Prawns: the Salty Snack Food of the Gods

prawn cakes, originally uploaded by jrambow.

Sri Lanka was a blast. We went to the beach, we went to boutiques, we saw ancient ruins, we were beset by touts, and we took the train. And on that train, which went along the coast from Galle up to Colombo, we had what may possibly be the best railway snack food in the world. As you can I hope see from the blurry evidence, this snack is made by taking one or two little prawns and covering them in a salty batter with sesame seeds. Deep fry them and serve to grateful train travelers. They were so good. Does anyone know what these things are called?

Indian trains have lots of sellers with good snack, but I've never had anything as good as this was.