Festival Rice · Famadihana Feast
Vary Be Menaka (Rice with Plenty of Fat)
Photo: MPMF24 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
Its name translates literally to 'rice with a lot of fat', and the famadihana where it's served usually takes place only every five to seven years, in the dry winter months.
Rice is cooked and served soaked in rendered fat alongside fatty cuts of zebu or pork, an intentionally rich, calorie-dense dish meant to feed a large gathered family after a long ceremony.
Why it's made this way: Vary be menaka is served at famadihana, the highland 'turning of the bones' reburial ritual, where families exhume and rewrap ancestors' remains before a communal feast, tying the dish to one of the highlands' most important ceremonies.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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