OCTOBER, NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2016

IN TOUCH magazine

IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives. Welcome to this edition of IN TOUCH, our magazine created to keep you “in touch” with Baros Maldives. All of us at Baros Maldives look forward to being in touch with you every few months in this manner so we can provide you with valuable information on the Maldives and on our luxury boutique island resort. Imagine, we are even going to share some of our most delicious recipes with you and tell some of our best kept Spa secrets. We hope you will enjoy being reminded about Baros Maldives and that you will want to be in touch with us too. ©2016 . Contents and photos are owned by Baros Maldives and should not be reproduced , distributed , transmitted , or displayed for any commercial use.

CONTENTS

Dear IN TOUCH Reader, As another fantastic year is coming to an end, we are planning lots of special events to share with guests spending the Festive Season
with us.This year we have chosen the theme of “Enjoying Island Elegance” to reflect the style of our two-week long celebrations. All of us at Baros Maldives feel proud and inspired when aspects of our resort are acknowledged publically. The latest accolade is the house reef surrounding Baros Maldives being acclaimed as the healthiest House Reef in North Male Atoll. That’s according to the
recent survey by the Marine Conservation Society. Our chefs have made us proud too, winning no less than 22 medals at the annual Hotel Asia International Culinary Challenge held in Male’ and judged by global culinary experts. In addition we have won numerous awards from the industry, including the World Travel Award as The Maldives’ Leading Boutique Resort 2016. Our care for the environment both on the island and in the lagoon has resulted in giving us another reason to be proud as we have experienced three Hawksbill turtle hatchings on the beach, truly showing off the miracle of nature on our bijou island. It has been a wonderful year at Baros Maldives with many new and repeat guests enjoying our blissful tranquillity. Exciting times are upon us as the successful year of 2016 is heading towards its end, and we all eagerly look forward to what magic 2017 has in store. Warm regards, Your Baros Maldives Team.

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives

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Sport in the Maldives — A Brief Maldivian Language Guide

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Bon Appetit! Lobster Royale — Let’s Cocktail Rossini

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Spa Secrets The Healing Power of Touch

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Underwater Lobsters

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Baros Maldives Chefs Earn Culinary Glory

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Festive Season In Elegant Style — Get to know Appu Lime Restaurant Manager

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Did You Know That...

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Get in touch

Sport in the Maldives

A BRIEF MALDIVIAN LANGUAGE GUIDE

The Maldives is known to tourists for its beautiful beaches and impeccably clear waters that make resort islands popular for sports like beach volleyball and water sports like diving, jet skiing, windsurfing, water skiing, sailing, parasailing, scuba diving, and snorkelling.

Sport – Kulhivaru Watersport – Fenuge Kulhivaru Active – Muraali

However, for Maldivians, the most popular sport in the country is football, but in the country’s capital, Male’, other sports include tennis, baseball, badminton, basketball, table tennis and billiards. A traditional sport played by the women of the Maldives is called Bashi. This is an ancient game played only in the Maldives and is the most popular sport played by women. It was originally played using a hand-woven bashi (a ball made from coconut palm leaves) by two teams of about 11 women. During the time of the country’s first President, Mohamed Amin Didi, a modernised version of the sport using a tennis ball instead of the hand-woven ball was introduced. Later the bat made with coconut palm wood was replaced with a tennis racket. Like tennis, Bashi is played on a court. A woman, with her back towards the net and the opposing team, serves the tennis ball backwards over her head. On the other side of the net the team of girls tries to catch the tennis ball. Broken fingers are very common.

Diving – Feenun Ball – Boalha Health – Sihhathu

for the Maldivian club Maziya S&R. He is captain of the national team and has played in Asia and Europe as well. He was named as the "World's 2nd Best Top Goal Scorer" in 2013. Here at Baros Maldives we have a multipurpose court in the middle of the island where futsal (a five-a-side version of football), badminton and volleyball are played. Sometimes our guests join the teams in the afternoons and the Baros Maldives futsal players have had the privilege of playing with some of the most famous football players in the world, while they have been holidaying on the island.

