Mauritian food is the direct product of who came to the island: French colonists, enslaved East Africans and Malagasy, indentured labourers from India, and Chinese traders. Nothing on the plate is fusion in the invented sense — it is what happens when four cuisines share a small island for two centuries.
The ones to eat first
Dholl puri
The national dish in everything but name. Two thin flatbreads made with ground yellow split peas, filled with gros pois curry, rougaille and chilli, rolled and eaten with your hands. Around 25 to 40 rupees from a street cart. Start here.
Farata
A flakier, plainer flatbread, usually served with a curry or chutney. The everyday partner to dholl puri.
Gateaux piments
Split pea fritters with green chilli, coriander and cumin. Sold hot by the handful in a paper bag for about 20 rupees. The default Mauritian snack.
Rougaille
The base Creole sauce: tomato, onion, garlic, ginger, thyme and chilli, cooked down and used with fish, sausage or eggs. If you order one Creole main, make it a rougaille.
Vindaye
Fish or octopus in mustard seed, turmeric, garlic and vinegar. Sharp, yellow, served cool or at room temperature. Ancestor of the same dish you will find as vindaloo elsewhere, and much better here.
Bol renversé
The "upside-down bowl". Rice, stir-fried vegetables and meat, packed into a bowl with a fried egg on top and inverted onto the plate. Sino-Mauritian, filling, cheap, and the safest thing to order when you have no idea what to order.
Mine frite
Fried noodles with vegetables and whatever protein you choose. The workday lunch of urban Mauritius.
Boulettes
Steamed dumplings served in a light broth, usually chicken, fish, or chayote. Sold by the plate in Chinatown and at street stalls. Excellent in cool weather and easy to eat too many of.
Octopus curry
Octopus stewed slowly in a Creole curry base until genuinely tender. A Rodriguan speciality that has become a Mauritian classic. If you see it fresh at a coastal restaurant, order it.
Alouda
Milk with basil seeds and agar jelly, served very cold, often with vanilla or almond syrup. Closer to a dessert than a drink and the correct answer to too much chilli.
What to drink
Local rum is the serious one — Mauritius has a genuine tradition, and agricultural rums made from fresh cane juice rather than molasses are worth seeking out. Phoenix and Blue Marlin are the local beers. Imported wine carries heavy duty and rarely justifies its price.
Ordering well
- Say your chilli level up front. Mauritian mild is not European mild.
- Follow the queue. Turnover is everything with street food.
- Eat street food at lunchtime, when it is freshest and the choice is widest.
- Carry small notes. Nothing on the street takes cards.
- Seafood is priced by weight. Ask before you order if you are watching the bill.
