The Charlottesville 29

The number of dishes in the world is uncountable. Some estimate millions.

For most of human history, people knew little about these dishes. Unable to travel farther than they could walk, humans lacked much awareness beyond their immediate surroundings. Modern technologies in transportation, communications, and cooking give us knowledge of foods that our ancestors never imagined.

And yet, even with these advances, the world remains too vast for any one of us to know much of it. The most voracious eater will try less than 1% of the world’s dishes in their lifetime.

That makes each one a gift. Sometimes a gift we seek out. Sometimes one that comes to us.

Kottu Rhythm 

In Sri Lanka, the island nation off the southern tip of India, there is a dish so popular that it is recognizable by sound. It’s the rhythmic clanging of two steel blades on a griddle as street vendors chop together roti, meat, and eggs to make one of the country’s most beloved dishes: kottu roti. In some Sri Lankan cities, they say you can hear it before you can see it.

In Charlottesville, Virginia, most people have never heard of kottu roti. Thanks to Fathima Jawfer, that is changing. In July, she and her husband Minhaj Akthar opened Mint Kitchen, serving her cooking to-go from the leasable kitchen space at Beacon Kitchen.

Fathima grew up at her father’s Indian restaurant in Sri Lanka, and her initial offerings at Mint Kitchen were ones he served: dosa, idli, and medu vada. Soon, she added dishes from her native Sri Lanka, beginning with her husband’s favorite, kottu roti.

As on the streets of Sri Lanka, the dish comes together quickly. With mise en place, she starts by scrambling eggs in a large wok.

Then she adds aromatics — onions, garlic, and lots of curry leaves — followed by spices and vegetables like cabbage, carrots, leeks, and tomatoes.

Next comes the roti, a thin flatbread she makes and shreds in advance. She also adds pieces of cooked chicken, scallions, and her own chicken gravy.

Now it’s time for the kottu rhythm.

Topped with still more curry leaves, it’s ready to serve.

Known as a drinking food, kottu roti achieves a rare duo: comforting and exciting to eat. Rigorous chopping and stirring coax starch from the roti, giving the dish a slick noodle-like texture. The blend of spices and aromatics, meanwhile, retains interest bite after carb-laden bite.

2025 Dish of the Year

In elementary school, I wrote a report about my father’s native Sri Lanka, called The Pearl That Dropped. With a population of just 1.5% of India’s, Sri Lankan cuisine is less known than its neighbor to the north, and my report included just a cursory description, gleaned from an encyclopedia.

My unfamiliarity with Sri Lankan food changed this year when Fathima, a full-time medical assistant at UVa who has long enjoyed cooking for family and friends, began offering her food to the public. Had she not come to Charlottesville from Sri Lanka, and had she not opened Mint Kitchen with her husband,  I might never have tried her country’s most beloved dish.

What a gift.

The 2025 Dish of the Year is kottu roti from Mint Kitchen.