Jaffna's food is the best reason to make the trip north, and the local Tamil cooking is meaningfully different from what you'll find in Colombo. The curries are drier and spicier, the dosai thinner and crisper, and fresh seafood — Jaffna lagoon crabs, prawns, and several varieties of fish — cooked with a lavish hand of chilli and curry leaf. Palmyra palm products show up everywhere: palmyra fruit, treacle, and toddy (a mildly alcoholic fermented sap) are all local staples. Try the woodapple juice if you see it — the flavour is aggressively tart and wholly unlike anything else.