In your opinion, what dish best represents Mauritius?

SOOMAWTEE BEEBAKIK, RETIRED

Alalila, we’ve come to the seaside, bringing our briyani and our mango, pineapple, and "zamalac" salad. We love eating our roti too. But nowadays, we have to make it with whole wheat flour because we’re gaining weight with these dishes. I also enjoy making fried noodles with Apollo noodles. But for me, the best Mauritian curry is egg curry. You boil the egg, remove its shell, and fry it whole with spices and masala. You can also add peas if you like. That’s the best curry.

BEENA SEERI

Dhal puri, briyani—these are the great Mauritian dishes. These are the meals you find everywhere. But at home, you prepare a salted fish rougaille, moringa leaves, chili curry chutney, or tomato chutney... What can I say? Otherwise, you make a moringa leaf broth, fish salad, and fried potatoes. You can arrange them in different ways. These flavors will never disappear. My mother, if I don’t serve her this kind of food with mango, bilimbi, or sour tamarind pickles… well, her plate won’t be clean.

ANNABELLE REBET, FISHERWOMAN

I grew up with octopus, fish, sea snails, and clams. For me, a real Mauritian dish is a bouillon made with "viel rouge" fish, a stew of small red fish, or a crushed crab curry—otherwise, sea urchins. You clean the small red fish, boil it with dried chilies, add all the spices, then place it on firewood and cover it with embers. Even though I have gas at home, I still use my wood stove and charcoal to preserve that authentic taste.

SHINEE SEEGOBIN, TEACHER

Mauritian dishes have many variations. I think everyone would relate to a watercress broth, salted fish rougaille, fried potatoes, and coconut chutney. But for a more traditional dish, the one that has been in my family since I was little and with which I grew up, it’s goat curry. A full-bodied curry served with rice and bone broth. For a long time, this was the special menu for the New Year. My grandmother would slaughter a goat, and we would use every part of it.

RICO L’INTELLIGENT, OWNER OF LE PALAIS DE BARBIZON RESTAURANT

It is both vast and specific at the same time. As someone from Chamarel, real local food is a fricassée of taro leaves, jackfruit, chayote, and arrowroot. You eat it with a wild boar salmi or free-range chicken. If many people come from other places to eat at our restaurant, it’s to taste authentic Mauritian cuisine. To me, Mauritian cuisine is a family tradition passed down from generation to generation. It’s also tied to where you live, and each region has its specialties.

PASCALE SAUZIER, WELLNESS ENTHUSIAST

What’s amazing about our country is that each of us carries a small piece of another’s culture. It’s just like dhal puri. Not only does it have an incredible taste, but we also add broad beans, plain rougaille, taro leaves... It’s a true melting pot, just like us.

NEESHI TILHOO, NETWORK ENGINEER

Since we are a multicultural country, we cannot say there is one specific dish. I think our street food represents Mauritian cuisine well. I’m talking about dhal puri, chili cakes, briyani, noodles, and "bol renversé." At home, a dish that truly represents us is rice with moringa broth, salted fish rougaille, and peanut chutney. Look, I just bought a bottle of freshly pressed sugarcane juice. At home, I’ll mix it with ginger or lemongrass. These are our flavors.

HESHNA JOURRY, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT

Briyani represents Mauritius well. It’s a dish full of aroma and flavor because it contains many spices. Plus, you can eat it as a vegetarian dish, with fish, chicken, or meat. It is very versatile. Also, since everyone’s cooking style is different, each person prepares it in their own way. It takes time to prepare. For me, it’s a dish full of colors, just like our country.

TITI LEE TIN SEN, SHOPKEEPER

We are a multicultural country, and our cuisine is a blend. I can't say whether it's fried noodles or sweet and sour fish because a fish curry, meat stew, salted fish rougaille, briyani, roasted pork, or wild boar salmi—all of these are part of our culinary culture. In the end, our national dish is a mix of everything.

MAHMAD & MARIAM SOYFOO

We live in France, but as soon as we arrive in Mauritius, we crave briyani, seven curries, rougaille, fried noodles, and vegetable stews. We also love to rediscover our "puits d'amour" pastries, napolitaines, gulab jamuns, cassava pudding, and sweet potato cakes. In France, we try to eat Mauritian food at least once a week, which means we will have chicken stew. And when we cook chicken or meat curry, it must be served with farata. Otherwise, the kids won’t eat it.

TIA, YESHNA, ESHA, DIKSHA, PRATISHA, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Seven curries. You eat them at home, at weddings, at prayers. It’s so diverse, with soy rougaille, chayote fricassée, banana curry, kidney bean curry, broad beans, pumpkin, taro, tamarind chutney, pickles, and relishes. You eat it with "ti puris". We love this dish because it is full of flavor, and in Mauritius, we love food with a lot of sauce. Plus, it’s a dish prepared by our mothers and grandmothers, making it even more special.

KWANG POON, CULTURE ENTHUSIAST

I’d say boiled noodles because it has been truly Mauritianized. The Chinese originally made it with just three ingredients: onions, liver, and pork intestines. Here, we add a fried egg on top. We add tomato chutney. We eat it with broad beans, mango pickle, or octopus curry. It has become a true Mauritian noodle dish.