Food in the Indian Ocean
Looking for some good cuisine? Well, the Indian Ocean proposes a large plethora type of cuisines blending French, Chinese, Creole and Indian cuisine. Eating in the Indian Ocean will be a pleasuring experiment. When it comes to culture, food is the other important factor. The way you cook your food represent where you come from. It represents your cultural identity and tradition.
Here you will come across our many recipes and recommendations of some restaurants where you can savour various international menus.
Mauritius
Mauritius is a small island known as the paradise island. It is a multi-cultural island and each culture have their own unique culinary style.
This paradisiacal island offers a variety of cuisines. You will get any type of food you want in Mauritius. This little island proposes Creole food and also cuisine all around the world.
Famous dishes in the island are the octopus curry, fried rice, friend noodles, biryani.
The Mauritian cuisine offers the most relishing dishes you will ever have. During your trip to Mauritius, do give a try at the famous ‘’dholl puri’’. ‘Dholl Puri’ is one of the most consumed foods by the locals.
Some foods you should not miss while visiting the island are the ‘Aachar’, the ‘rougaille pwason sale’ and many more. The Mauritian cuisines are not only delicious but also cheap and easily cooked. So do have a look at our recipes on our website.
On the other hand, you will find various types of food such as burger, rounder, salads or pizza around the island. In Mauritius, being a vegan is not a big deal as there are a significant amount of vegetarians in the country, vegetarian foods are sold in many restaurants.
Rodrigues
Rodrigues is a small island in the Indian Ocean, 1hr of flight from the island Mauritius. Most of the population follow the catholic religion.
The inhabitants of the Rodrigues island are independent and hard workers. They cultivate their own food and most of the locals are fisherman.
The typical Rodriguan cuisine is also a mixed culture cuisine. The food offers vary among cultures of the population. There are different types of methods of cooking for each types of food eaten.
On the island of Rodrigues, you will mostly find food with natural freshness. All made up of variety of local food product. All the recipes are preserved from generations to generations. The Rodriguans always keep their culture well preserved. They teach their kids what they were taught to keep their culture.
Rodrigues Island offers a great variety of dishes to choose from. Rodrigues is famous for its famous ‘ourite sek’ and ‘Aachar’, in other word pickles.
Besides the island also offer delicious dishes that bring water to mouth such as steamed crab, octopus curry, pork in honey and country chicken with ginger and curcuma toppings.
These relishing dishes are served with the best toppings you can find in the Indian Ocean. Sweet and sour pickles can be added to make the octopus curry taste better. There are also octopus paste, chilli and mango toppings.
After the main course, comes always the dessert. There are traditional dessert such as the ‘’papaya sorbet’’, manioc pancakes or pudding.
Reunion Island
Reunion island is also a small island of only 2511 kilometre square. Reunion island has a variety of cooking style. The exotic food offered by reunion island is a pure bliss to any traveller or any local people.
The cuisine is an amalgam of different cultures such as India, France, china, Africa and Madagascar. This mixture is what makes the food of Reunion Island more interesting and exotic.
Eating is one of the favourite activities for the Reunionese.
Rice, leafy vegetables, curry or rougaille are the main typical menu for the inhabitants. The menus are copiously accompanied by pickles, chilli or salad. They taste a lot better after the toppings are added.
The locals are specialised in curry. Curry Is a Creole dish comprising of a mixture of good savours that result to perfection. To make the curry, indian spices, meat, fish, or chicken are mixed together to create the famous curry.
Rice in the reunion island is cooked in various ways.
White rice: the white rice is simply boiled in water. Then you wait till it dries.
Yellow rice: the yellow rice also known as the ‘’plo’’ is a mixture of turmeric, pepper, oil and salt. The yellow rice include the same preparation of the white rice except that ingredients are added in the yellow rice.
Biryani: the biryani is a real pleasure to the nose as well as the mouth. Only the aroma of a good biryani will be enough to make your mouth waters. This dish is a mixture of poultry, boiled egg marinates with yoghurt and spices. The biryani is usually accompanied by cucumber salad, chilli or Aachar.
The rougaille
The rougaille is a main course. It is eaten together with rice. The main ingredient for the preparation is smoked sausages or smoked or dried fish, tomatoes, chilli and browned onion.
The gratin
The gratin is a delicious dish. It can be prepared with vegetables such as potato, green papaya and pumpkin. After cooking the vegetables with garlic, salt, thyme and pepper the mixture is mixed in béchamel. It is then covered with grated cheese.
As for the dessert and tropical fruits there is a variety of them. Mangoes are a seasonal food, there are fifty types of mangoes in the reunion island. It can be eaten raw or seasoned with chilli pepper and salt.
The Seychelles
The Seychelles is made up of 115 small islands. The Seychelles cuisine originates from Africa, Britain, India, Chinese and French.
The Seychelles cuisines include spices such as tamarind and ginger in most of its dishes. Fruits and fishes are sold all around the island by vendors.
As the fishes are abundant, dishes such as fresh grilled fish, salted rougaille and fish curry are often cooked.
Grilled fish.
The most popular way to cook the grilled fish is on the hot coal of the BBQ. To give a better flavour, the grilled fish is usually fired by coconut husks.
Garlic, ginger and chilli are mixed along with the fish and grilled to the perfect dish.
Salted fish rougay
Salted fish rougay is a Creole recipe. The famous salted fish rougay is made up with salted fish also known as ‘pwason sale’. Tomatoes, garlic, ginger, chilli, onion, and salt are added to make the perfect rougay.
This dish is usually served with rice or bread.
For more detailed recipes, read the articles dedicated to the Indian Ocean cuisine.
