temptation island; At a luxurious ecoresort in the Maldives, Jeffrey Steingarten feasts on a surprisingly inventive variety of beach cuisine.(Country overview)(Travel narrative)

Byline: Jeffrey Steingarten

The last time my wife and I traveled somewhere that offered nothing good to eat was in the seventies, when we went trekking in the Himalayas, from the Nepalese town of Pokhara to the Annapurna base camp. Despite the spiritual perfection we achieved, I vowed never to let it happen again. By the end of the second week, we had run out of fresh eggs, the packets of Quaker instant oatmeal that had fortified us in the mornings, the jars of jellied shrimp, and the cans of cheese used to prepare whole-wheat chapatis stuffed with cheese, a dish you would not likely eat twice a day for fifteen days unless you were faced with certain starvation. ...