Throughout the islands, every Maldivian is passionate about football, whether to watch or play, and many inhabited islands have full-sized football pitches with the main football stadium being in Male’. The Maldives’ national team won the South Asian Football Federation Cup in 2008 against India. One of the most famous football players in the Maldives is Ali Ashfaq, nicknamed "Dhagandey", who plays

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives

Competition – Mubaaraaiy Winner – Molhu Energy – Hakatha Team – Teemu Practice – Faritha Success – Kaamiyaabu

Bon Appétit! Lobster Royale with Eggs, Buttered Asparagus and Hollandaise Cardinal. Turning the classic Eggs Royale into a gourmet treat from brunch to lunch Hollandaise Cardinal originates from the classic French sauce Cardinal, and so the sauce should mirror the colour of a cardinal’s cassock. Serves 2
 For the English Muffins 175g Strong Bread Flour 3.5g Dried Yeast 87g Warm Milk 1 Beaten Egg 50g Fine Polenta for Dusting • Place the flour and yeast into a Kitchen Aid and mix together; slowly add the milk and then the beaten egg. Knead slowly in the machine for around seven minutes until the dough is elastic. Cover in a bowl with cling film and leave to prove in a warm area. • When the dough has risen to double in size, dust your work surface with polenta and roll out the dough to 2cm thick.

Shape the dough with a 7cm-round cutter and return the cut shapes to a baking tray and leave for 30 minutes to prove again. • When muffins are ready gently place in a non-stick frying pan and cook until golden brown on each side. Remove from the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack and then cut each one in half for toasting. For the Hollandaise Cardinal 2 Egg Yolks, Separated in a bowl 100ml White Wine Vinegar 10g Peppercorn 20g Tarragon 100ml melted and skimmed unsalted butter 10ml fresh Lemon Juice 20ml Fresh Shellfish Essence • Bring the white wine vinegar, tarragon and peppercorns to a simmer in a pan and pour slowly over the egg yolks through a sieve, whisking continually. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and slowly add the butter, continually whisking until the mixture becomes thick and creamy. Finish this with the fresh lemon juice, shellfish essence and salt to taste. For the Lobster 1 Lobster Tail For the Lobster Stock 1 Lemon 10g Tarragon 1 Onion 50ml White Wine Vinegar 500ml Water • Poach the fresh lobster tail in a simmering stock for four minutes until tender. Place the tail into ice water to chill. When it’s cooled, gently crack the shell and pull apart leaving the meat intact. Slice into eight pieces. Reheat in simmering butter and water for 30 seconds. • Poach the eggs by bringing a small pan of water to the boil with a drizzle of white wine vinegar and salt. Gently drop the eggs in and poach on a simmer for two minutes. • Cook the asparagus in salted boiling water until tender and remove. • Toast the muffin halves. • Assemble the Royale as follows: toasted muffin topped with a little Scottish smoked salmon, a lightly poached egg, asparagus, velvety Hollandaise Cardinal and butter poached lobster. CHEF’S TIP Fresh shellfish essence can be made using a bisque but it is a time consuming process. Ideally in the home environment this can be purchased in the form of shellfish essence or paste. It will be deep red in colour creating the scarlet Hollandaise If your Hollandaise Sauce starts to split simply add an ice cube and continue whisking.

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives

Let’s cocktail Rossini

They say that life is flat without bubbles! So we have created the perfect solution at Baros Maldives, the exclusive and playful Rossini. This strawberry twist to the classic Bellini is a perfect Champagne Cocktail for any occasion. In the shade of the trees in the palm garden or while watching the sunset from the Lighthouse Lounge, the Rossini will make your Champagne dreams come true. Ingredients 10ml Strawberry Purée 10ml Strawberry Liqueur Top up with Champagne Glass Champagne Glass Garnish A small strawberry Method Pour the purée and liqueur into a Champagne glass; stir and top up with Champagne. Garnish with a small strawberry and enjoy perfection.

YOGA Wild Thing Pose

quality of sleep improves so much so that stress levels fall, improving our overall quality of life.

Spa Secrets The healing power of touch In this era of PC screens and mobile phones many of us have fallen into the habit living most of our lives within our heads. We experience constant conversations with ourselves, live off to-do lists, make decisions, and deal with some form of mental anxiety throughout the days, weeks, months and years. This dynamic lifestyle tends to disconnect us from our bodies and can deplete once vibrant energy levels. A good night’s sleep can prove difficult due to this constant chatter in our heads. It’s no surprise that we might find ourselves reacting to normal day to day situations in a hostile way and we wonder how we have slipped into an often self-inflicted unpleasant situation.

At our Baros Spa we would like to invite you to experience our specifically designed Baros Signature Combination Ritual. This will assist in establishing your mind-body connection for an overall feeling of wellbeing. The ritual lasts for two and a half hours enabling you to experience a private steam bath in a luxurious treatment room before you relax into a coconut and lime scented full body polish. This is followed by our intuitive Baros Signature Massage which integrates four unique massage styles, namely Balinese Deep Tissue Massage, Swedish Kneading Movements, Hot Stone Massage and the relaxing Thai Stretches to leave your mind and body in a peaceful state. To complete this ritual, we let you experience a nourishing Scalp Treatment using local repairing coconut oil for dull and lifeless hair, along with a blissful scalp massage. This will leave you in touch with your body, relaxed, refreshed and able to live life again in complete happiness.

