctors lived there, but they certainly would have had some unsuccessful medical adventures too, in addition to others whose lives were decreed not to go any further. They did not have to go far thereafter, the General Cemetery Kanatte also part of the former Borella estate, was nearby to provide them everlasting peace!

A cursory study of the residential features of this precinct would reveal that today it has lost that once dominant association with the medical profession. The street is located in one of the most sought after areas for dwellings today, and where large homes and gardens once stood, are large blocks of luxury apartments. Opulence still reigns however, and there is little doubt that Ward Place will continue to play host to a privileged few.

Concluded

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Life style

‘Manamala Hendewa’ at Nelum Pokuna today

Published

20 hours ago

2023/01/29

Thilina Walpola

The Nelum Pokuna Performing Arts Theatre will once again play host to the solo music concert titled “Manamala Hendewa” by the popular vocalist and musician Keerthi Pasquel on occasion of his birthday today.

The concert titled “මනමාල හැන්දෑව” will likely be Keerthi’s most successful performance to date. The show’s music will be provided by a seasoned band led by Nalaka Saji Jayasinghe, with guest appearances from artists like Chandralekha Perera, Nirosha Virajini, Samitha Mudunkotuwa, and Dammika Bandara for duets. Each member of the audience should leave with a lasting impression of the performance.

Life style

A fish that sparked a national obsession

Published

20 hours ago

2023/01/29

Thilina Walpola

Bacalhau (salt cod) is a deep part of Portugal’s culinary identity. But the fish is found far from the country’s shores, so how did this love affair come to be and continue today?

On a cold winter’s evening in Portugal, it might come to your table com natas – fresh from the oven and bubbling in cream – layered between fried potato and sliced onion and spiced with nutmeg. Weaving through Lisbon’s steep and cobbled streets, it wouldn’t take long before you found someone serving it as a light and crispy fritter, dusted with a little coarse salt and dished up with a pot of pungent aioli. You could buy it shaped as mouth-sized fried potato dumplings pastéis style, flavoured with parsley and garlic, for a walk along the banks of Porto’s Douro River. You might even come across it as part of a hearty southern bread soup, topped with coriander and a poached egg.

That’s because bacalhau – or salt cod – which sits at the heart of all these dishes, runs deep through Portugal’s culinary identity, with the country consuming 20% of the world’s supply. In fact, so central to Portuguese hearts (and stomachs) is this ingredient, that the saying goes “there are 365 ways to prepare salted cod, one for each day of the year”.

But for a fish that is found only in the icy depths of the North Atlantic Ocean – far from Portugal’s shores – the country’s love affair with salt cod is a puzzling one. How exactly did it end up on Portuguese plates? The answer is wrapped up in more than 500 years of intriguing history.

Take a trip today to most restaurants, markets and cafés across the country and you’ll find salt cod in one form or another. It even plays a starring role at hip Lisbon restaurant Alma, which earned its first Michelin star within nine months of opening and added a second star soon after.

“It’s funny, sometimes Michelin star chefs or high-end cuisine chefs don’t value salted cod because they don’t see it [fitting] within this type of gastronomy,” said Alma executive chef and owner Henrique Sá Pessoa, of the typically humble comfort food. “But I always have and always will have cod on my menus.”

He assures visitors that a salt cod creation will also feature on the menu of his new restaurant, JOIA, which will open in London later this year. But though bacalhau is a traditional and well-explored ingredient for many natives across the country, Pessoa is still finding ways to push Portugal’s love for it into new territory.

Case in point: his “most Instagrammable” creation, Cobblestreet Cod, named for its likeness to the centuries-old streets outside Alma’s front door in the historical Chiado district. It’s a modern twist on an old peasant dish and one of the country’s most beloved salt cod recipes – bacalhau à bras – where typically shredded salt cod, fried matchstick potatoes and onions are all bound together with scrambled egg and garnished with black olives.

“I knew I couldn’t call it bacalhau à bras because the Portuguese are quite traditional, and people sometimes get offended when you play around with classics,” he explained. “I wanted to get inspired by this dish but elevate it presentation-wise, texture-wise and detail-wise into something more delicate and elaborate.”

The outcome is far removed from the version you’d find on family dinner tables. A creamy mixture of salt cod, fried potato, egg and onion arrives at the table hidden under a veil of wafer-thin slices of cod that have been coated in a black olive tapenade to create a cobbled visual. A final surprise comes when you break into the cobbled dome and spilt a confit egg yolk that has been resting in the middle of the salted cod mixture.

“I wanted to dislocate all these elements of the dish and try and make it as perfect as possible. When we launched it in the restaurant, it was an instant success. It was especially popular on social media because visually it is quite striking,” said Pessoa.

