Exploring Mauritius Cuisine

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The Mauritian cuisine.

The Mauritian cuisine is multicultural and offers a broad choice of different delights. As fishing has been an industry here for generations, different fish dishes are plentiful. So if you enjoy fish, you are in for a gastronomical treat.

On the streets you will find many vendors selling delicious snacks. Try out samosas (filled with vegetables, meat or fish), gateaux piment (filled with pea puree) or rotis and dhol puris (a kind of crepes with hot sauces).

Food is everywhere so you will encounter a broad choice of restaurants: Indian, Creole, Chinese or French, whatever you like. Taste an Indian curry or Biryani, a Creole rougaille, fried noodles or a French pepper steak.
Rougaille, or rougay, is a classic Creole dish featuring throughout Mauritian cuisine. It's basically a tomato and onion sauce base with many added ingredients including meat or fish.
A local condiment to be tried is that bottle of clear liquid full of white bits that's sits on many restaurant tables. Its a garlic sauce with chopped garlic in water and added vinegar and salt which goes wonderfully with most rice dishes.

A specialty of the island is the Millionaire’s salad. This salad is made from the hearts of the palmist palm tree – Coeur de Palmiste. In the south of Mauritius there are plantations on which palm trees are only grown for this purpose.
In addition to many different cuisine restaurants, there are dozens of smaller street food stalls with a fantastic array of different snacks. Though beware, in Mauritius they love their spices so many are very hot.
Millionaire’s salad is served in most restaurants, which is made from a palm tree heart. Its 'millionaire' name goes way back to when palm trees were a major source of income. A palm tree takes several years to grow and to make a salad requires cutting down such a tree which is a great financial loss and only the wealthy could afford such luxury.

For deserts there are a wide range of delightful looking and tasty treats. Banana Fritters, Gato Coco, Napolitaine, Corn Pudding, Flan, Vermicelli to name just a few. The islands grows a wide range of fruits so expect to find fruit like pineapple, banana, coconut, mango, litchi, papaya etc along with some lessor known local fruits.

You have a broad choice of drinks on the island. Of course, you can always find the international brands, such as Coca Cola, but also give the local lemonades a try. Eski for example offers such exotic tastes as vanilla and almond.

The Mauritians prefer to drink still water, but you can also buy sparkling water. You should also not miss out to taste some local fruit juice, which is offered in various tastes, like for example mango or passion fruit.

The national drink of Mauritius is rum, which is produced from sugarcane. It is offered in many different variations. Some of the best known brands are Goodwill Local Rum and Green Island. You can savour the rum pure, with Coca Cola or in a tropical cocktail. Beer is also produced on the island itself. The most popular brand is Phoenix, but you can also try Blue Marlin, which is a bit stronger. Vines are imported from South Africa, Australia and France.