Ti Kabann: A Beach Stall with Fried Noodles in Flic en Flac
In places people travel to for the sea, the cooking usually follows a single formula: fast, safe and aimed at nobody in particular. So I'm wary of the food in beach resorts - and the beach in Flic en Flac, lined with dozens of stalls and bistros for swimmers with a towel over one shoulder, spent a long time proving me right. But a few serving windows break the rule, and they are easy to spot: at noon there is a line of locals in front of them.
Ti Kabann is a beach stall on the road running from Flic en Flac to the hotel district of Wolmar - a few planks and sheets of tin with a serving window that hands out the Chinese branch of Mauritian cuisine: boiled and fried noodles.
A Name That Doesn't Oversell
Creole ti is short for the French petit, small; kabann most likely goes back to the French cabane, a hut. So the name of the stall says nothing more than Little Hut - and a building of planks and corrugated tin lives up to that, right down to the last nail. The place takes that honesty a step further: on Facebook it lists itself as a boui boui, the French word for a cheap eatery with no tablecloths and no ceremony. The road behind the stall carries on to the gates of the Wolmar resorts, and here the advertising promises a hut and means it. That kind of candor is hard to find on a tourist coast.
What They Put Together at the Window
The menu is short: noodles boiled or fried - mine frit - with boulettes dumplings or a whole egg on the side. The hut has no real kitchen, so the meat is cooked in advance and they only put your portion together at the window: freshly boiled noodles, stir-fried vegetables and meat on top. Fried noodles with vegetables and lamb cost 140 MUR (2.80 EUR), the chicken version twenty rupees less, at 120 MUR (2.40 EUR).
How to Find the Hut the Maps Don't Know
Don't bother looking for Ti Kabann on Google Maps - the stall is either missing or the pin sits in the wrong place. It isn't cut off from the world: it has a Facebook page, it's just that navigation won't get you to the window. You're better off walking the road along the beach from Flic en Flac towards Wolmar and watching for a serving window facing the road - and a small crowd in front of it. The best time is noon, when the locals come for their noodles: every guide to Mauritian street food repeats the advice to watch where the locals line up - and so do I. The line is the oldest review system there is, and the only one nobody can buy.
You order in French and pay cash only - the staff don't speak anything else, though we still managed. If you want to compare noodles, you'll find them in the middle of the resort at the Nam Wah Snack bistro; a little further along the beach, the Farata Aka Vinoda stall hands out farata flatbreads. More addresses are gathered in the Where to Eat in Flic en Flac section.
A Paper Plate with a View of the Sea
I ate the fried noodles with vegetables and lamb right at the stall, off a paper plate with a plastic fork and the sea at my back. The vegetables kept their crunch even after the wok, and the lamb was seasoned more boldly than I'd expect from a portion assembled out of pre-cooked parts; for a beach window, the food was excellent. The portion cost 140 MUR (2.80 EUR). The people eating around the window were mostly locals, the talk was French and Creole, and I understood almost none of it. You could see the enjoyment on their faces, though - no dictionary needed.
