Diana Lewis
Delicious! It is the perfect word that goes along with Maldivian food lore. You will simply be at a loss when you have to pick the very best of the Maldivian cuisine.
Ask anyone – even a foreigner – about Mashuni. They will tell you what it is. For Mashuni is the commonest breakfast you will come across in the Maldives. This delicacy has flourished decades owing to its spicy taste emanating from the smoked tuna dish with coconut. All the rage, however, is for the mashuni baked in roshi, Maldivian flat bread. Get a taste of it at someplace such as PER AQUUM Niyama Maldives.
Everyone cannot achieve it. Not everyone can make food spicy to the right extent like the Maldivians. The right use of the spice will get you not only the proper flavour, but also the proper colour. And in any Asian country, the food colour also matters in appetite.
Most of the curries in Maldives are gifted from South India and Sri Lanka. But the Maldivians have their own flavour. When you taste Dhon Riha or Maldivian Tuna curry, you will realize the uniquely Maldivian taste.
Dhon Riha is made with coconut milk, crushed ginger, sliced onions.
Maldives is a haven for seafood. Theluli Mas, for that matter, is a dish you can see almost anywhere. Best still, Theluli Mas is an easy preparation. It is a thick tuna steak soaked in a traditional paste. People eat Theluli Mas mostly with rice, bread and vegetables. If you are interested about making one for yourself, ask any of the restaurants in Maldives. They will offer you various recipes.
Breadfruit is a multi-purpose delicacy. It is used for desserts, curries as well as short-eats. A popular curry made out of breadfruit is known as Banbukeylu Harisa. You need to skin the breadfruit, core it and then steam until gets soft. Other ingredients that should go along with it should be sliced smoked tuna, chopped onions, hot pepper, lemon juice, ginger paste, coconut milk, turmeric powder, pandan leaf, curry leaves and ghee. You will also need salt to enhance the spicy taste. You need to heat ghee and fry onions. Ghee has to be heated properly and onions have to be fried until its colour turns brown. Other ingredients added, you can boil the curry. Banbukeylu Harisa is also eaten with rice or bread.
This is a paste made out of tuna. Rihaakuru has a variety of colours from brown to jet brown. If you are in the company of a local, you will notice that they consume this paste almost daily. It tastes good, but the procedure of extracting it from tuna is not that easy. You need cook tuna in salt-mixed water for hours and get rid of the forming scum. Once the cooking job is done, you need to remove the tuna bones and heads from water, and let the rest boil for a while in low fire. Water will evaporate sometime later, and what is left is what you call Rihaakuru.
Most locals would prefer Rihaakuru with rice, roti and bread. They would also add this paste when they cook meals.
Generally speaking you cannot expect alcohol at anyplace, because Maldives is an Islamic country. But most restaurants and resorts would offer them. There is a mild form of alcohol called Raa, a toddy tapped from palm trees. If you are not bothered about alcohol, go for the locals' favourite: tea or sai.
