February 5th, 2006I miss the food in Mauritius
We had a big gathering with the other Mauritians in Shanghai at the Shanghai Second Medical University a few days before I went to Xiamen. It was fun. 
It’s hard to say what’s really Mauritian cuisine because of the ethnic diversity of the people of Mauritius.
I did some research to try to explain what Mauritian cuisine is like and also its history.
Quoted from The Republic of Mauritius Web Portal,
Mauritius is a paradise for the senses, not only for the eyes with its beautiful landscape, but also for the palate. Gastronomes will find a variety of flavours and aromas inherited from the different migrations through its history. Culinary traditions from France, India, China and Africa, the best-known and appreciated cuisines in the world, have been passed on through generations. The story of a Mauritian starting the day with a continental breakfast, followed by an indian lunch and finishing off with a chinese dinner is a common cliché.
Along the years, each community has adapted and mixed each other’s cuisine to their liking, which has resulted in a Mauritian cuisine. This can be seen in the Creole cuisine which is a blend of different ingredients and savours. The ever-present creole “rougaille” is served with a number of “achards” (pickles) or dals and rice from Indian origin. There have also been some changes during the last twenty years with the arrival of some fast foods: burgers, pizza and chips.
Anyone visiting the island should try a pair of dholl puri with a large glass of “alouda” or tamarind juice to have a genuine taste of Mauritius.
———-
Sometimes, I feel like eating samoosas, chili cakes, roti, farata, dholl puris,halim, normal sui mai (also called sow mai in Mauritius. Those that I have eaten in Shanghai are filled with rice and meat… 
) ,gateaux arouille, briyani, etc.. but since I’ve never been into cooking when I was in Mauritius, I never learned to cook those.
Fortunately, there are other Mauritians in Shanghai and they can cook!! hehe
I’m trying to learn from them now. 
Making Samoosas (also written Samosas or Samoussa)
gram dholl or Dholl gram or Dhal gram or yellow split peas… used to make chili cakes (called gato pima in Mauritian Creole) and Dholl puris. Unfortunately, it is not available in Shanghai. Same for black or red lentils. 
Varun brought this packet from Mauritius.
Chili cakes (called gato pima in Mauritian Creole)
The guys learning how to make dholl puris
Click on the link below for more…
Warning: 13 more photos 
Varun was telling me that he didn’t cook in Mauritius but he learned after he came to Shanghai. hmm… there’s still hope for me then.
Varun making the roti dough and Kenny & Yoshvin flipping the rotis.
Making Roti and Paratha (also written as Parantha or Farata)
How I eat roti or farata:
Put the rougaille, curry or other fillings inside and eat from one end to the other.
Break off one big piece of roti or farata, dip it in the sauce or scoop the curry (etc..) and put on the piece of roti or farata, eat…. and break off another piece and so on…
Corinne, Joanne and me
Alouda, one of our local drinks.
I hate drinking plain milk or milk with tea but I love drinking Alouda. Alouda contains milk (in case you can’t tell from the photo).
Alouda can be found in almost all market places in Mauritius. It’s a special drink made with milk, water, crushed ice, vanilla essence, sugar, basil seeds and jelly (or agar agar strips) or just milk, sugar,syrup, jelly (or agar agar strips) and basil seeds. Sometimes even with a few delicious spoonfuls of ice cream. 
I know that the Thai people have a drink similar to Alouda(similar because they also use basil seeds) except that no vanilla essence, syrup, milk or jelly is used.
Some of the ingredients we used that day to make the alouda:
Basil seeds (soaked in water)… We call basil seeds ‘top maria’ or ‘touk maria’ in Mauritian Creole. 
Milk and Rose syrup
Speaking of Basil seeds and syrup, are they sold in Shanghai? I still haven’t managed to find syrup here. I’m not talking about maple syrup. I’m looking for rose syrup, strawberry syrup, almond syrup, any fruit juice concentrates, etc . In Mauritius, we put around two spoonfuls of syrup in a glass,add cold water and drink it after stirring.
We also ate chicken wings. Yummy…
Wangye, Rosemary, Joanne
Alex, Kharima
Asif ,Gancho (two of my classmates) and Wangye (Shanghainese friend)
Apart from them, all the rest were Mauritians.
I felt very full after eating 3 rotis but the guys ate more. The non-Mauritian friends seemed to like the food too.
hmmm… now I want to eat a good coconut chutney,Mine frire (referring to Mauritian fried noodles here), Briyani or halim. 
I should stop thinking about food. 
Those pics reminds me of Indian food! I miss home cooking:sad:
omg, now i’m hungry
too bad we can only have the images trought the internet, and not the taste 
Wow. you are making me all hungry just looking at the photos although I just had my dinner ;) Sounds like you have great fun, been some time since I last had such occasions.
