Jaffna Market

Jaffna's central market is a working covered market serving the city's population, but its produce is distinctly northern in character and fascinates visitors from elsewhere in Sri Lanka as much as it does foreign travellers. The palmyra palm is the defining agricultural product of the Jaffna peninsula, and the market sells every product derived from it: dried palmyra seeds (nungu), palmyra jaggery, palmyra flour, and fresh palmyra toddy in sealed clay pots. Jaffna-specific dried fish preparations, northern chili varieties noticeably hotter than those found in the south, local varieties of mango and jak fruit, and the pungent Jaffna curry spice blends that give northern Sri Lankan cuisine its distinct character all concentrate here. The market area around Clock Tower Square also has tea-stall rows serving short eats and hot tea in the northern Tamil tradition, making it an excellent entry point into the everyday food culture of a city that remained cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka for most of the war period.