Camatkarasana (cah-maht-kah-RAHS-anna) Start in Adho Mukha Svanasana (DownwardFacing Dog). 1. Bring your weight into your right hand and roll onto the outer edge of your right foot like Vasisthasana (Side Plank Pose). 2. On an inhalation, lift your hips with buoyancy. Stay strong in your right hand making a clawing action with the fingers. Keep the head of the right arm bone back. On an exhalation, step your left foot back and place your toes on the floor with your knee partially bent. 3. Curl back through your upper back to create a sweeping action of the shoulder blades into the back of the rib cage. 4. On an inhalation lift your hips higher until you curl more into a backbend with your right foot solid on the ground. 5. Keep breathing and curl your head back, extending your left arm from your heart and expressing your power and freedom. 6. Hold for five to ten breaths, return to Down Dog and repeat on the other side. Benefits • Opens up chest, lung, and shoulder areas. Opens the front of the legs and hip flexors. Builds strength in shoulders and upper back.

Regular touching has been proven to establish our mind-body connection to such an extent that blood pressures decrease, immune systems strengthen and the

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives

UNDERWATER LOBSTERS Who would have thought that insects are so good to eat…? Insects! It’s true. Lobsters belong to the phylum Arthropoda (subphylum Crustacea), also known as insects of the sea. Lobster meat is a great source of proteins and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids as well as being great for special meal. We must dispel the myth that lobsters scream in pain when you cook them - they have no lungs, no vocal cords and they have such a primitive nervous system that they can’t process pain. The noise we hear is caused by air trapped in the shell: when heated it expands and forces itself out through small gaps, causing that screaming sound. Lobsters grow by moulting, or shedding their shells. Before they shed the old shell, they form a thin one underneath and while moulting, they secrete enzymes that soften the shell and connective joints. A lobster struggles out of its old shell while simultaneously absorbing water which expands its body size. The entire process takes about 15 minutes and each time they moult, they increase their size about 20 per cent. Nocturnal of habit, lobsters venture forth during the night to hunt prey and feed on fish, crabs, clams, snails, sea stars, mussels and sea urchins. However, when food is scarce, lobsters turn cannibal and dine on smaller lobsters. The sexes are separate, normally with males being larger than females. Freshly laid eggs are the size of a pin head and are attached to the swimmerets under their mothers’ tail with a glue-like substance. When the eggs are ready to hatch, the mother will shake them out of the shell, releasing them as larvae. Less than 0.1 per cent of the larvae survives as they settle to the sea bottom and develop as baby lobsters. The average life span of a lobster is estimated at 15 years. At the Baros Maldives House Reef it’s possible to find three different species of lobsters: the most common one to see during night snorkelling is the Painted Rock Lobster (Panulirus versicolor). We can also see the Sculptured Slipper Lobster (Parribacus antarcticus) and the Striped-legged Spiny Lobster (Panulirus femorstriga). In the Maldives, catching lobsters is only allowed by free diving - collecting with scuba diving gear is forbidden. Catching female lobsters bearing fertile eggs or lobsters less than 35 centimetres in length is forbidden as they are on the list of protected species

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives

Baros Maldives Chefs earn culinary glory. The chefs of Baros Maldives won 22 medals for their cooking at the 2016 Hotel Asia Culinary Challenge held in Male’, capital of the Maldives, 4 to 7 September. In addition, the island resort was judged the third Best Culinary Establishment in the Maldives out of 40 hotels that competed. The Hotel Asia International Culinary Challenge is held annually and this year 300 chefs took part competing in 20 categories with their dishes judged by a panel of 18 internationally certified judges, global award-winning chefs and world culinary professionals. Baros Maldives triumphed with three gold medals, two of which were won by Maldivian chef, Ibrahim Nathif, for Hot Cooking Poultry and Pasta Hot Cooking. The third gold went to Dilanka Prasad for his Honeymoon Cake. Prasad was also recognised as the second Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Challenge. Eleven silver medals were won by 10 chefs with Senaka Bodawaththa taking two, for Hot

Cooking Lamb and Hot Cooking Seafood. The total of 29 awards, which included eight bronze medals and seven Certificates of Merit were won by 13 chefs from the resort in the important categories of Bread and Pastry Display, Cakes, Desserts and Hot Cooking. The General Manager of Baros Maldives, Attila AE Domby, congratulated the chefs on their achievements. “I am especially pleased,” he said, “that medals were won in categories essential to our World Travel Awards reputation as the Best Boutique Resort in Maldives for 2016. Having won a gold for the best honeymoon cake and medals for superlative hot cooking, shows our chefs are dedicated to serving our guests the best in culinary fare.”

