This week we traveled to the Indian Ocean to learn more about Madagascar’s culture and traditions. Neil is getting really good at his spin-the-globe job, and has certainly delivered on some fantastic locations. Not saying there are duds out there, but he’s given us a really good streak. That said, our honest expectations were that we would enjoy the videos more than the food. But we were ready to give this Madagascar recipe the best shot we could manage. We were completely blown away by Madagascar’s national dish, Romazava, which is now a part of our day-to-day rotation.
More than the Cartoon: Masdagascar Culture and Fun Facts
Madagascar is a gorgeous and fascinating place. Madagascar is a large island that broke off the eastern shore of Africa 88 million years ago. It is the fourth-largest island in the world. It is a stew of cultures, but has maintained a distinct identity. Fast forward to the video we watched about locals bridging the divide between multiple heritages. and opting to focus on their Malagasy roots over their Western European or Indonesian. These cultures came from its uniquely situated location. It is a hub, or station, among major sea-faring routes, particularly before routes like the Suez Canal opened.
This blend of Africa and Asia is absolutely beautiful. Much of Madagascar’s culture and history comes from the East rather than the West. Historians say that human settlement began with Austronesian peoples, even though Africa’s Cradle of Humankind is next door.
Its flora and fauna are distinctly Malagasy as well. More than 80% of its plants are found nowhere else in the world. Madagascar is home to 50% of the world’s chameleon population, and 100% of the world’s lemur population. Lemurs are sacred in Madagascar.
Here are a few other fun and interesting facts we learned about Madagascar’s culture:
- The people of Madagascar are called ”Malagasies”
- Famadihana is the funeral tradition, also known as the turning of the bones, in which ancestors corpses are redressed in fresh cloth, and their names rewritten on the cloth so they are always remembered
- Madagascar was once a haven for pirates who used the island as a hideout
- Find a few other interesting Madagascar cultural traditions at The Culture Trip
All this is a recipe for a place like no other. We were lucky to get this spin so early in our process.
Let the Party Begin: Madagascar Music
Queue up the Malagasy music! Madagascar Music – playlist by Pan African Music | Spotify
As we cooked, we listened to a playlist on Spotify simply titled “Madagascar Music.” We had to root through a lot of the movie soundtrack playlist before finding something this time, but the one we found really hit the spot. It was energetic enough that we danced with the kids around the kitchen, but at the same time calm enough to play during dinner. It’s 25 songs which seems like the perfect amount for a playlist – enough for a long dinner or drive, but not overwhelming. Highly recommend.
Scouring the International Market for Madagascar Foods
We went to a local international market this week to explore. It looked like it was African-themed, but information online was sparse. We needed to give it a shot in person. We were hopeful to find a few of the more exotic ingredients common to Madagascar culture. This included spices like Grains of Paradise and cardamom, as well as fresh foods like tamarind, guava, anamamy greens and paracress greens.
None of those ingredients were in the store, of course it is very difficult to get fresh fruits and vegetables imported across the globe. One of the challenging things about Midwest winters is the lack of access to a lot of fresh fruits and veggies. However, we were excited to find a big bag of cassava flour, a popular staple for African cooking. And tons and tons of varieties of rice. Lots of smoked fish. And multiple bags of plantain chips that may or may not have been finished by the time we drove home. We’re super excited to have found this little market, it’s close to the boys’ daycare so we can easily pop by any day, especially when we get a Caribbean spin.
You could definitely smell the fish, Neil’s reaction was “it’s stinky in here!” Thankfully I don’t think anyone heard him. These kids just don’t hold back, man.
Entree: Madagascar Romazava
We decided to make the national dish of Madagascar culture, which is called Romazava. It’s a stew made of meat and greens. This Romazava recipe was incredibly easy to make, and we had most of the ingredients in our pantry already. It’s going to become a go-to in this household, as we’re all about the one pot meal around here. Go to the recipe to learn more, but this is seriously it: brown the beef, dump a can of diced tomatoes, add some ginger and garlic, let simmer for 30 minutes, add chicken and pork, simmer for 15 more, add greens, simmer for 10 more. That’s it, folks. We cooked some brown rice in the instant pot on the side at the same time. The whole process took about an hour, but was very hands off. Fun fact, the Malagasy love rice – just like our kids – and its rice consumption is the highest per capita in any area outside Asia.
This stew also made Alli feel very nostalgic—it tastes so much like her Grandma’s famous vegetable soup (which is a hilarious title given that it consists of 80% beef, 10% tomatoes and another 10% vegetables thrown in for good measure). This one, like grandma’s vegetable stew, really needs the meat though—it makes it. It’s a really great, hearty meal for a cold winter day.
Dessert: Malagasy Cake
The Romazava was perfect for today as our entire state (Indiana) is getting ready to go into hunker down mode, as a winter storm is a’brewin. Most schools have preemptively closed for this expected snow and ice storm, and of course, the crazies turned out in droves at Target and Meijer to buy everything in sight. We needed some more bananas for this Malagasy cake recipe, so Alli made a quick Target run this morning and the shelves were EMPTY. One, sad, brown, lonely banana sat on the shelf.
We did actually have two super ripe bananas left in the fridge, so we ended up making a half batch of this cake which was perfect for four people. Neil would argue otherwise, since he finished his in about 30 seconds flat and then slumped onto the ground in protest when we said we were all out. What a hard life.
The Malagasy cake turned out really well, but was a little more of a pudding consistency. Maybe somewhere between a banana bread and banana pudding. A brudding, if you will. The pictures in the reviews of this recipe looked much more like a cake consistency than ours, ours was not nearly as pretty. But who cares, because we loved the flavor. This actually reminded us of the cake we made for our St. Helena night, but that was made with canned pumpkin instead. It’s been fun on this journey to see how similar some recipes and ingredients can be even on different sides of a continent.
Snuggle Up: Madagascar Culture and Travel Videos
We’d like to point out that the obvious choice here for a video is Madagascar, especially if you’re doing this with kids. However, our children are in the phase of life where they have 3 movies they’ve watch 864 times, and will not accept the idea that we turn on any other kids movie. So instead we skipped through these videos on YouTube.
Madagascar 4K – Drone – Travel Video This video is cool drone footage over Madagascar’s land. FYI, this has only music in the background, but its nice if you want to zen out on the couch. You may not enjoy watching hours of drone footage like Andrew does, so this is just a 4-minute intro for you.
Madagascar (Documentary, Discovery, History) This is a full hour long documentary. If you want a quick overview, we really enjoyed the first 10 minutes or so, and it gave us a really good perspective on Madagascar culture.
Anthony Bourdain – Madagascar We’re lucky when we land on a Parts Unknown episode for one of our weekly spins. RIP Anthony.
Cooking in Madagascar. A traditional Malagasy dinner. We loved the music in this one and the brief rundown of Malagasy cuisine.
History of Madagascar This is the intense history version, we like to trick our kids into learning. This was a good overview of the basic history of Madagascar.
5K Madagascar Wildlife – Incredible Nature and Wildlife of Madagascar – 4 HOURS For those brave souls more like Andrew, who can’t get enough of these drone footage videos. This might hold you over for a really long time.
