What to Eat in Mauritius: Typical Mauritian Food and Specialties
Mauritian cuisine is a colourful blend of Indian, Chinese, Creole and French cooking. The small island in the Indian Ocean was settled in turn by French colonists, African slaves, Indian indentured labourers and Chinese traders - and every community brought its own recipes with it. So a single menu can put an Indian flatbread, Chinese noodles and a Creole curry side by side. You'll spot the influence of French cuisine mainly in the desserts and in the names of dishes, which are still written in French today.
Food in Mauritius is cheap and far more varied than you'd expect from an island of 1.3 million people.
Most dishes come as street food - sold right on the street, at markets or in tiny snack bars that often do just one or two things. Street food is how locals eat here, right across all the communities.
Typical Mauritian Food
Stuffed flatbreads are what you'll run into most often in Mauritius. Round roti and square faratas are cooked on a hot griddle, brushed with oil or ghee and filled with vegetarian and meat curry mixes. Roti and paratha flatbreads are food for every generation - breakfast, lunch and dinner wrapped in paper.
The second great tradition came with the Chinese community. Fried noodles mine frit, boiled noodles mine bouillie and fried rice riz frit turn up absolutely everywhere. Order a few boulettes dumplings on the side - they steam away all day in huge pots outside the snack bars. Then there's bol renversé - the "upside-down bowl" that the waiter flips over at your table, revealing layers of sauce, rice, vegetables and meat with a fried egg on top.
The Indian community gave the island rice briani, the thick soup haleem and curries of every kind. Main dishes come with a whole line-up of sides - chutney, pickled vegetables achard or pickled mango. There's also chilli sauce or paste on every table, and locals don't hold back.
Mauritian cooking leans heavily on carbs and there usually isn't much meat in a dish. That's exactly why bol renversé won me over - it has more meat and nothing is deep-fried.
The National Dish of Mauritius
The national dish of Mauritius is dholl puri - a thin flatbread made with cooked yellow split peas. It was brought to the island by the Indian indentured labourers who came to work the sugar cane plantations in the 19th century, and their cheap flatbread gradually won over the whole country. Because they take a while to make, the flatbreads are prepared in advance and the vendor simply spreads on your chosen filling and a dash of chilli sauce - twenty seconds and it's in your hand.
The easiest place to find dholl puri is Port Louis, where stalls line the streets and fill the central market. In Flic en Flac, oddly enough, I didn't spot a single vendor the whole time I was there - one more reason to head into town for your dinner.
What to Eat in Mauritius
My list of Mauritian dishes and drinks worth tasting:
- Dholl puri. The national yellow pea flatbread filled with curry mixes. Easiest to find in Port Louis, and ready in twenty seconds.
- Roti and farata. The stuffed flatbreads you'll come across most often in Mauritius. The only difference is the shape - roti is round, farata square.
- Mine frit. Fried egg noodles with vegetables, meat or prawns. The very first thing I ate on the island.
- Mine bouillie. Boiled noodles with vegetables and meat. Some places pour a strong chicken broth over the portion.
- Riz frit. Fried rice, brought to the island by Chinese immigrants. It tastes a lot like a simple risotto.
- Bol renversé. The "upside-down bowl" of rice, vegetables, meat and a fried egg, flipped over by the waiter at your table. A dish that comes with its own bit of theatre.
- Boulettes. Small steamed dumplings made with fish, meat or vegetables. The most popular ones use the local chou chou (chayote).
- Teokon farci. Steamed stuffed tofu in a clear broth. Even the name mixes Creole with French.
- Chicken briani. The Mauritian take on Indian biryani, made with basmati rice and marinated chicken. Served with pickled vegetables and chutney.
- Haleem. A thick soup of wheat, lentils and meat with a heap of spices. With a flatbread it doubles as a main course.
- Creole curry. The backbone of island menus - chicken, fish or prawn, with rice and a row of sides from lentils to pickled vegetables. It's best in small family-run restaurants.
- Rougaille. A Creole dish of tomatoes, onion, garlic and spices, with fish, sausage or eggs stirred in. After curry, the most common Creole dish of all.
- Gâteaux piment. Fried balls of crushed yellow split peas with chilli. The island's most widespread snack, sold by the piece.
- Samosa and chana puri. Fried triangles with a potato filling, and fluffy stuffed balls of leavened dough. Chana puri is my favourite.
- Hakien. Mauritian spring rolls filled with meat, prawns and vegetables. A double coating of batter gives them extra crunch.
- Piment farci. Chilli peppers stuffed with meat and prawns, then fried in batter. The heat is a lottery - it all depends on whether the cook left the seeds in.
- Gato arouille. Fried balls of grated taro root with ginger. Crisp on the outside, soft inside.
