Maldives Travel Guide

Maldives' national breakfast — shredded smoked tuna mixed with freshly grated coconut, onion and chilli, eaten with roshi flatbread and sweet tea. Simple, balanced and completely addictive. Available at any local tea house (sai hotel) for a few dollars.

A clear, deeply flavoured tuna broth served with rice, fresh lime, chilli and onion — the closest thing to a Maldivian national dish. Eaten at every meal by locals; the version at local island restaurants is more authentic than anything at a resort.

A Maldivian tea-time tradition — small fried and steamed snacks of tuna-filled pastries (bajiya), coconut-stuffed dumplings (kulhi boakibaa) and sweet rice cakes, served with sweet black tea. The local sai hotels serve these through the afternoon.

The Maldives' resort dining scene excels at fresh-caught lobster, snapper and grouper grilled simply over charcoal. Most resorts run beach BBQ nights where the fish was in the ocean that morning — as fresh as seafood gets, anywhere on earth.

A rich coconut milk tuna curry spiced with turmeric, curry leaves and chilli — the Maldivian version of a fish moilee, eaten with rice or roshi. The local island version, cooked in earthenware pots over wood fires, is far more complex than the resort interpretation.