Joanna James
An island nation renowned for picture-postcard beaches, the Maldives is also home to an authentic cuisine that's just as incredible. Taste your way through an assortment of local dishes and revel in the mouth-watering blend of flavours—a treat for the taste buds and a memorable time on the islands.
Begin your morning in the Maldives with mouthfuls of mas huni, a simple yet incredibly delicious traditional Maldivian breakfast. The primary ingredient—finely chopped tuna— mixed in a bowl with other ingredients—onions, shredded coconut, and hot chilli peppers—and seasoned with salt and pepper, you have yourself a bowl of toothsome mas huni in a matter of a few minutes. The traditional breakfast is usually eaten with huni roshi, a Maldivian flatbread, where one uses the flatbread to scoop up a mouthful of mas huni. Accompany that with a cup of sweetened hot tea—the sense of pleasure is indescribable.
Enjoyed both as a soup and a broth, garudhiya is a basic dish of the local cuisine as well as a staple in the island nation of Maldives. The nourishing soup/broth uses tuna as the primary ingredient, which can be found in quite a few different species in the waters of the archipelagic country such as, skipjack, yellowfin tuna, little tunny, or frigate tuna. The preparation of garudhiya involves simmering chunks of tuna in water, to which a few other ingredients, such as, curry and pandan leaves, onions, and fresh chilli peppers are added afterwards.
As a country surrounded by nothing but wide-open seas, it is no surprise that tuna finds its way into almost all dishes of the local cuisine, and without any exception, kulhimas also has the saltwater fish as its primary ingredient. A traditional dish with its roots deeply embedded in the Maldives, kulhimas differentiates itself from the whole host of other tuna dishes in Maldivian cuisine as a "chilli" tuna. The tuna is mixed with a smooth paste of a multitude of other ingredients, such as onions, hot peppers, garlic, ginger, cardamom, red chilli powder, salt, and black pepper, which give the dish its tangy flavour.
Your traditional Maldivian meal wouldn't be complete without a traditional Maldivian dessert. Saagu pudding—or sago bondibai, as it is known locally—is a sugary dessert as well as a snack, prepared with a combination of starchy sago pearls, coconut milk, cardamom, rose and creamy condensed milk. Not only is a bowl of saagu bondibai a mouth-watering treat, but is also a treat to the eye.
A national dish of the Maldives and the locals' choice of a short snack, gulha is basically a deep-fried pastry ball stuffed with smoked fish—usually Maldive fish or tuna. No matter where you are in the island nation, you can find gulha at most street food stalls, and cafes as well as at the best restaurants in Maldives, including the likes of Holiday Inn Kandooma Maldives.
A true believer that the pen is a mighty weapon, ventures into reaching the minds of every reader with the earnest hope of leaving an indelible stream of thought.
A travel writer who has a passion for fashion and a deep interest in admiring new and exotic attractions around the world.