- Tekwa. A sweet fried pocket filled with yellow peas, fennel and coconut. The most intriguing new flavour I found on the island.
- Achard. Fruit and vegetables pickled with turmeric, mustard seed and cottonseed oil. Served alongside main courses much like chutney.
- Pineapple with chilli and pickled mango. A street treat from the markets and the beach stalls. Sweet fruit and fiery chilli work brilliantly together.
- Mango and lychee salad. Unusual fruit-and-vegetable salads with peppers and coriander. A gorgeous combination of soft fruit and crunchy veg.
- Salad of gâteaux piments. The little snacks crumbled up with tomato, cucumber and coriander. In Mauritius it comes with a well-chilled beer.
- Fish and seafood. Straight out of the Indian Ocean, at the markets and in restaurants alike. I was served unbelievably tender squid as a starter at one family restaurant in Flic en Flac.
- Rasgulla. Fried milk balls soaked in sugar syrup. The Mauritian version differs from the Indian one - here the balls are fried first.
- Napolitaine. An unmissable pink biscuit - two buttery rounds joined with jam and covered in icing. Despite the name, it's purely Mauritian.
- Sagoo au lait. Sweet milk with tapioca pearls and spices. The texture is like a runny pudding.
- Alouda. A milkshake with basil seeds and shredded agar jelly, often topped with a scoop of ice cream. Refreshing and not too sweet.
- Fresh coconut. The vendor opens the nut with a machete, you drink the water and then have the flesh cut out for you. To me it tastes like young walnuts.
- Lychee. From December onwards the island is bursting with them. Freshly picked, they taste nothing like the ones shipped to Europe.
- Sugar cane juice. Pressed in front of you at the markets. It isn't as sweet as you'd think.
- Mauritian beer. Lagers from the Phoenix brewery plus craft beers from The Thirsty Fox and Flying Dodo. In that heat they tasted excellent.
- Mauritian rum. Made from molasses and from pure cane juice, aged in oak barrels. You can taste it right at the distilleries.
Typical Mauritian Drinks
The traditional soft drink of Mauritius is alouda. Chilled full-fat and condensed milk, flavoured syrup, soaked basil seeds and shredded agar jelly - and often a scoop of ice cream on top. I tried mine at the famous Alouda Pillay stall in the central market in Port Louis and it was superb: refreshing, not too sweet, nicely scented with vanilla.
In the heat a fresh coconut also hits the spot - stalls stand on the beaches and in the markets, and the vendor opens the nut with a machete right in front of you. The markets are also where you'll find freshly pressed sugar cane juice.
The island even grows its own tea. The Bois Chéri plantation in the south has been growing tea since 1892, and their black tea with vanilla turns up at hotel breakfasts too. A packet travels home beautifully - it's one of my tips on what to bring back from Mauritius.
The beer market belongs to the Phoenix brewery, brewing since 1963. Alongside its lagers, the craft labels The Thirsty Fox and Flying Dodo are worth a try - Mauritian beer was a pleasant surprise in the hot weather.
Above all, though, Mauritius is a country of rum. It has been distilled here since the 18th century, and labels like Chamarel, Medine and Saint Aubin make both white and aged rums from molasses and cane juice. White rum, lime and cane syrup go into the local cocktail, Ti Punch.
How to Make the Most of Mauritian Food
- Eat the national dish dholl puri right there on the street. The easiest place to find it is Port Louis - try the central market or the stalls around it.
- Pick the places with a queue of locals outside. In tourist areas that's the most reliable sign of quality there is. It's exactly how I found my favourite snack bars in Flic en Flac.
- Go for food early. Popular snacks like hakien or gato arouille were regularly sold out by two in the afternoon.
- Head inland to the markets for street food. In Curepipe and Quatre Bornes you'll see hardly any tourists and the food is cheaper than on the coast.
- Go easy on the chilli at first. The sauces on the tables and the stuffed piment farci peppers can be seriously hot. You can always ask for more - the vendor will love you for it.
- Buy fruit in season. Lychees, mangoes and pineapples ripen right there on the island and taste in a completely different league from the fruit shipped halfway around the world to Europe.
- Leave some room in your suitcase. Rum, vanilla tea or spice mixes make wonderful souvenirs - I've written up what to bring back from Mauritius.
The Best Mauritian Food
If I had to pick three personal favourites, then the best Mauritian food for me is:
- Chana puri. An absolute knockout. Fluffy leavened dough and a beautifully seasoned potato and pea filling - I liked it so much that I genuinely miss it back home.
- Tekwa. I bought one on a whim and it turned out to be the biggest flavour surprise of the whole trip. Yellow peas, fennel and sugar sounds wild, but trust me, it works.
