What is "gulha"

Gulha or gulhaa ( IAST guḷā) is a typical and popular Maldivian short eat.

Gulha are small ball-shaped dumplings that are stuffed with a mixture of tuna, finely chopped onion, grated coconut, and chili. Depending on the cook, turmeric, lime juice and chopped curry leaves are added to the mixture. Once ready the gulha are deep fried.

Gulha can be made with wheat flour or rice flour dough. The rice-flour gulha are usually smaller, harder and more crunchy. The size of gulha may vary from the large ones that are slightly larger than the size of a ping pong ball to the smallest which are about size of marbles. This snack was traditionally eaten with sweetened hot tea and sometimes also together with other short eats.

The fish used traditionally for stuffing gulha was commonly Maldive fish but nowadays many Maldivians use canned tuna. Alternatively gulha may be oven-baked instead of deep-fried.