Spice island

Indigenous plants of Sri Lanka have attracted traders - and food lovers - for centuries. Liu Zhihua sits down at a Beijing food festival to sample an Asian cuisine that's not well-known in China.

Separated by land and ocean, Sri Lanka is far away from China, and it's not easy to find a restaurant dedicated to that country's cuisine in any Chinese city.

But one of Sri Lanka's best-known chefs is now at Beijing's Minzu Hotel for a two-week stint to tickle diners' curiosity and appetites for the coastal country's fare.