Kashikeyo in the Maldives: Screw Pine Fruit and a Traditional Island Drink

Culinary Culture · Maldives · Local Ingredients

Some ingredients become familiar only after living in a place for a while.

For me, Kashikeyo — the Maldivian screw pine fruit — is one of them.

Kashikeyo screw pine fruit in the Maldives — Kashikeyo, or screw pine fruit, photographed in the Maldives.

Its unusual shape, orange-red colour and fibrous structure make it immediately recognisable. What makes it interesting, however, is not only how it looks. Kashikeyo has long been part of Maldivian food culture, used in drinks, sweets and other traditional preparations.

Living and working in the Maldives gave me the opportunity to encounter ingredients like this outside a textbook or a market abroad: growing on the islands, prepared by local people and used as part of everyday food culture.

What Is Kashikeyo?

Kashikeyo is the Dhivehi name used for screw pine, a plant of the Pandanus genus that grows naturally in tropical coastal environments. More than one type of screw pine is found in the Maldives, and edible varieties have long been used as a local food source.

The ripe fruit is made up of many fibrous sections that change from green to yellow, orange or red as they mature. Its flavour is aromatic, sweet and difficult to compare directly with more familiar tropical fruits.

Historically, the plant has had uses beyond the kitchen. In the Maldives, screw pine leaves have traditionally been dried and prepared for mat weaving, while the fruit has been used in different foods and drinks. Older Maldivian references also describe screw pine as an important food source during periods when other foods were scarce.

Screw Pine and Pandan: Related, but Not the Same Ingredient

This is where confusion often begins.

Screw pine and the ingredient commonly called pandan belong to the same botanical genus, Pandanus, but they are not necessarily the same culinary ingredient.

In Southeast Asian cooking, pandan commonly refers to the aromatic leaves of Pandanus amaryllifolius, used to perfume rice, desserts and drinks.

In the Maldives, the Kashikeyo discussed here is valued primarily for its edible fruit.

They are related plants, but in the kitchen they are used in very different ways.

A Fruit Connected to Maldivian Food Culture

Kashikeyo has been part of Maldivian food traditions for generations.

The fruit appears in drinks and sweets, including preparations in which it is sliced and cooked before being combined with ingredients such as sugar and coconut. Traditional Kashikeyo preparations vary between households and islands, which is part of what makes local food culture interesting.

This makes sense once you handle the fruit yourself.

It is extremely fibrous. Unlike a mango or papaya, it is not simply peeled, cut and blended. Preparing it requires a little more patience.

Ingredients like Kashikeyo are useful reminders of how island cooking developed: people learned how to make the most of plants that were available around them, even when those ingredients required time and technique.

How I Prepared a Simple Screw Pine Drink in the Maldives

There are different ways of preparing Kashikeyo drinks. The method below is the simple version I recorded when I first wrote about the fruit in 2023.

Kashikeyo screw pine drink with young coconut in the Maldives — Screw pine drink with young coconut in the Maldives.

Remove the outer parts of one ripe screw pine fruit and separate the usable coloured flesh.
Slice the flesh thinly.
Place it in a saucepan with approximately one litre of water and bring it to a gentle boil.
Cook for around ten minutes, then allow the mixture to cool.
Blend the cooked fruit with some of its liquid.
Strain carefully to remove the tougher fibres, then adjust the consistency with additional water according to taste.

The drink can be served chilled. I particularly like the combination with a few pieces of young coconut, keeping the preparation simple enough for the distinctive Kashikeyo flavour to remain the main element.

More Than a Tropical Curiosity

When chefs travel, it is easy to look at an unfamiliar ingredient and immediately think about what new dish could be created with it.

Sometimes it is better to do the opposite.

First understand how the ingredient is already used. Taste it in its local context. Ask questions. Observe. Only afterwards think about interpretation.

Kashikeyo is a good example.

Today the fruit can also be found in contemporary Maldivian restaurant ideas — from ice creams and drinks to more modern desserts — but its value did not begin with that rediscovery. The ingredient already had a story.

What Kashikeyo Taught Me

One of the privileges of working internationally is discovering foods that would otherwise remain only names.

Kashikeyo became one of those ingredients for me in the Maldives.

It reminds me that local cuisine is often shaped not only by famous dishes but also by plants, fruits and techniques that people living elsewhere may never encounter.

A chef arriving from another country can bring experience and ideas.

But there is always something to learn from the place itself.

And sometimes that lesson begins with an unfamiliar fruit growing only a short distance from the beach.