Most New Yorkers know the Staten Island Ferry as the best free boat ride in the world, yet remarkably few walk the ten minutes south from the St. George terminal into Tompkinsville and Victory Boulevard—home to one of the largest and most vibrant Sri Lankan communities in North America.

Known affectionately as "Little Sri Lanka," this pocket of Staten Island’s North Shore offers an aromatic masterclass in island cooking, defined by toasted curry leaves, pandan (rampe), Ceylon cinnamon, freshly grated coconut, and fiery roasted chili blends.

Begin your afternoon at Lakruwana (668 Bay St), a richly decorated dining room filled with hand-carved Sri Lankan masks, brass oil lamps, and temple woodwork exported from Colombo. On weekends, Lakruwana’s legendary all-you-can-eat clay-pot buffet draws food lovers from all five boroughs, but on any day of the week you should order the Lamprais: rice boiled in rich meat stock with frikkadels (Dutch-Sri Lankan meatballs), cashew curry, plantain, and seeni sambol (caramelized onion relish) wrapped in a banana leaf and baked so the green leaf perfumes every grain.

Next, head up to Victory Boulevard to visit New Asha (322 Victory Blvd), a humble, deeply beloved home-style counter run by chef Asha. There is no printed menu—instead, you step up to the glass counter and choose four or five bubbling vegetable and meat curries ladled over red samba rice, accompanied by crispy papadum, tart mango curry, and fiery deviled chicken.

Down the road at Ceylon Curry Hut (266 Bay St), watch the kitchen turn out fresh hoppers (appa)—delicate, lacy bowls made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk with crisp paper-thin edges and a soft, spongy center, best ordered with a runny egg baked right into the middle to dip into caramelized onion sambol.

Before catching the sunset ferry back to Lower Manhattan, walk back through St. George past the ornate 1929 Spanish Baroque interior of the historic St. George Theatre (35 Hyatt St) and pick up bags of roasted curry powder, ginger biscuits, and wood-apple nectar at Lakruwana Grocery.