Breeze_Issue_001_ChildrenOfTheSea

CUISINE
The
Melting
Pot
WORDS NASHIU ZAHIR, PHOTOS YASSIN HAMEED/F8PRO
The Maldives has maintained trade routes
with its spice-rich overseas neighbours for
centuries. The result? A distinct local cuisine
that has combined cooking know-how from
across the region.
Noted 14th century traveller and explorer,
the Moroccan Ibn Batuta observed that
after a vessel docked in the Maldives, it
was customary for men to approach it
with gifts of young coconut and betel,
South Asian treats. In her book, Classical Maldivian
Cuisine, Aishath Shakeela notes that those who accept
such gifts were invited to stay at the men’s homes
and treated as family. Travellers then depart from the
country with gifts, including food that does not perish
quickly, prepared by the womenfolk of the household.
Historically, Maldivians acquired necessities from
Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh; bartering cowries and
food items including dried fish, rihaakuru (fish paste)
sweet potato, breadfruit, taro and sweets such as
bondi, halvaa, fathuli hakuru. The basic food items they
received in exchange were rice, caster sugar, corn flour,
condensed milk, salt and spices. This had an impact
on the food that was made in the country, adding new
facets to local cuisine.
Curry, which has since become a staple across
the country, would have been born through trade;
curries need spices, which are not indigenous to the
Maldives. They are very likely to have come through
trade with South Asian and South-East Asian nations.
One example of such is a dry chicken curry called
kukulhu mussama, the ingredients of which include
peanuts and raisins. The dish is not very typical of
Maldivian fare and is probably a variation of the
Thai masamman curry; itself thought to have roots in
Persian Muslim cuisine.
As may be expected there are commonalities in
food among all the atolls but the dispersed nature of
the atolls gave rise to variety in food in different parts
of the country. In the south of the country for instance,
taro was a staple food, whereas the northerners’ diet
essentially consisted of breadfruit and mangrove.
Below are some specialties from the three main
divisions of the archipelago.
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