Food, glorious food!

I didn't feel much like eating for the first 2 days on Naifaru, but that passed and thankfully so because the food here is simply divine.

Fish, rice, noodles and chicken are some of the main foods, flavoured to perfection with very finely chopped spring onion, chilli, curry leaves, ginger and garlic. I have always enjoyed slightly spicy foods, and I suspect my tolerance for hot foods is increasing!

And then there are the freshly squeezed fruit juices. Pineapple, mango, lime, apple, coconut and orange that taste like they have been made from fruit only just picked.

Breakfast is at 930 am. A traditional Maldivian breakfast is roshi masuni - baked beans heated with tuna, spring onions, ginger, coconut and lime juice with roshi (like poppadoms) to mop it up. Sounds ...different? It's scrummy! What makes breakfast best though is it is at a local family's home. Louisha and Ayesha are fab cooks and hosts and have been my main source for learning Dhevehi words and phrases.

Coffee is instant with milk powder out of a tin but still tastes quite creamy (no lattes or cappucinos in sight!) It took a while for me to get my head around that too...I haven't drunk instant coffee in years as I didn't like the taste much back home. Amazing what I'll put up with when there are no other options...

Aisha

We simply turn up at a local restaurant for lunch and dinner, order whatever we want off the menu and enjoy. Lovers Restaurant is a dinky little place near the harbour with a thatched roof and walls, open slots in the wall facing the water and dim, red lighting in the evening.

Most of the food is fried, with plain, boiled veges not seen on menus. I'm so used to eating a lot of fresh fruits and veges so have had to get used to this change in diet too. Still, the meals are tasty - lots of spicy flavours, fresh chicken, beef and tuna with rice, pasta or coleslaw salads - and all very filling.

The guys in Lovers speak very little English and we speak very little Dhevehi so they get us to write down our own meal orders. There's been a couple of times different meals have come out, I figure its a good way to try something different from the unchanging menu!

And as all food has to be imported to Naifaru so sometimes it's hit and miss if something is available. Again, it doesn't matter, it's just part of how life works here - although I have noticed the most popular foods are usually available the day the overnight ferry arrives so look out for my favourites then!

Maldivians love sugar and sweet things, and so all drinks come with (I suspect) several spoonfuls of sugar already mixed in. It didn't take me long to learn 'hakura nala' - no sugar!

There are shops that sell fresh papaya (about $1 USD each), also apples, bananas and oranges so I'm making sure I buy those often to try and balance out my diet!

And I have come across 3 zoos on the island. Perhaps not a zoo as you would see in NZ, these zoos have goats. The goats are kept for milk and meat, although I have yet to come across a goat curry to sample! 

The food here is really yummy and I am loving it. Having such limited choices available though, I now appreciate even more the huge variety and range of foods I can get back home!