I’ve just returned from one of my best travel assignments for Getaway Magazine so far: a week-long trip to Mauritius with photographer Russell Smith. Our mission: to discover the best food on the island, from roadside snacks to gourmet dishes in top restaurants.
In a week, we drove around the entire island (getting lost once for about 10 minutes), and explored a Mauritius that many tourists don’t ever see from the confines of their resorts.
We found the best dhal puris (rotis filled with dal and pickles) on the island (at Dewa in Rose-Hill), ate Creole feasts of curry, stews and chutneys, discovered delicious peanut rougaille in a 150-yr old colonial mansion, chowed gateau piments (chilli cakes) on the beach in Grand Baie, ate octopus curry (chewy) in a tiny restaurant booming Rihanna in Trou d’eau douce, found the best dim sum this side of Hong Kong at First Restaurant in Port Louis, cooled down with alouda and tamarind juice in the Port Louis market, ate fried noodles with extra chilli in Chinatown (followed by refreshing, but weird-looking black herbal jelly), ate our first palm hearts in the famous ‘Millionaire’s Salad’, drank the best vanilla tea in the world at Bois Cheri (and maybe the worst coffee), and learned to eat chilli (piment) with everything, as the Mauritians do.
We nearly got blown off a cliff overlooking a beach called ‘Black Magic’ in an anti-cyclone, ate the best crème brulee ever (made with the world’s rarest vanilla) and the most vanilla-ish vanilla ice cream (not made with rare vanilla), discovered that Mauritius’ big tourist attraction (7 coloured earths) is a glorified sandpit, learned a hundred facts about sugar and that a sugar tasting gives you a glucose high, ate Mauritian pizza (farata topped with local greens and served with atchar) and Mauritian tapas (deep-fried cassava chips), explored 150-year-old mansions trying to imagine the lives of French plantation owners on the once disease-ridden island, sipped from coconuts on the beach as the sun set over the Indian Ocean, found Mauritius’ cemetery with a view, smelled spice trees and saw a rare blooming talipot palm (they only bloom every 30 years) in Pamplemousses’ amazing botanical gardens, ate fried tiny shrimp and chickpeas with chilli and tomatoes in the bustling Sunday Flacq market, did three rum tastings and realised that I still don’t really like rum (even if it is award-winning, aged in French oak for three years and flavoured with lemongrass, star anise, vanilla and kumquat), sauna-ed with naked German honeymooners (in a very small sauna), learned how to make Creole prawn curry, farata and deep-fried sweet potato cakes stuffed with coconut and cardamom, and found that coconut jam and a freshly-baked buttery croissant make the best breakfast ever.
Mauritius completely exceeded my expectations. I expected it to be overly-touristy and smothered in tanning Europeans. I didn’t expect a fascinating, diverse food culture, amazingly warm and welcoming people, a huge array of foodie attractions and unspoiled and untouristy beaches and landscapes. If you think Mauritius is full of resorts with nothing to do other than lie on the beach, think again (and then book your flight).
Look out for our story in the February 2012 issue of Getaway.
Read my blog on the best 25 things to eat and drink in Mauritius.
Dhal puri – the favourite Mauritian snack
The old and the new in Port Louis
Port Louis market
Chouchou in Port Louis Market
Chillies (piments) in Port Louis Market
Giant patty pans at the Port Louis Market
The Port Louis fruit and veg market
The Port Louis meat market
Port Louis
Essential Mauritian condiments: cinnamon, sugar and chillies
Eureka – a colonial mansion that serves delicious Creole food
Sweet potato cakes stuffed with sugar, cardamom and coconut
The beach at La Pirogue, Flic en Flac
Roti chaud from the back of a motorbike
Shrine with a view, near Belle Mare
Chocolate rum pudding and vanilla ice cream at Rhumerie de Chamarel
LUX Le Morne – my favourite resort on the island
Phoenix beer – it’s tasty
Chateau Labourdonnais – a wonderfully restored colonial mansion
Dorado, brede and calbas at Chateau Labourdonnais
Rum tasting at Chateau Labourdonnais
Epic scenery on the east coast road of Mauritius
Mauritian pizza – farata topped with brede and mozzarella, served with atchar
Boulet – Mauritian dim sum
Retro fruit stand at Belle Mare
Fried tiny shrimp at the Sunday market in Flacq
Flacq Sunday market
Sunday Flacq market
Tiny chillies for sale at Flacq market – tiny but lethal
Gris Gris – ‘Black Magic’ beach
Cemetery with a view!
Prawn rougaille – a delicious tomato-based Creole curry
Bois Cheri tea factory
Bois Cheri tea plantation
Veg seller in Belle Mare
Talipot palm in Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens
Mountain rose tree in the botanical gardens
Deep-fried cassava (manioc) – Mauritian tapas!
A vanilla plant (did you know it’s an orchid?)
A palm heart for ‘Millionaire’s Salad’
The beach at La Pirogue, Flic en Flac
