Malagasy food is built around rice. The word for "to eat a meal" in Malagasy is literally "to eat rice" (mihinam-bary), and most people eat it three times a day. Rice is always served with laoka — a side dish of meat, fish, or vegetables — and the combination is filling, inexpensive, and found everywhere.
What to Eat
Romazava is considered the national dish: a clear broth stew of zebu beef, tomatoes, onions, and a specific mix of leafy greens including anamalaho (a pungent herb). It is humble food, but it is made with care and tastes deeply of the place.
Ravitoto is crushed cassava leaves cooked with pork or zebu, rich and slightly bitter. It is a staple in the south and highlands and one of the most satisfying things you can order.
Kitoza — strips of zebu meat salted, dried in the sun or smoked — is the Malagasy equivalent of jerky. You will find it at breakfast alongside rice porridge (vary sosoa).
Zebu is Madagascar's emblematic animal and the most prestigious meat. Whole roasted zebu appears at celebrations. In restaurants it shows up as grilled steaks, stews, and brochettes.
On the coasts and around Nosy Be, fresh fish and seafood dominate: grilled fish with coconut sauce, crab, lobster, and prawns at prices that are low by any international standard. Order the catch of the day and you are unlikely to go wrong.
Street Food
Mofo — the collective name for fried dough, bread rolls, and pancakes — is sold from kiosks in every town. Mofo gasy (Malagasy bread) is made from sweetened rice flour cooked in circular molds over charcoal; it is crispy outside and soft inside and best eaten hot at breakfast. Samosas and mofo baolina (fried dough balls) are everywhere.
Fruit
Tropical fruit is abundant and excellent: mangoes, pineapples, lychees (in season December–January), guavas, papayas, bananas of every variety, and coconuts. In Nosy Be and the north, wild vanilla, pepper, and cloves grow alongside the roads.
Drink
Locally brewed beer (Three Horses Beer, known as THB) is Madagascar's most popular cold drink and is perfectly respectable. Rum is produced locally and is cheap and drinkable. Toaka gasy is home-distilled rice spirit — ask before drinking; quality varies widely. Fresh pressed sugarcane juice is sold on street corners and worth trying. Bottled water is widely available; tap water is not safe to drink.
Eating Out
In Antananarivo, French-influenced restaurants are common alongside cheap local hotely (informal eateries). Prices are low by Western standards. Outside the capital and Nosy Be, choice narrows considerably — most towns have a handful of simple restaurants serving rice with whatever laoka is available that day. This is the food locals eat; it is usually good.