Blood Orange is Bloody Good

Category: Eating Out

Written by Husen Fulhu

This tiny restaurant popped into existence fairly recently and brightened up an otherwise unremarkable corner in Maafannu. Word on the grapevine is they do an incredible kashikeyo ice cream; someone even described it as life-changing.

So, curiosity piqued, we pay Blood Orange a visit. It’s near the Gadi Buru on Fareedhee Magu, across the road from an Eye Care.

Blood Orange’s layout is very simple and spartan; faux wood floors, exposed concrete walls, and some rather curious metal chairs like mathematical objects whose surface area we hope we’ll never have to calculate. The big orange mural of a woman’s head opposite the entrance adds a splash of colour and playfulness to this clinical-seeming place. We notice the empty tables by the massive windows at this hour are awash in sunlight; it might be a good idea to have blinds or tinted glass.

The waitstaff is very attentive and we place our orders: a Miss Popular and a Mess Maker’s Rice for mains, and, of course, Husnuheena for dessert.

Food takes a little over twenty minutes to arrive and we dig in.

Miss Popular is fairly healthy; it’s couscous based with grilled chicken, lots of greens, feta cheese and slow roasted pumpkin. They are generous with the pumpkin, which is incredibly flavourful. Even the couscous has a subtle smoky taste, like it’s absorbed flavour from the chicken. The greens are OK, it’s just lettuce and microgreens, and we feel the dish can benefit from a bit more feta but perhaps that’s just us. On the whole, it’s a decent dish, completely worth checking out.

As for our second main, it’s a mound of garlic rice with chicken and greens on the side. It may not be much to look at but clearly, looks are deceiving. The rice is savoury and has just the right amount of garlic. The chicken is slathered in a homemade hot sauce, which adds this extra and welcome dimension of heat. However, we think it can overwhelm those who can’t handle a little githeyo mirus, but we love the sauce to smithereens. The chicken is tender, succulent, and combined with the rice, it makes for a delicious and filling meal.

Now for the main event, which in this case happens to be dessert. It arrives and it’s a looker; two salmon-pink scoops of ice cream in a nest of green crepes, drizzled over with a dark orange sauce and kanamdhu with some sugar blossoms thrown in for good measure.

The ice cream is sweet, creamy and brimming with that beautiful screw pine flavour. The crepes are soft with a delectable hint of pandan leaf (raambaa) while the sauce adds an extra dash of kashikeyo goodness. Taken together, it’s a medley of different textures as well as tastes; the melt in your mouth feel of the ice cream, the soft, malleable quality of the crepes, the crunch of the kanamadhu, and the crispness of the sugar blossoms. Husnuheena is an experience unto itself, and an unambiguously Maldivian one at that.

The bill sets us back by 390 MVR but this is one meal we’re not going to regret. All hail Husnuheena!

You might also be interested in:

Interviews with famous foodies