Staying on a Maldivian residential island for half a month

On Himandhoo, there’s no shortage of fish to catch every day, seafood feasts that make you want to collapse 🦞, and sashimi so tender it melts in your mouth 🤤. But the biggest surprise? Actual Chinese food! Hotpot fish 🍲, spicy and sour shredded potatoes 🥔, tomato and egg stir-fry 🍅, stir-fried cabbage… and so much more. As a super picky eater, I honestly thought I’d starve in the Maldives. Who knew? I ate so well I gained weight. Sharing dinner with a group of friends on the beach 🏖️ is so romantic—like, heart-meltingly romantic 🩷. Turns out, residential islands can be just as dreamy as resorts. 🐟 Fish so fresh, they could swim back to the sea Himandhoo’s sea is like a “natural fish pond.” Mornings out with locals, the hook barely hits the water before a silvery fish takes the bait 🎣. Sometimes it’s a palm-sized snapper, sometimes a plump grouper. Captain Amin would laugh and shout in Chinese: “Sashimi all you can eat today! 🍣” Back on the island, the homestay aunt handles the fish more skillfully than the market back home. When the sashimi slices hit the table, the flesh still carried the coolness of the sea. Dipped in local lime juice, the freshness made my taste buds tingle—suddenly, the sashimi I’d had at Japanese restaurants felt like “settling.” If we caught too much, she’d cube the leftover fish, coat it in local spices, and fry it into fish steaks—crunchy on the outside, juicy inside 🥩. With rice, I’d polish off two bowls 🍚. Once we hauled in a huge tuna. Tourists and locals split it, and our chunk became tuna hotpot: a few slices of ginger in clear broth, fish cubes fished out when white. The soup was so fresh I drank it straight—even my friend, who usually hates fish, scrambled for seconds 😋. 🍳 Who gets it? The moment I bit into spicy and sour shredded potatoes in a Maldivian residential island On day five, staring at three days of curry and grilled fish, I started missing home. Then the homestay owner said: “Chinese food tonight.” When dishes arrived, I almost teared up 😭— Spicy and sour shredded potatoes 🥔, cut evenly thin, vinegar tang mixed with chili kick—tasted exactly like Grandma’s. Tomato and egg stir-fry 🍳, fluffy eggs, tomatoes stewed to a pulp—soaking the juice into rice, carb happiness maxed out. Stir-fried cabbage, with that perfect wok hei, just the right oil and salt—tasted like home-cooked comfort. Best of all? Hotpot fish 🍲: broth fried with local chili, numbing my tongue, fish chunks soaked in spice. With iced cola 🥤, I kept eating even as I sweated. The owner said, with so many Chinese tourists, they hired an aunt who cooks Chinese food. Soon, mealtimes became my favorite: morning congee with pickles (aunt’s homemade, better than preserved vegetables 🌶️), occasional Yangzhou fried rice at noon, hotpot, braised fish, or Kung Pao chicken on rotation… I gave my five packs of preserved vegetables to new foreign tourists. 🏖️ Beach dinners: more romantic than any TV drama One night, tourists and locals chipped in for a big lobster 🦞, setting up a grill on the sand 🔥. As sunset dyed the sea orange, the lobster sizzled on charcoal, butter and garlic aroma drifting far. We sat cross-legged on the beach, tearing lobster meat with hands, licking juice off shells 🤤. Someone brought a guitar 🎸, strumming off-key. Locals clapped, singing local songs. Wind carried laughter to the sea. I bit into a lobster claw, looking up—stars dense as scattered diamonds 🌟, bonfire crackling, a fish leaping 🐟, its splash glinting in moonlight. Suddenly I got it: Residential island romance isn’t resort-style fancy plating. It’s the chaos of grabbing the last grilled fish, aunt asking “Spicy or mild today?” with a smile, the sea breeze carrying the relaxed scent of food. On departure day, aunt stuffed a bag of her pickled chili 🌶️: “Stir into noodles when you miss this.” Looking back from the speedboat, Himandhoo floated like an emerald 💎 on the sea. Suddenly, the scale number didn’t matter— After all, getting fat from warmth and human connection in a foreign land? That’s the happiest “problem” ever 🥰. #EveryMomentWorthRecording #MaldivesIslandSelection #HimandhooMaldives #Himandhoo