In this week’s episode, James and Luke try out the food of The Maldives, an archipelago of coraline islands in the Indian Ocean. The Maldivian diaspora in the UK, compared to other South Asian groups, is tiny; consequently there are no Maldivian restaurants, but there is at least one Maldivian Supper Club (@maldiviansupperclub on Instagram), run by host Mie Ali Didi, who prepares the food eaten in this episode.
**Starters** ( 1:15 – 12:00)
James and Luke sketch out the historical background of Maldivian cuisine, including Sri Lankan influences since around the 1970s. Although the Maldives are often idealised as remote desert islands, they have played a role in Indian Ocean trading networks for more than 2,000 years, were colonised by the Portuguese, and became a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965, finally becoming a Republic in 1968.
**Mains** (12:00-22:10)
James and Luke join Mie Ali Didi and her friends for dinner at the Maldivian Supper Club, discussing with their guests what food from their homeland means to them and why.
**Dessert** (20:12-29:40)
After dinner chat includes a discussion of gender politics in the catering business (and why most supper clubs are run by women and restaurants by men); the history of Indian Ocean cuisine and the importance of family and food sharing to culinary traditions; and what it means to be part of one of the smallest South Asian diasporas in the UK.
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The Maldivian Supper Club Menu
Appetisers of smoked tuna, coconut and dates
Roshi and Mashuni
Pumpkin curry
Aubergine dry curry
Dal
Rice
Bananas, sugar, coconut, rice flakes and smoked fish/
Works Cited:
Heslop, L. and Lubna, H. (2024) 'Infrastructure, circulation, and ecology in the Maldives'. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History.
Heslop, L. and Jeffery, L. (2023) 'Roadwork: expertise at work building roads in the Maldives'. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 26 (2). pp. 284 - 301.
Heslop, L. and Jeffery, L. (2021) 'Encountering Chinese development in the Maldives: gifts, hospitality, and rumours', in Heslop, L. and Murton, G. (eds.) Highways and Hierarchies: ethnographies of mobility from the Himalaya to the Indian Ocean. Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press. pp. 175 - 196.
Maloney, Clarence. 1976. The Maldives: New Stresses in an Old Nation. Asian Survey, Vol. 16, No. 7 (Jul., 1976), pp. 654-671.
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