Hi there Aline,
Hey u made Alouda! I brought the Touk Maria here for my friends to taste & they simply loved it!
I chanced upon your blog via Patricia’s
And OH MI GOD, all these Mauritian foods simply make me go YUM! It must have been an awesome night.
Hey u eat rotis with chopsticks? Hahahaha
Nice blog btw, u mind if I drop by whenever I crave for Mauritian food pics?:grin:
HUNGRYY JOR!!! Oh boy, I know you warned about more pics but you didn’t warn about it being about food that makes readers drool. hehe
Seems a lot like a ‘cooking - cum - celebration’ party. Where a large group of people cook together as a group, and celebrate their results by eating everything during a party afterwards.
Sounds interesting.
And oh, I love samosas.
Whoa. Looks like you really had lots of delicious food and great party with your friends! I only had some outing like that last last year which was really crazy bcos we pour bandung (rose syrup and condensed milk) into pails and mix them up with tap water beside the beach! Then it rained and we couldn’t BBQ. But we still had fun haha. It was freezing and super windy outside and we covered each other with jackets. Take care!
hey, babe!!!niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!!!! frankly said, mauritian food maybe is the best i’ve ever tried. probably i need to say “Bye-bye” to joshua n move to varun’s hoping that i’ll have such a treat not only on special occasions!!! hehe, cya
haha, that’s funny! i like mauritius food. i like my friends.我很高兴参加朋友们的宴会，他们的热情、奔放。哈哈！
oh dear your pictures are making me hungry, it’s so much fun to get together over good food with friends
I have to admit I’ve never heard of or seen any of those foods, but I’m feeling very hungry now. Sounds like you can take a trip to Mauritius just to eat. I think I can handle that.
Most of those pictures pretty much involve food or drinks (okay, except one). I’m soo hungry right now. Seems like a lot of fun making all of that.
I now realize… you hate me… you honestly hate me. hehe
hehe no I don’t hate you. I can’t help it. I like taking pics of food.
Next time, eat first before reading my blog. 
some of the food are of Indian origin .
We eat a lot of roti,farata (paratha) , etc in Mauritius.
hehe but you can imagine how the food tastes like.
hehe yes it was fun…
But you live in Sg.. I heard that they have great food over there…. one of the reasons why I’m planning to go there during my summer hols..
to Stella:
haha not really to eat roti … just to scoop the curry ,etc and put it on my roti but still !!!I used chopsticks… LOL I can’t believe I did that. Roti is finger food… 
of course i don’t mind!
haha
about the chopsticks.. I didn’t think about it before you mentioned it.. yes i used chopsticks to eat roti… OMG
outdoor BBQs are the best!esp on the beach. Too bad there are no beaches in Shanghai.
to Gancho:
hehe aww don’t do that. Joshua will be sad. You are like a brother to him.
We’ll invite you guys again for the next one! Glad you like the food.
to Joshua:
We’ll have another one soon. (hopefully!) My friends also like you and Gancho!
hehe I’m glad.
wow~~看上去很好吃的样子，尤其对alouda，roti感兴趣，我都流口水了！:D
Damn, makes me hungry. You should post the recipies
hehe well i did classify this entry in the food category…
I loveeeeeeeeeee food.
To Echo:
新加坡那边有roti prata.差不多的。你在新加坡的时候没有吃吗？
to Raymond:
hmmmmmmm you should tag along next time and meet all the Mauritians in Shanghai. We all haven’t met you yet.
JP also came that day.
Hello there Aline,
WOW! I never ever thought that Roti made by a non indian could look so nice and tasty especially because its mostly made by hindus/indians only back there in our small island. CONGRATS!!!!
Here(Germany) I have the chance to have ALL the spices that we get in mauritius, since they are all imported from Uk which normally imports from India
:) but sadly unlike you I didnt meet any of our “compatriotes” to have fun cooking. However I do make Rotis often, and am them making tonite too, waiting for hubby to roll them for me 
Wish you lots of luck….
Anita G.
Duesseldorf Germany
thanks!
Hi Alene,
The food really looks nice and makes me want to go back to the little pear of the indian ocean.I have tried to make farathas but it was not soft at all,it was crispy like biscuit.It woild
Hey, nice pix!!!
I wonder wot shape da dholl puris got wen da guys did it!!! Lol..
Can’t look at da alooda, its too cool… Luv dat fing, ma favourite!!
Unfortunately its only pix.. Wish it was in front of mi!!!
does anyone know the recipe for gato pima’s
[...] night, we made faratas and a few fillings. The last time I ate faratas was months [...]