Best of the Maldives: Chef’s Table – Kandooma

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Kandooma chefs table

For those who like to get close to the cooking in action, but without actually getting their hands dirty, the ‘Chef’s Table’ is an intimate way to savour the smells and action of a vibrant kitchen operation. Increasingly, top restaurants are exposing their kitchens rather than sequestering them out in some back room separated from diners with some swinging doors made for comedy collisions. Now, expansive set-up counters expose the chopping, a stirring and flame-fired cooking a short glance away from your table.

Kandooma has an actual proper Chef’s Table set in the kitchen itself. It’s not just a front-row, court-side seat, but the whole ambience of the meal changes. You are less of a spectator and more of a participant (but without the hustling and dirty work). The chef’s come over and chat and sometimes show or share something they are working on.

I didn’t get to do the Chef’s Table during our visit, but I did have the treat of one at Gordon Ramsay’s at Claridges Hotel a few years back and it was a whole different dining experience. Kandooma can seat up to 14 and like most chef’s table, the menu is quite customised to your particular interests.

 

Kandooma chefs table 2

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Best of the Maldives: Ice Cream Carts – LUX* Maldives

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LUX Maldives ICI ice crean cart 2

For kids, there is no song so sweet, no sound so pure, no music so adrenalin stimulating as that of the chimes of the ice cream man coming down the street. LUX* Maldives treats all the kids at heart visiting their island with the hot weather joys of the ice cream truck coming down the road with free ICI ice cream cones.

Ring, ring…

LUX Maldives ICI ice crean cart 1

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Best of the Maldives: New Music Tag

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Dreaming of Maldives music

Music.  It’s been a while since I’ve added a new category to the ‘Best of the Maldives’ features.  But yesterday’s Tibetan Singing Bowls inspired me to add ‘Music’.  We have several now mostly falling under the ‘Entertainment’ category.  But, for those audiophiles out there, I thought I now had critical mass to merit its own tag. Here are the pieces to date…

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Best of the Maldives: Tibetan Singing Bowls – Gili Lankanfushi

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Gili Lankanfushi - Tibetan Singing Bowls

 

 

 

And gong goes to…

The Grammy for ‘Best Meditative Inspiration’ goes to…[drumroll]…Gili Lankanfushi. Nominated by Sakis of ‘Dreaming of Maldives’. He featured these ambient instruments in a recent post complete with a video so you can enjoy their soothing tones.

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Best of the Maldives: Chinese Fondue – Vilamendhoo

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Vilamendhoo chinese fondue 2

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese cuisine is right up there with Maldivian and Indian curries as a common cuilinary feature of Maldive restaurants. In fact, it’s hard to go anywhere in the world without a Chinese dining establishment. I’ve eaten in many and I’ve not yet come across a specialty featured at Vilamendhoo of a ‘Chinese Fondue’…

“Seafood, beef, chicken and vegetables which you will cook in a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of your table. Truly delicious! Choice of chicken, vegetable, tom yam or miso soup. $40.00 Per person.”

Chinese expression for ‘bon appetit’ is ??? (mànmàn ch?!) which translates as ‘eat slowly’ which is easy to do with a relaxed fondue preparing each item individually.

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Best of the Maldives: No Shoes – Gili Lankanfushi

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Gili Lankanfushi - no shoes

All of the Maldives exemplifies ‘no shoes’ natural relaxation. Yes, some of the newer super premiums have introduced a little bit more formality with their posh luxury, but the best still maintain that informal and casual elegance. Dressing for dinner typically doesn’t mean footwear (though we like to freshen up after a day in the sun and salt and put on some of our more stylish attire for our Maldivian evenings).

The brochures and websites emphasize this barefoot ethos, but Gili Lankanfushi hits you over the head with it. The minute you step foot on their transfer boat, is the last step you will take in your shoes. Don your life jacket, grab your tropical refresher and then they hand you a canvas bag with the words on it “No News, No Shoes”. It is a shoe bag to put your shoes in immediately. They will take care of getting them to your room and then the idea is you don’t crack open that bag until you board the boat again on your departure.

I love this explicit approach. Not just because I come from America, the land of explicit directness, but because I think many people do need this direction and even prodding. The Maldives is so unlike any place on earth, many people have trouble accepting that it is actually as laid back and idyllic as it is. They think it is maybe a bit of marketing hyperbole and it takes them a few days for it to sink in that things truly as relaxed as promised. And it’s a shame that in those initial few days they’ve missed out on a degree of relaxation for fear that they were violating some decorum.

No confusion at Lankanfushi. They want their guests to start feeling the sand between their toes the minute they step off the boat.

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Best of the Maldives: No Shoes Commute – LUX* Maldives

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LUX Maldives sandbank

At LUX* Maldives, the streets are paved with silky sand. Not just the pathways, but the major intra-island thoroughfares…across the ocean.

During low tide, one of the longest sandbanks in the Maldives connects LUX* to the neighbouring local island of Dhigurah (the sandbank is in the middle of the bottom of the picture above and Dhigurah would be further down below the edge of the picture). Guests actually need to avoid temptation of crossing it (there is a sign asking guest not to pass) because the local island is Muslim and things like women in bikinis are preferred kept in the resorts. Also, if guest loses track of the tide, then they can be stranded. But, a number of workers are from the island and walk across the isthmus land bridge to work at times.

Best commuter line ever.

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Best of the Maldives: Streets – Sun Island

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Sun Island streets

 

 

The ‘Best of Maldives’ I probably never thought I would give. Not only did I think I would never find ‘streets’ in the Maldives, if I did find them, I probably wouldn’t want to showcase them as I adore the no shoes, sand between the toes Maldives. But the streets on Sun Island aren’t just any streets.

An island as big as Sun Island starts to depend on a little conventional personal transport to get from one end to the other. Most bigger islands make do with electric buggies, but use sand paths in keeping with a natural, rustic aesthetic. Sun Island has a different ambience to it. Less deserted island and more tropical plantation. More retro-colonial than uninhabited. It still has acres of unspoiled natural splendour, but they are accented with touches of civilised elegance.

The ‘roads’ on Sun are a striking example of this design. Sun still has plenty of sand paths and the ‘roads’ are just a few main thoroughfare to get from one end of the island to another easily and smoothly. But the roads do not detract, but actually enhance to the look and feel having been laid out in such a refined way. No pedestrian asphalt or concrete, but rather colourful red and black brick lattice. In addition, the main streets are lined with smart lanterns hung from palm trees.

The combined effect also gives the island a bit more of a homey feel to it. Instead of feeling like some plot of sand with a few dwellings, you feel like you are in some exotic tropical community. It seemed a bit Dharma Project with its own distinctive exotic allure.

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Best of the Maldives: Personal Water Transport – Gili Lankanfushi

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Gili Lankanfushi - motor boats

 

 

Personal butlers,, mini-bars and wedding coaches. So much in the Maldives is catered to each individual. At Gili Lankanfushi, you not only get your own bicycle for exploring the island, but the residents of the Residence villas, get their own motor boat. They can be driven to their villa in the middle of the lagoon by a member of staff. Or they have the option of driving themselves. They are given basic instruction in its operating and navigating the low powered boats.

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