Recommended Mauritian food

Written by Neeraj Shresta

The Mauritian cuisine is a unique mix of French, British, Indian, Chinese and Creloe culinary and cooking traditions, making it full of history and knowledge.

Whether you are traveling on a holiday trip to Mauritius or recently moved to Mauritius, you better try and taste the Mauritian food to the fullest.

To get the taste of real Mauritian food, one must try the Mauritian snacks such as:

• Samosas - Samosas are little pasties traditionally filled with spicy mashed potatoes. Alternatively you can get them also filled with fish, chicken or cheese.
• Gateaux piments - Chili cakes
• Gateaux bringelles - Egg plant cakes
• Vindaye - Vindaye is a kind of a pickled meat, eaten with bread or rice
• Gateaux pomme de terre - Potato cakes
• Batons fromages - Cheese sticks
• Farata
• Bulettes - Bulette descends from the Chinese cuisine - they are steamed balls made out of meet, chicken, tofu or vegetables which are served in a clear stock with fresh chives
• Gâteaux piment - Gateau piments are also known as chili balls - they are little fried spicy peas-lenses balls

Some of the other recommended to try Mauritian dishes are:

• Daube de poisson - Stew of fish
• Langouste à la Creole - Creole lobster
• Curry de cerf - Deer curry
• Rougaille poisson salé - Salt fish in tomato sauce
• Civet de lievre - Rabbit in red wine
• Civet de lapin - Rabbit stew
• Octopus salad
• Poisson aux fines herbs - Fish in tomato sauce
• Crevettes a l'aïoli - Garlic prawns
• Beef with vegetables
• Mines frire - Mauritian chowmein - also known as fried noodles. The noodles get fried in a wok with sesame oil, peanut oil, garlic, soya sauce, fish sauce, salt, pepper and sugar, with different vegetables, fish and eggs.
• Bringele frire - Egg plant fritters - these are sliced fried eggplants rolled up in a mixture of besan gram flour, garlic, onion and ginger. They are also available as piment curry frire which is chili peppers rolled up in the same mixture.
• Prawns in creole sauce
• Camarons - Freshwater prawns in hot sauce
• Gratin de morue - Salted cod with mashed potatoes
• Octopus curry
• Fried rice
• Beef with black beans
• Mari bon - Beef biryani
• Beef with mushrooms in red wine

As for the desserts, one must try the various Mauritian sweets sold on the street and at the restaurants, such as:

• 

  Gateau gingli rier (are also known under the name of “laughing cookies”, and are small fried balls covered with sesame seeds)
• Massepain (the massepain is a typical Mauritian cake which is very sweet and quite similar to the known marcipan)
• Ladou (these are also small cookies consisting of besan gram flour, grated coconut, almonds, butter, nutmeg and sugar). The mixture gets cooked and afterwards shaped into small balls.
• Tarta banane (tarta banane is tartlet tins consisting of a mixture of white flour, water, sugar, and butter and filled with ripe bananas)
• Gateau patates (sweet potato pasties which consists of sweet potatoes, flour, coconut, vanilla and sugar that are fried)
• Undé (undé are small rice cookies refined with sugar, vanilla and cardamon which are coated with grated coconut)

National drinks in Mauritius:

• Rum
• Beer
• Alouda (almond-flavored ice milk drink)
• Fresh coconut milk
• Tamarind juice
• Falooda (mixing rose syrup with vermicelli and tapioca seeds along with milk)

The production of rum is common throughout the island. The first sugarcane field was first introduced in 1638. Sugarcane was mainly used for the production of "arrack", a precursor to rum.

Only after almost 60 years, the first proper sugar was produced. In 1850, Pierre Charles François Harel proposed the concept of local distillation of rum in Mauritius. Today, Mauritius houses three distilleries and is in the process of opening an additional three.