Local Dishes

1. Vary amin'anana

   Va-ry a-min'a-na-na

   Vary amin'anana (rice cooked with leafy greens)

   Usage

   The most common home dish in the highlands—rice, leafy greens and scraps of meat boiled together. Nearly always on the board at a local eatery

   Grammar Note

   A set phrase: rice boiled together with assorted greens. The same phrase is also used figuratively for "a jumble, a mess", so outside a menu it may not be about food.

2. Sosoa

   So-soa

   Sosoa (soft rice porridge)

   Usage

   A breakfast standard. In the highlands it is served with strips of dried meat (kitoza)

   Grammar Note

   It means "rice cooked soft with much water, usually served at breakfast". People also say "vary sosoa", but "sosoa" alone is enough.

3. Hena ritra

   He-na ri-tra

   Hena ritra (meat simmered until the liquid has gone)

   Usage

   Zebu beef simmered slowly until only the fat is left. One of the classic laoka served over rice

   Grammar Note

   A set phrase: "beef cooked till the juice is all boiled". On its own, "ritra" is an adjective meaning "dried up, all gone".

4. Kitoza

   Ki-to-za

   Kitoza (strips of salted, smoke-dried meat)

   Usage

   Usually served with soft rice porridge (sosoa) at breakfast. Normally made from zebu beef

   Grammar Note

   It is meat cut into long strips, salted to keep, and hung above the cooking fire. A pork version also exists.

5. Masikita

   Ma-si-ki-ta

   Masikita (grilled meat skewers)

   Usage

   Charcoal-grilled skewers sold on the street. The word belongs to the north (around Antsiranana) and may not be understood in a highland eatery

   Grammar Note

   It is a northern (Antankarana) dialect word for strips of meat held over a fire. It is not a standard-register word, so the name varies by region.

6. Lasary

   La-sa-ry

   Lasary (chopped onion and tomato relish)

   Usage

   A relish served alongside the main plate. Ask for it without chili (sakay) if you do not want heat

   Grammar Note

   It is chopped onions mixed with tomato, with chili if wanted. A second sense covers vegetables pickled in vinegar or oil, so what arrives varies by restaurant.

7. Voanjobory sy henan-kisoa

   Voan-jo-bo-ry sy he-nan-ki-soa

   Voanjobory sy henan-kisoa (bambara groundnut stewed with pork)

   Usage

   A round groundnut stewed with pork—a standard laoka. Check first if you avoid pork

   Grammar Note

   Voanjobory is a bean producing round seeds—unlike the peanut (voanjo), its pod usually holds a single seed. Henan-kisoa is hena (meat) + kisoa (pig), joined with the linking -n.

8. Trondro maina

   Tron-dro mai-na

   Trondro maina (dried fish)

   Usage

   Usually cooked with leafy greens. Also sold loose by weight at the market

   Grammar Note

   Malagasy places the adjective after the noun, hence "fish + dried". "Trondro maina sy anamalao" is an example of a dish named this way.

9. Anana

   A-na-na

   Anana (cooked leafy greens)

   Usage

   A blanket term for edible greens; menus often list just this one word. Which green it is changes from day to day

   Grammar Note

   It is plants used in or as a side dish—anamamy, anatsonga, anamalaho and so on. It does not name one specific green.

10. Anamalaho

    A-na-ma-la-ho

    Anamalaho (pungent aromatic green)

    Usage

    The green that defines romazava. Chewing it leaves a distinctive tingling on the tongue

    Grammar Note

    It is a tangy, warming green that is prized when combined with other greens. The spelling "anamalao" is also seen.

11. Mangahazo

    Man-ga-ha-zo

    Mangahazo (cassava)

    Usage

    Steamed or boiled and eaten in place of rice. Also sold by the piece on the street

    Grammar Note

    It is a root crop eaten like the sweet potato (vomanga). Its pounded leaves are what makes ravitoto.

12. Vomanga

    Vo-man-ga

    Vomanga (sweet potato)

    Usage

    Boiled and eaten for breakfast or as a snack. Its leaves are also eaten as a green

    Grammar Note

    It is a creeping plant whose leaves and tubers are both eaten, and analyses the name as vo (tuber) plus manga (finely coloured).

13. Saonjo

    Saon-jo

    Saonjo (taro)

    Usage

    Boiled or added to stews. Often sold at the market with the leaves still on

    Grammar Note

    It is an edible root crop with a pleasant smell, and notes two main kinds—a sweeter and a more aromatic one.

14. Tsaramaso

    Tsa-ra-ma-so

    Tsaramaso (common beans)

    Usage

    Stewed, often with meat. Cheap, so it is a fixture at local eateries

    Grammar Note

    It is a bean eaten for its seeds, noting two ways of eating it—young in the pod, or shelled. The name is tsara (fine) plus maso (eye), after the glossy seed.

15. Sambosa

    Sam-bo-sa

    Sambosa (fried triangular pastry)

    Usage

    A snack sold at street fry stalls. Usually filled with meat, sometimes spicy

    Grammar Note

    In the southwestern (Vezo) dialect it is a triangular fried pastry filled with spiced meat, often hot. It came in through Indian Ocean trade.

16. Koba

    Ko-ba

    Koba (steamed cake of pounded flour)

    Usage

    Sold in thick slices by weight on the street. The version steamed in banana leaves is the one visitors usually meet

    Grammar Note

    It means "flour; dough". It also covers pounded rice, cassava or maize and the food made from it, named by its base: kobam-bary (rice), koba-mangahazo (cassava).

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