Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.
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Eat mas huni for breakfast
Smoked tuna shredded by hand with grated coconut, onion, chilli and lime, served with hot roshi flatbread. The country's leading breakfast and its most everyday dish.
The coconut must be freshly grated rather than desiccated; the whole texture depends on it. It is eaten by hand, wrapping the mixture in roshi.
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Try garudhiya
A clear broth of fresh tuna simmered with almost no spices, salt and a curry leaf. Served with rice, lime, onion and chilli, which you add to the bowl yourself.
The broth is deliberately plain: you tune it with lime and chilli at the table. The rice is doused in broth and mixed by hand, and this is the national lunch.
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Eat gulha
Small fried dough balls filled with tuna, coconut and onion. The most recognisable of the short eats, taken several at a time with tea.
Inside it should be moist and fragrant with lime; a dry filling means it has been sitting since morning. You take them from a tray and they are counted individually.
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Try bajiya
A triangular fried pastry with tuna, coconut and onion — the Maldivian relative of the samosa, though the filling is always fish. A mainstay of the hotaa counter.
The pastry is thinner than an Indian samosa and the filling drier and saltier. Eaten with tea and the chilli sauce kept on the table.
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Try kulhi boakibaa
A dense savoury cake of rice, tuna and coconut, baked and cut into squares. Served cold and surprisingly filling for its size.
The texture is closer to a dense pudding than to bread. It sits next to the sweet foni boakibaa on the counter and the two are easily confused.
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Try rihaakuru
A thick dark paste of tuna stock reduced for hours: salty and concentrated. It is spread on roshi or mixed into rice, and in intensity it is the local answer to fish sauce.
It reduces for a long time and a spoonful is enough for a portion, so do not spread it like butter. It is sold in jars and is the best edible souvenir from the islands.
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Try mas riha fish curry
Tuna in a coconut curry with spices, curry leaf and chilli — the spicier alternative to the clear garudhiya. Served with rice and roshi.
Maldivian curry is milder than Sri Lankan and noticeably more coconut-driven. Chicken and vegetable versions exist, but fish is the default here.
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Eat fihunu mas
A whole fish rubbed with a paste of chilli, garlic and spices and grilled over coals. On local islands it is cooked in the evening right by the water.
Ask for the catch of the day; whatever came in is the best choice. It comes with rice, lime and an onion and chilli salad.
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Get roshi
A thin unleavened flatbread from the griddle that serves as both bread and cutlery. Baked in stacks and served hot with everything.
Fresh roshi is soft and pliable; yesterday's cracks. It is used to scoop mas huni, curry and rihaakuru.
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Try theluli mas
Chunks of tuna fried dry with turmeric, chilli and onion. A dense snack eaten with rice or on its own, and it keeps well.
It was originally made so that fish would keep without refrigeration. The flavour is salty and concentrated, which is why portions are small.
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Try foni boakibaa Desserts and pastries
A sweet rice and coconut milk pudding cake with rose water, baked until the top caramelises. Served cold, cut into squares.
The rose water is noticeable and gives it its signature. It sits beside the savoury kulhi boakibaa on the counter, so ask which is which.
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Try bondibai Desserts and pastries
A sweet rice porridge in coconut milk with rose water and cardamom, served cold. A festive dessert made for Ramadan and family occasions.
During Ramadan it appears in almost every household at the breaking of the fast. The texture is thick, closer to pudding than porridge.
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Try dhonkeyo kajuru Desserts and pastries
Fried fritters of banana with rice flour and coconut: sweet and dense. Sold in the same hotaa alongside the savoury short eats.
Take them hot while the crust still crunches. The bananas are the small, very sweet local kind rather than large imports.
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Drink tea in a hotaa Non-alcoholic drinks
Strong black tea, often with condensed milk, drunk all day and especially with short eats. The hotaa tea house is the island's main social space.
Ask for it unsweetened unless you want it very sweet; the default is generous. Black tea without milk is karu sai.
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Try raa palm toddy Non-alcoholic drinks
Fresh coconut palm sap collected from the flower stem in the morning: sweet, faintly fizzy and non-alcoholic while it is still fresh. Drunk the same day.
By evening raa starts fermenting and changes; the fresh version is a morning drink. On local islands it is bought from the tappers rather than in shops.
