Maldives is a small nation that is an archipelago located in the Indian Ocean. Being a collection of land that is surrounded by the sea, much of its nutrients come from elements that are associated with the sun and the sea. There are three main ingredients that you would find in all dishes, whether you are snacking on street food or romantic dining in Maldives. These three ingredients are coconut, fish, and starch. Coconut can be found in grated form, squeezed to extract coconut milk, or in the case of deep fried food, used as coconut oil. Fish can be wide and varied, though the favourite is the skipjack tuna. There is a tendency to use yellowfin tuna, little tunny, bigeye scad, frigate, wahoo, and mackerel as well. The fish can be cooked in pieces in curries, have the shavings mixed with salads and other greens, boiled a-whole, fried in strips, and baked with the skin on among other things. There is a brown paste called “rihaakuru” that is an essential part of a Maldivian diet, which is made of tuna. No meal in Maldives is considered complete without having at least a touch of rihaakuru. Starch is often in the form of rice, harvested from their own paddy fields. However, tubers such as sweet potato, taro, and cassava are not uncommon. Rice and certain tubers are sometimes ground into a flour which is then used to make flat bread, or eaten after simply boiling.

 

In order to truly appreciate the variety of dishes that can be whipped up using merely these three ingredients and numerous spices, you can visit a large buffet like the ones at Naladhu Maldives. It will be an apt display of the creative genius at work in Maldivian chefs, who prove that necessity indeed is the master of creativity.

 

Caleb Falcon is a travel writer who specializes in writing content based on the many exciting world adventures that await intrepid travellers.

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