- Bol renversé. More meat, no deep-frying and a little show when it's served. Exactly what I appreciated in all those Mauritian carbs.
Mauritian Markets and Street Food
Markets are, for me, the best place to get to know Mauritian cooking. The most famous is the central market in Port Louis - halls full of fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices, meat and fish sellers next door, and a separate building with small snack bars. Don't miss it, even if you don't buy a thing.
A more modern alternative is the Victoria Station market, where buses leave for the whole island. I stocked up on a few gâteaux piments and other snacks here before heading to Flic en Flac.
If you want to eat where the locals do, head inland. Curepipe market won me over with its colourful building and the food trucks parked around it, and Quatre Bornes market with a food court packed with tiny eateries. Both are an easy ride from Port Louis on the brand-new air-conditioned tram.
Food Trips in Mauritius
Sugar and rum are as much a part of Mauritius as the beaches - and you can build a day trip around both. At the L'Aventure du Sucre museum in Pamplemousses you walk through a historic sugar mill and the story of sugar cane on the island. What I enjoyed most was the tasting: ten kinds of sugar that really do taste different.
Rum lovers will want Rhumerie de Chamarel - a tour of the entire production process rounded off with eight samples to taste. Bear in mind you'll want to get here by taxi.
And if you come in season, try stopping by one of the lychee orchards - most of them have a stall out front with freshly picked fruit. After chatting with the farmers, I got to watch the harvest up close, and lychees picked straight off the tree tasted incredible.
How to Say Thank You for Mauritian Food
You can get by in English and French in Mauritius, but among themselves the locals speak Mauritian Creole.
"Mersi" (mersi) - thank you. It comes from the French "merci" and you use it in exactly the same way. To say a bigger thank you, try "Mersi bokou" (mersi boku) - thank you very much.
You'll most likely hear "Padkwa" - you're welcome.
Facts About Mauritian Food
- Sugar cane was brought to Mauritius by Dutch colonisers as early as the beginning of the 17th century. The humid tropical climate suited it so well that by the 19th century the island had become one of the world's leading sugar producers.
- Nothing is wasted after the cane is pressed. The residue is turned into biofuel, which is used to generate electricity on the island.
- Cane fields are burned before the harvest. The small leaves burn away and the workers are left with nothing but the thick stalks; burning requires a permit and usually happens at night.
- Roti and farata differ only in shape. The round flatbread is roti, the square one farata - the dough and the fillings are the same.
- Hot broth with dumplings is a favourite even in thirty-degree heat. I'd assumed it would be the last thing locals would order - and in the end I kept going back for it myself.
- The name teokon farci mixes two languages. Teokon is Creole for tofu, farci is French for stuffed - you'd struggle to find a better illustration of how the island's cuisines have merged.
- Achard pickled vegetables are made with cottonseed oil. Its flavour is very distinctive and not for everyone - I'd suggest trying a small pack first.
- Tea has been grown on the island since 1892. The Bois Chéri plantation in the south still supplies all of Mauritius with black tea flavoured with vanilla.
- Every glass beer bottle in Mauritius carries a deposit. The Flying Dodo craft brewery also brews mini batches of just 500 litres and comes up with a new recipe every month.
- Lychee trees are protected with big nets. The ripe fruit is a delicacy for local birds and fruit bats. Picking is done by hand, leaving a bit of twig attached - once picked, a lychee ripens no further.
- The tram terminal in Curepipe is named after Jan Palach. When I asked about it at a snack stand, they proudly showed me the sign with his name. An unexpected Czech connection in the middle of the Indian Ocean - Palach was the Czech student who set himself on fire in 1969 in protest against the Soviet occupation.
Enjoy Mauritius and the very best of its food!
Creole Shack Restaurant, Flic en Flac
Bol Renversé: The Mauritian Upside-Down Bowl
Bol renversé is a Mauritian dish with a trick to it: a bowl packed in reverse - egg, meat and vegetables in a soy and oyster sauce, rice - is flipped onto a plate and the waiter lifts it off right in front of you. It came out of the island's Chinese community, a descendant of Cantonese chop suey, and today it's cooked all over Mauritius and on Réunion too. I ate it in Flic en Flac, and in a cuisine that deep-fries almost everything it was a welcome exception.
Gato Arouille: Fried Taro Balls
Roti and Paratha Flatbreads
Mauritian rum
Mine Bouillie: Mauritian Boiled Noodles
Mine bouillie are boiled egg noodles with meat and vegetables, the humblest of the dishes the Chinese immigrants brought to Mauritius. One name covers two versions - dry noodles with sauce and an egg, or noodles in a clear ginger broth - and which one you get is up to the bistro. Dan ate them in Flic en Flac and explains why, despite the French name, this has nothing to do with porridge.