He assures visitors that a salt cod creation will also feature on the menu of his new restaurant, JOIA, which will open in London later this year. But though bacalhau is a traditional and well-explored ingredient for many natives across the country, Pessoa is still finding ways to push Portugal’s love for it into new territory.

Pessoa’s bacalhau

dish is just one of the latest evolutions of a long culinary legacy, one that’s wrapped up in centuries of history little-known to those outside the country. It started towards the end of the 14th Century, when the Portuguese navy found that the dried and salted fish could be stored for years in holds, making it the perfect food for long ocean voyages.

In the mid-1500s, during Portugal’s maritime explorations and hunt to find the coast of India, they stumbled across waters rich with cod around Canada and Greenland; a major discovery that kickstarted Portuguese cod fishing. But by the 16th Century, Portuguese fishermen were pushed out by the French and English.

In the centuries that followed, Portugal became heavily dependent on England as the main exporter of cod, and by the 1800s, the ingredient was something enjoyed only by the aristocracy. However, cod’s popularity expanded in the 20th Century during the reign of Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, who wanted to bring it back home. His “cod campaign”, launched in 1934, looked to reignite Portugal’s fishing (and drying) industry and instate cod as a national symbol. Thousands of Portuguese fishermen were sent to Canada and Greenland to fish for cod, with some bringing back up to 900 tonnes per boat.

But this was long, gruelling and often dangerous work, and many men never made it back home to their families. It continued even during World War Two when one Portuguese lugger – the Maria da Glória – was bombed as it headed towards the fishing banks on the west coast of Greenland, killing 36 people on board. These conditions still plague the industry today, with global fatality rates thought to top 24,000 a year, according to the Seafarers Rights International.

It’s this complex history that makes Portugal’s love for cod so deep-rooted, and it’s why Portuguese food expert and chef Leandro Carreira dedicated more than 50 recipes to the product in his new book Portugal, The Cookbook. In total, it features more than 550 traditional recipes from across the country, including a raw salt cod salad, which mixes bacalhau together with barbecued red bell peppers, onions, garlic and parsley.

“If I didn’t include [salt cod], I would have been in a lot of trouble,” said Carreira. “Cod has become so embedded in our culture over the centuries, since the trade of salt began so it was so hard to choose which recipes would feature in the book.”

That love of salt cod still rings true today. “I know people who have eaten cod for more than 30 years every day,” Carreira said. “My grandmother used to eat the same cod dish – cod with boiled potatoes, raw onion, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and parsley – every single day for lunch. Even I, and everyone I know, had cod at least twice a week.

“Cod is an incredibly flexible product. You can grill it, steam it, bake it, deep fry, you can make a cake with it, have it raw after soaking it in water. So, if you combine this with its affordability and its accessibility, you can see why [it’s popular].”

You can grill it, steam it, bake it, deep fry, you can make a cake with it, have it raw after soaking it in water.

Portugal today imports around 70% of its cod from Norway; the Norwegian Seafood Council describes Portugal as “by far the biggest market for Norwegian cod”. They add that out of the 100,000 tonnes Norway exports annually to Portugal, 95% is salted.

In Norway’s remote and icy fishing island of Røst, they even have a name reserved for the heaviest of cod catches: “Portuguese cod,” said Pessoa, who, as a former ambassador for the Norwegian Seafood Council, visited the island several times. “They know Portugal will pay the best price for that cod.”

This is echoed by Rita Karlsen, chief executive of Norway’s Brødrene Karlsen, which has been exporting salted and dried cod to Portugal since the company’s beginning in 1932. “Portugal is very important [to Norwegian cod exporters]; it’s the most important country that we sell to,” she said. “We couldn’t have survived without Portugal.”

This influence has spread far and wide to countries like Brazil, which imported 8.6 tonnes of salt cod during the Easter period alone in 2019, or Angola, which imported 308 tonnes of salt cod from Norway in 2012, according to the Interpretative Center of the History of Cod, Lisbon’s museum dedicated to the fish. In Italy, they even hold a salt cod festival, Festa del Bacala, every year near Venice, and in the Tuscan region they favour classics such as baccalà alla livornese, which marries salt cod with a rich, garlicky tomato sauce.

For other chefs in Portugal, salt cod bridges the past and present. Like Marlene Vieira, MasterChef Portugal judge, head chef of two Lisbon restaurants and the only female face within the chef’s wing of Lisbon’s Time Out Market, where her salt cod pataniscas (fritters) have won her accolades.

