Tea-Shop Short Eat · Rice-Lentil Fritter
Kavaabu
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Kavaabu works cooked lentils into the mix alongside smoked tuna and coconut, giving it a firmer, heartier bite than the pure fish-and-dough short eats sold right next to it on the same tray.
Kavaabu are deep-fried fritters made from smoked tuna, cooked lentils, grated coconut, onion, curry leaves and chili, bound together and shaped into small rounds before frying to a crisp shell around a soft center. They're a fixture of the hedhikaa tray at Malé's tea shops (sai hotaa), eaten by hand with a hot cup of tea.
Why it's made this way: Malé's dense, urban tea-shop culture turned the afternoon hedhikaa tray into a daily ritual, and kavaabu's lentils set it apart from the purely fish-and-dough short eats found elsewhere, giving regulars a heartier option alongside their tea.
Roughly what's in it
200kcal
8gprotein
18gcarbs
11gfat
Estimated per typical street-vendor portion — not lab-tested.
More from Maldives
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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