Eat Like the Local

I’m at the end of my Seychelles vacation sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to depart for Singapore. Although it’s my 2nd trip to Seychelles, I enjoyed my stay and learned. Unlike the 1st trip that was filled up with diving, we managed to tour Seychelles capital Victoria, and also the whole island.

I found a fresh food market in Victoria, Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market also known as Victoria Market. Market has always being my favourite place to visit when I’m travelling. When there’s fresh food, there must be cooked food around as well. Where else to hunt for the most authentic local food other than the fresh food market?


Selling salted fish. Got very tempted to get some but I didn't


Homemade chilli. Don't be fooled by the colour! It's extremely spicy!



 Freshly caught fishes.

Along the stretch of street leading to the market is filled with shops. There are some small-scale provision shops that sell a tiny amount of cooked food, which are either deep-fried, or cakes and a few burger buns and pizza bread.
 







I tried an egg roll, which looks like a spring roll but filled with chunks of eggs and a bit of potato. The skin was pretty tough, took me a few minutes to chew it into pieces before swallowing.


I also tried a vegetable samosa. Though it was only filled with potato, it was tasty. Tasted very similar to curry puff in Singapore and the skin wasn’t as tough as the egg roll.

I also found a local take-away shop next to the market that we stopped and had an early lunch. It’s similar to Singapore economical rice which 1 can chose from the range of cooked food on display. We wanted to eat what the local eat and felt that’s the best way to understand their living culture. But we didn’t manage to follow them exactly. Talking to the locals, we found out they usually will take away rice or noodle plus one or two dishes. As for both of us, we went crazy and had 3 different dishes excluding rice/noodle. The lady who served me was a bit shocked. She replied the box is already full when I ordered the 3rd dish.
 Fried Noodle
 Fried Rice
 Braised Pork Belly
 Sweet and Sour Chicken
 Fish
 Vegetable with Beef
 Soya Chicken
 Vegetable with Pork
 Chicken Wings

Mr. take away box had rice with curry chicken, braised pork belly and stir fried vegetable with chicken. Curry chicken was yummy and pork belly was soft and flavoursome.

As for mine, I had fried noodle with sweet and sour chicken, soya chicken drumstick and stir fried vegetable with chicken. Soya chicken was tasty and juicy. But the fried noodle was too saltish for my tastebud.


 Lady also added some mixed salad into the box. There are a few salads for the customers to choose from.


Each lunch box costs $85 Rupees. Expensive? Absolutely not comparing the price we paying in restaurant and hotels. It’s only slightly more than $5 Euro each. It was the cheapest and most satisfying meal we had in Seychelles.

Chicken Rice or Pad Thai?

Who would expect Chicken Rice to be served during breakfast? I wouldn’t!

While holidaying in Maldives staying in Anantara Kihavah Resort, not only can we find chicken rice in the breakky menu. There’s Char Siew (Sweet BBQ pork), Roast Duck, Roast Pork, Pad Thai, Char Kwai Teow and many more to chose from.

We haven’t being travelling a lot but this is the most extensive breakfast menu we ever came across. After 4 breakkys, I can say I didn’t manage to try every single dish and I looked forward to breakky daily.

I will let the photos to do most of the talking in this post, as I always believe photo says a thousand words.


Our 1^st round of breakky on the 2^nd day by the beach.

Other than the basic tea or coffee, there are also 3 different juices to choose: Watermelon, Orange or Pineapple. 

Can’t resist placing this photo. It’s so cute to find a teapot in clothing.  Wondering am I able to find it in Melbourne.


This is the roasting section with Poached Chicken, Roast Duck, Roast Chicken, Roast Pork, Char Siew to choose from. It’s served with chicken fragrant rice. Mr. tried it in the 1^st morning and felt missing component in the rice. Although a lot of herbs were used, the taste was still far away from the authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice. The chilli was spicy but would be better with a bit more lime and garlic.

The Thai section serving freshly fried Pad Thai and Char Kwai Teow.

We tried both and they were both really delicious. We could taste the wok hei on the Pad Thai and vegetables weren’t over cooked.  The stock used in Char Kwai Teow Noodle Soup was full of flavour. Vegetable was quickly stir fried and added into the noodle soup.

In the same area, which I forgot to take a photo, is also the egg section. Sunny side up, scramble egg, omelette ect can all be cooked upon order.  Baked beans, hash brown, bacon, sausage can also be found by the side.

This is the Spread section. All types of spread for toast can be found on this table.

3 different types of bread to chose for toast. This is 1 of the section which I didn’t touch on at all throughout the whole trip, knowing I can make up for it once I’m back in Melbourne.

Pancakes and Waffles were freshly made in front of us too. We found the waffle smell really nice but end product wasn’t crispy enough. On our last day, we requested it to be cooked a bit longer. It was heaven with 100% maple syrup and sprinkle with almond flakes. It was crispy on the outside and still fluffy and soft on the inside.  I love how deep the square dent was, it’s able to hold on a lot of syrup. Chef made 2 waffles, 1 for Mr. and another for me.

This is the Noodle Soup section, which the menu is change daily. Sadly I can only recall Fish Ball Noodle Soup and Wanton Noodle Soup, don’t remember the other 2 mornings menu.

The Congee station; same as the Noodle Soup section its change daily as well. Chicken Congee, Beef Congee, and Lamb Congee etc. Do find it strange to have chilli flakes as 1 of the condiment. Maybe they can add in spring onion?

This is the Cheese section. All kinds and types of chesses are available.

There’s also a HUGE variety of cured meat and fish which some taste too saltish for our liking but some which we just felt in loved with.

There’s even a Salad section with fresh mixed vegetable and freshly cut carrot, cucumber, capsicum and tomatoes etc. Different salad sauces and wide range of olive oil, avocado oil and balsamic vinegar to finish the DIY morning salad.

There’s also a wide range of nuts and dried fruits as condiment for cereal, porridge and mueslis.



Plain Yogurt, Yogurt with fresh Plums and Yogurt with fresh Passionfruit to chose from.

Of course there’s a wide selection of Maldives local breakfast/curries.

All the curries are change daily as well. This is only 1 morning cooked food section.

 Seafood Curry      

 Biryani Rice

 Cauliflower and Potato Masala
 Dhal Curry
                   

Maldivian Fish Curry


Our favourite is Tuna and Coconut Sambal eaten with Roti. It’s actually tuna flakes mixed with a bit of coconut, chilli, shallots/onions and lime. It’s a bit spicy and sourish. It’s great with roti/chapatti. We 1^st had it while we were still diving on the boat. Being our must have breakky since day 1 in Maldives. I’m going to try recreating this dish when I’m back in Melbourne. Not sure how it will taste if I use canned tuna instead. Got to ask my colleague for help in making fresh roti/chapatti.

Finally, the Fruit section.

Fruit platter was constantly topped up and freshly cut.

Bet I ate my 1-year worth of papaya, dragon fruit! I missed this two fruits so much. When I was craving and couldn’t find any papaya on my last day at the resort. The staff took the trouble to look in the kitchen, cut it up before bringing half a papaya to my table. Felt so <3!