She explained how the fritter recipe was passed down from her grandmother, who came from a poor background. This meant she typically used the cheaper tail cuts of the fish in the batter, which had less moisture and resulted in a crispier finish “like tempura” – an excellent companion to the roasted red pepper and garlic mayonnaise that Vieira now serves with it.

As a child, she remembers helping her grandmother in the kitchen “to do the things she wouldn’t like to do”, like peeling onions, garlic and of course carefully picking out any bones left in the salt cod.

Today, while nodding to tradition, Vieira is keen to further promote the fish along with seafood local to Portugal – and her high-end restaurant Marlene focuses on just that. She even cooks it at home for her daughter, who, she said, “loves, loves, loves cod” – proof perhaps that despite the lengths the country has to go to secure this North Atlantic fish, the passion for it will continue to flow through Portuguese veins for generations to come.

–BBC

Life style

Chef Heenkenda, Thai Mama and Chef Singh join Mövenpick’s galaxy of shining culinary experts.

Published

20 hours ago

2023/01/29

Thilina Walpola

Mövenpick amplifies its Japanese, Thai, North and South Indian offerings

In the city hotel’s endeavor to continually provide guests with novel and refreshing gastronomic experiences, three talented chefs – the famed, Chef Heenkenda, the much-loved Thai Mama and Indian culinary wizard Chef Mangal Singh have joined Mövenpick’s galaxy of shining culinary experts. These brilliant Chefs who have excelled in their respective gastronomic genres have joined the hotel’s exceptional culinary team to provide guests with unforgettable dining experiences. Culinary Services Director Chef Priyantha Weerasinghe heads the handpicked culinary team at Mövenpick.

Chef Heenkenda who has introduced incredible Japanese offerings in multiple hotels has transformed The Robata, Thai and Japanese Restaurant with an outstanding culinary repertoire of Japanese Cuisine with over 30 exciting sushi dishes along with 115 new dishes that will take tastebuds straight to the land of the rising sun. Having excelled in Japanese Cuisine for nearly 2 decades he has worked in local 5-star hotels and overseas as a mentee under Japanese chefs. In Abu Dhabi Chef Heenkenda worked together with Michelin Starred Chef, Chef Eric Hunter who was his mentor for 5 years. Chef Heenkenda is a talented culinary maestro who excels in the entire gamut of Japanese Cuisine, including Sushi, Teppanyaki and Hot cuisine. His wide culinary experience will combine to make unique and inimitable, Japanese creations that Mövenpick guests can savour and enjoy with friends and family.

To greatly augment the Robata repertoire Mövenpick also welcomed Chef Arjee Jithman famously known as Thai Mama, who has transformed Thai cuisine in Sri Lanka. Hailing from Bangkok Thailand, Thai Mama discovered her passion to pursue culinary arts at an early age while helping her mother cook authentic Thai dishes at home. She later moved to Sri Lanka to further her knowledge and has made this her island home for over nine years, tantalizing both local and international tastebuds with her exceptional Thai culinary skills, taking guests on unforgettable gastronomic journeys infused with delicate herbs and sweet and sour tones. Thai Mama is delighted to provide diners at Robata with a brand-new array of her notable Thai dishes such as the spicy Tom Yum Soup, Pineapple Fried Rice, Thai Papaya Salad, Chu Chi Goon and fish fresh from the sea, marinated in curry chili paste infused with special Thai herbs.

Chef Mangal Singh, who specializes in South and North Indian cuisine, has been curated the most flavorsome Indian cuisine for a decade at Sri Lankan 5-Star resorts and trendy restaurants in Mumbai and Delhi. Chef Singh will be heading the brand-new Indian Restaurant to be launched at Movenpick. Chef Singh has also studied under Chef Bruno and Chef Anack during his career stint in Thailand. With 13 years of experience in preparing Indian cuisine from the North such as Chicken Makani, Biriyani, Goan Curry and Mutton Roghan Josh, Chef Singh’s Indian repertoire is wide and colourful. Guests can expect special Thalis featuring both North and South Indian favourites. Having grown up in the snowcapped misty Himalayas, Chef Singh was inspired by his mother’s recipes, many of which will be delightful features at the new Indian Restaurant to be launched at Mövenpick. His favourite dishes that promise to tantalize guests include, Mutton Biriyani, Rasams, butter chicken, including a very special Indian homemade chutney.

For over half a decade the famed Swiss Brand has introduced guests in Colombo from across the world to an intriguing and fascinating gastronomic journey, encapsulated in a luxurious and artistically stunning interior. Mövenpick Globally holds a growing portfolio of more than 80 hotels in 24 countries and is a part of AccorHotels, a world-leading travel and lifestyle Group comprising 5000 hotels, resorts and residences with over 1 million rooms worldwide.