Malagasy Cuisine - Madagascar - page 400

Snacks & Munchies
Ma Cuisine Malgache (Karibo Safako), by Angéline Espagne-Ravo,
contains the best collection of Malagasy recipes in French.
One of the first things you'll notice on arriving in Madagascar is the dizzying variety of
snacks available at street stalls. Savoury snacks include meat samosas (called sambos ),
small doughnuts called mofo menakely , and masikita (skewers threaded with grilled beef).
The log-like cake you'll see sold on roadsides is koba , a concoction of ground peanuts or
pistachios, rice flour and sugar, wrapped tightly in banana leaves, baked and sold in slices.
Hotelys also make delicious sweet doughnuts, which they serve with a cup of black coffee.
Intownsandcities,you'llalsofindplentyofpatisseriessellingcakes,croissants,pastries
and meringues. Baguettes can be bought from every street corner, although the quality is
often poor.
Gourmet Cuisine
If you're invited to a Malagasy celebration, bring a present (a small
amount of money or a bottle of rum). Hold your wrist with the opposite
hand when passing food or drinks.
Madagascar has developed a unique strand of haute cuisine that blends Malagasy and
French influences and makes the best of local ingredients. Among our favourites are zebu
steak with green pepper sauce and frites (fries), roast chicken with vanilla mashed potatoes,
and grouper in pink peppercorn sauce with sautéed potatoes. For starters, there is foie gras
(duck-liver pâté), of course; desserts are equally exciting, with chocolate cakes and vanilla
custard, crêpes and local fruit jams, exotic sorbets and ice cream.
Gourmet cuisine is served up and down the country in better restaurants and is an abso-
lute highlight of any trip to the red island.
Hot Drinks & Soft Drinks
Although Malagasy wines still have some way to go to rival regional
counterparts, the Vin Blanc Doux from Clos Malaza is generally held to
be the best local vintage and works a treat with the local foie gras .
Most Malagasies like to accompany a rice meal with a drink of rice water. This brown,
smoky concoction, known as ranovola or ranon'apango , is made from boiling water in the
pot containing the burnt rice residue - definitely an acquired taste. That said, it is the safest
water to drink in hotelys since it has been boiled.