EATING AND DRINKING
FOOD Just thinking about the food I’ve eaten in Mauritius makes my mouth water, from the delicious French-style crêpes served with local coffee for breakfast to the delight of salade de palmiste (heart of palm salad) and the beguiling taste of fish vindaye (fish curry) for lunch, then a dinner of samoussas and Chinese soup from a street stall.
If you have your meals only in your hotel, you may wonder what I mean. However exceptional its standards, by definition a hotel catering for tourists has to serve international dishes that are familiar to guests and with a taste that is tolerable to nervous palates. Most hotels make an effort to showcase local cuisine and will have Creole and Indian nights at least once a week. The true adventure of eating in Mauritius is for the streetwise since so many delicious – and cheap – dishes are available from pavement hawkers or in noisy dives. Of course, there are also many restaurants that specialise in Creole food or European dishes with a local zest.
The influences of Creole cuisine are African and Indian, with a dash of French. The recipes of slaves and indentured labourers have been blended with French ingenuity to produce an array of irresistible dishes, most of which are mildly spiced. The Chinese influence has been confined to particular areas, such as mine (noodles) and the ever-popular fried rice.
A favourite local dish, available from street vendors, is dholl purées: thin pancakes, made from wheat flour dough and ground split peas and cooked on a griddle. They are served plain, or rolled around a spoonful of rougaille or brèdes, and wrapped in paper. The Indian-originating purée, with its African/French filling, is an example of the successful blend of culinary traditions. Rougaille is a spicy condiment often made with pommes d’amour, the tiny cherry tomatoes that are grown and eaten all over the island. Brèdes are part of the daily diet of Mauritian country dwellers, cooked either plain or with meat or fish. They are green leaves – such as watercress, spinach, the leaves of tuber plants and Chinese cabbage – tossed with onions, garlic and red chillies in hot oil until the water has evaporated.
More substantial meals are also available from street sellers, such as poisson vindaye, seasoned fried fish coated with a masala of mustard seeds, green chillies, garlic and turmeric, often eaten cold with bread. Achards légumes, pickled vegetables mixed with spicy paste and vinegar, are also sometimes eaten with bread.
The sweet tooth is catered for with many Tamil specialities, such as gâteau patate, a wafer-like pastry of sweet potato and coconut. There is an abundance of tropical fruit too, especially the small pineapples dextrously peeled into spirals, with the stem remaining as a handle.
All street eating costs little since office and shop workers on small salaries are the main customers. Some workers carry their lunch with them in plaited reed baskets, dainty square boxes suspended from a string handle with a cover concealing the contents. These containers, called tentes, are made from vacoas leaves. They are sold in the markets and make good souvenirs.
Mauritians do not only eat in the street. There are inexpensive eateries in all the towns, where the typical dishes will be meat, chicken or fish served either as carri (curry), daube (stewed with potatoes and peas) or kalya (cooked with saffron and ginger/garlic). Snacks, called gadjacks, are served in bars on small saucers, like Spanish tapas, to accompany drinks. The range is generous, from rougaille ourite (octopus in tomato) to croquettes volaille (chicken bites).
Snoeck rougaille (salted fish in tomato) is a frequent standby if fresh fish is not available, and shrimps or lobster are also sometimes served in rougaille. Camarons (prawns) served with watercress salad are a favourite with Franco-Mauritians. Wild boar, hare and venison are widely available in restaurants, even out of the hunting season. Goat (cabri) is sold in the meat markets in the way that mutton is sold in Europe and is served in curry. The exotic palmiste (for which miniature palm trees are especially cultivated to yield their hearts) is sometimes served boiled instead of in a salad, with a Creole sauce.
Most restaurant menus do not contain many options for vegetarians. However, the majority of establishments will proudly create a dish especially for you, usually carri de légumes (vegetable curry). If you eat fish you’ll be spoilt for choice, with delicious red snapper, dorado (mahi mahi), tuna and swordfish on offer. One of the highlights is, of course, marlin fumé (smoked marlin), served as an expensive but superb starter.
Restaurant prices may not include 15% tax, so be prepared for it to be added to your final bill.
RESTAURANT PRICE CODES
To assist you in choosing a restaurant, we have provided a rough indication of the price using codes to represent the average price of a main course:
Expensive $$$$$ £30+; US$48+; €36+; Rs1,380+
Above average $$$$ £20–30; US$32–48; €24–36; Rs920–1,380
Mid range $$$ £10–20; US$16–32; €12–24; Rs460–920
Cheap and cheerful $$ £5–10; US$8–16; €6–12; Rs230–460
Rock bottom $ £0–5; US$0–8; €0–6; Rs0–230
100% Privacy Guaranteed
