Mas huni recipe: the Maldivian breakfast

*Mas* means fish in Dhivehi, and in the Maldives “fish” almost always means tuna. *Huni* is grated coconut. Put the two together with a little heat and sourness and you have the dish most Maldivians grew up eating at the start of the day.

It is a dry, crumbly mix, not a dressed salad. You squeeze the onion, chilli and lime together with your fingers first, so the flavours soak into the coconut and fish.

It reflects two things the islands have always had: tuna from the open sea and coconuts from the palms. Read more about both in our guides to Maldivian food and the coconut palm in Maldivian life.

Serves 2–3 for breakfast.

• Tuna: about 150 g cooked tuna. Tinned tuna in brine or water, drained well, is what most homes use today. Smoked or dried tuna (see variations) gives a deeper flavour.
• Coconut: 1 cup freshly grated coconut, from about half a mature coconut. Unsweetened desiccated coconut works if you moisten it with a few spoonfuls of warm water.
• Onion: 1 small red onion or 2–3 shallots, very finely chopped.
• Chilli: 1–2 small, hot green or red chillies, finely chopped. Maldivians use a small, fiery local chilli (*githeyo mirus*); a bird’s eye chilli is a good match.
• Lime: juice of 1 small lime, or half a larger one.
• Salt: to taste. Go easy if your tuna is already salty.
• Optional: a few curry leaves, finely sliced.

For the roshi (flatbread)

• 2 cups plain flour
• about 3/4 cup warm water
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon oil

1. Prepare the coconut. If you have a fresh coconut, crack it, then grate the white flesh finely. If using desiccated coconut, mix it with a little warm water and leave it for 5 minutes.

2. Squeeze the aromatics. Put the onion, chilli, curry leaves (if using) and salt in a bowl. Add the lime juice. With clean hands, press and rub everything together for a minute or two until the onion softens and the bowl smells sharp and fragrant. This is the step that makes mas huni taste right.

3. Add the tuna. Flake the drained tuna into the bowl and work it into the onion mix with your fingertips.

4. Add the coconut. Tip in the grated coconut and keep mixing and squeezing until everything is evenly blended, slightly moist and holds together loosely when pressed.

5. Taste and adjust. Add more lime for sourness, more chilli for heat, or a pinch more salt. Serve straight away while the coconut is fresh.

Making roshi

1. Mix the flour and salt, then add the warm water little by little and knead to a soft, smooth dough. Rub on the oil.

2. Divide into 6–8 small balls and roll each one out thinly into a round.

3. Cook each round in a hot, dry, flat pan for about a minute on each side, until it puffs a little and has light brown spots.

4. Stack the cooked roshi under a clean cloth to keep them soft.

At a Maldivian breakfast table, a pile of soft roshi sits next to a bowl of mas huni. You tear off a piece of roshi with your right hand, pinch up some mas huni in it and eat it like a small wrap. Many families eat with their hands, so don’t be shy.

Tea comes with it, black or sweet and milky. Some people add a fried egg or a ripe banana on the side.

Mas huni is also a teatime filling, tucked inside small fried snacks; see our guide to hedhikaa, Maldivian short eats. For a lunch or dinner dish built on tuna, try our garudhiya recipe.

Fresh, tinned or smoked tuna

• Tinned tuna is the everyday choice in Malé and on many islands. Drain it very well so the mix isn’t wet.
• Fresh tuna is boiled or poached in lightly salted water, cooled and flaked. On fishing islands, it often comes straight from the morning catch.
• Smoked, dried tuna (*valhoa mas*) is the traditional option. Tuna is boiled, smoked and dried until hard, then grated or shredded. It gives a smoky, savoury depth.

Other twists

• Leafy mas huni: some cooks add finely shredded leaves, such as moringa (*muranga*) leaves, for colour and a mild green flavour.
• More heat: add an extra chilli, or a little chilli paste.

Mas huni is a fish dish with no traditional vegetarian version. For a similar breakfast, squeeze onion, chilli, lime and salt as above, then mix in grated coconut with shredded leafy greens or mashed chickpeas. If you are travelling meat-free, our guide to vegetarian and vegan food in the Maldives has more ideas, and it’s worth telling your guesthouse in advance.

The easiest place to taste it is at breakfast in a guesthouse on a local island. Many guesthouses serve a Maldivian breakfast on request, sometimes on set days, so ask when you arrive. Local cafés and teashops on inhabited islands and in Malé often have it in the morning too.

On Dhiffushi, a local island on the eastern rim of North Malé Atoll, breakfast is part of everyday island life. See our Dhiffushi food guide and the island’s food and drink listings, then find a place to stay on the stay page.

A few tips:

• On Fridays, shops and cafés on local islands close for a while around midday prayer.
• During Ramadan, eating in public in daylight on local islands isn’t appropriate; guesthouses will serve guests discreetly. See our guide to Ramadan in the Maldives.

• Squeeze first, mix second. This gives mas huni its character.
• Keep it dry. Drain tinned tuna well; too much liquid makes it soggy.
• Eat it fresh, ideally within an hour or two, and wash your hands after handling chilli.