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives

GET TO KNOW Appu

Lime Restaturant Manager One of our long-serving team members bears the simple name Appu, although his responsibilities as manger of the island’s popular Lime Restaurant, are hardly simple. Appu was born and raised in Huludhoo, Addu, the most southern part of the Maldives and comes from a family of eight children. His real name is Ibrahim Afzal, although he was given the nickname Appu, which has stayed with him until now, when he was playing volleyball as a youth. Appu moved with his parents to Male’ and, after leaving school, he managed to get a job as an island cleaner through the help of a family friend who was then the Baros restaurant manager. He joined our team on 19 July. 1987.

FESTIVE SEASON IN ELEGANT STYLE Recognising that guests of refinement relish a hassle-free holiday where personalised attention to their needs is paramount, Baros Maldives presents the perfect choice, with this season’s holiday theme being “Enjoying Island Elegance.” Gold and white are the colours chosen for this year’s festivities, to reflect the grandeur of the occasion and the purity of the season of new beginnings. The Festive Season begins at Baros on Thursday 22 December 2016 and celebrations continue until Monday 2 January 2017. A Festive Season Diary will be available in every Villa for guests to plan their activites.

and a shopping visit to Male’. A special treat is the bliss of being pampered in the Spa with a seductive Elegant Island Harmony ritual. There will also be a unique Maldivian experience for dinner in the Palm Garden on 25 December and a Countdown Party with a band and fireworks on the deck of the Lime infinity swimming pool on 31 December. For early risers on 1 January 2017, there is a grand New Year Day’s breakfast. Jazz and cool music under the stars are featured on some evenings while the Sheesha and Cigar Lounge is open every night.

There will be memorable experiences including discovering Baros at sea with guided snorkelling tours, coral gardening, and dolphin-watching cruises, and enjoying Baros on land with nature walks, sandbank cocktails, champagne and wine tastings, gourmet and gala dinners and jazz under the stars. In addition, there will be escorted island exploration tours

Over the years Appu worked in various positions from stewarding to villa attendant, but he always aspired to learn more about food and beverage. He honed his skills during nine years working in the bar until he was promoted as Head Waiter of the Turtle, then the island’s only restaurant. With the rebuilding of Baros in 2005, Appu became Head Waiter of the Lime Restaurant and gradually worked his way up, becoming supervisor then assistant manager until being promoted as Restaurant Manager in 2008. Appu says that Baros will always be very special to him as it is the only island he has ever worked on and he feels he has the essence of Baros Maldives as part of his DNA. “I have all my friends here and it’s wonderful to get to know all the guests so well, especially the repeaters who keep coming back year after year. I feel I’m part of not just the Baros team but also of a big international family.” On his free time Appu still loves to play volleyball with his fellow team members at Baros, as well as spending time with his family and four children in Male’. His favourite dish on the Lime menu which he recommends to guests is the Seafood Mixed Grill with Sand Lobster, Sea Bass, Salmon, Scallops, Prawns and Calamari, a perfect combination for lovers of sea food.

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives

Did you know that... … our Resident Manager, Mohamed Zihunee, joined Baros Maldives on 18 Aug 1980 and is registered as Employee Number 1? …in 1980 Baros Maldives had only 45 staff members and could accommodate only 56 guests? …there are 302 individuals working at Baros Maldives? …our total team has representatives of 16 nationalities? …one of our team members competed in “Maldivian Idol” and made the top 20? …34 staff members have been with Baros Maldives for more than 15 years?

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives

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Get in touch

Any questions, suggestions, comments? Get in touch with us on Baros Maldives, we are looking forward to hearing from you.

∙∙ Attila AE Domby, General Manager [email protected] ∙∙ Mohamed Musthafeez, Resort Manager [email protected] ∙∙ Andrew Smith, Executive Chef [email protected] ∙∙ Lisa Jakobsson, PR & Communications Manager [email protected] ∙∙ Shanoon Khalid, Sales & Marketing Manager [email protected] ∙∙ Ibrahim Shijah, Front Office Manager [email protected] ∙∙ Abdulla Aboobakuru, Food & Beverage Manager [email protected] ∙∙ Stephanie Adam, Spa Director [email protected] ∙∙ Elisa Fini, Marine Biologist [email protected] ∙∙ Karin Spijker, Dive Manager [email protected] Tel: +960 664 26 72 [email protected]

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives

PO Box 2015, Male’ 20-02, Republic of Maldives Tel: + 960 664 26 72, Fax: + 960 664 34 97 [email protected], www.baros.com

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IN TOUCH magazine — Baros Maldives