14.058 Roti with Smoked Tuna & Dal Curry

Cycle 14 – Item 58

4 (Sat) March 2023

Roti with Smoked Tuna & Dal Curry

4.0

on MV Adora

-Gaafu Alifu Atoll, Maldives-

w DMs and kitchen crew

Living Aboard the MV Adora (Day 8/13)

MV Adora

In the Maldives.  Here for my 2nd liveaboard.  For 10 days, I’ll be on the MV Adora – same boat as my 1st experience (see previously 9.191 Grilled Beef Tenderloin) – sailing through the Deep South Atolls, diving from the boat, while I eat, drink (mostly drink), sleep, i.e., “live aboard” the boat.

COOKING

In the morning, at long last, I finally got a chance to sneak into the galley while the chef was making roti.  I’d been begging for a lesson from day one, but the timing hadn’t worked out, until today.

The dough is a mix of regular flour + cooking oil + hot water – must be hot to keep the dough loose.

To ensure uniformity of size and shape, the dough is rolled into into small balls (about the size of a racquetball), then rolled out into thin discs – right away, while still warm, before they can develop glutens and turn chewy.

The discs are cooked on hot griddles for 1 minute per side – no need to grease the griddles as the dough already contains oil.

I’m pretty sure that I can make them at home.

BREAKFAST

Even better, I was invited to eat breakfast in the galley with the boys.  Truly an honor for me – I’m sure that I was more of a nuisance for them, though by now I hope that they know the deep appreciate that I hold for the food.

Smoked Tuna & Dal Curry (3.0).
Deko, the head dive master, eating his breakfast while nibbling a scotch bonnet chili to amp up the heat.

Amazing.  The curry, laced with strips of scotch bonnet chilies, bits of dried tuna, and heaps of yellow dal, was deliciously spicy and smoky and creamy, pairing perfectly with the plain roti, hot off the griddle.  100% authentically Maldivian.  Far and away the best meal of the trip.

Me: “You guys eat like this every morning?!”  Deko: “Every meal.”

DIVING

Dives 19-21 (this trip) / 174-176 (lifetime)

Highlight: Eagle Ray Point – Gaafu Alifu Atoll

Initially, the dive wasn’t particularly notable, until we crested a slope and found a pristine lane of pure white sand stretching out before us – never seen anything like it.  At first content to glide over the sand, I couldn’t resist plunging my hands into it (ordinarily, divers try not to churn the sediment on the sea floor, which reduces visibility for everyone).

Taken by a fellow diver, the top video shows me (with grey fins, frame right) gliding down the slope.  The bottom video continues from my perspective.

A bit farther down, we encountered enormous beds of leaves strewn about the ocean floor. We made a mess.  Betty couldn’t stop laughing, as heard in the video.

It was unlike any dive that I’ve experienced, certainly one of best in my life.

DINNER

While I might’ve been impressed by dinner on any other night, I couldn’t stop thinking about what the crew was eating in the galley.

Roast shrimp and garlic + fried rice + sautéed green beans + cabbage salad (3.0).

BOOZE

Teacher’s dates back to 1830, when William Teacher began to sell whisky from his grocery store in Glasgow, Scotland.  Teacher’s Highland Cream was registered in 1884.  The company is now part of Beam Suntory, under the Fortune Brands conglomerate.

Teacher’s Highland Cream Blended Scotch Whisky

Best meal, best dive, best day of the trip thus far.

(See also FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also BOOZE)

(See also MDV)

(See also DIVING)

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