MAURITIUS STREET FOOD Island Paradise 🇲🇺 #1 Dholl Puri + CREOLE Food in East Africa!

Welcome to Chopstick Travel. I'm Luke Martin and welcome to the beautiful island nation of Mauritius. Located in East Africa in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Mauritius is an island paradise but not only a paradise for its beaches but also a paradise for its food. And in this episode we're going to take you to try the most typical Mauritian street food of Dal Puri, showing you the full process from start to finish. We're also going to be having an incredible creole meal that you're not going to want to miss and so much more. It's going to be a great episode so make sure you stay tuned until the end. Let's go eat some Mauritian food. So Ashvin and I have come this morning to have arguably the most famous street food of all here in Mauritius, right? Yes, probably the most, not probably, the most famous street food here in Mauritius. We're going to try the Dal Puri and we've come to a place who is also very very popular, probably produces one of the best Dal Puri's on the island. It's Shei Bai. Shei Bai, okay. Which is, which means like brother. Bai means oh okay okay i was wondering about that exactly yeah so what we're going to do is we're going to see the process of how they make it and then we're going to try. Awesome, I've been looking forward to trying the Dal Puri. I've heard so much about it so yeah let's go back in the kitchen see how they're making it. So we're in the back kitchen here at Shei Bai seeing how they make the famous Dal Puri. We're seeing step by step. So it starts with the Dal which is lentils. They are boiled down and then grinded with just a little bit of turmeric and salt. It comes out as almost a lentil paste at the other side. So then there's the Puri which is the bread. The Dal is first formed into a ball and then it is stuffed within the Puri, the wheat bread. So it's actually mixed in. It's Dal Puri. I actually thought the Dal was the curry that goes inside but I was completely wrong. The Dal is actually within the bread. What is very important is really that rolling skill because you have to get it very thin for it to have um because the Dal Puri here is set by air so it's two Dal Puri stick together which are going to cook. So if you don't get it very thin it can get not so great. A great Dal Puri is one which is very thin and very creamy on the inside. So after the Dal is stuffed within the Puri it's made into a ball and then that ball is flattened out into a thin almost like a pancake and then it goes onto the fryer and they are fried in a pair as Ashwin was just mentioning. So they are frying those away and they're not fried up to a crisp but they're still kind of lightly cooked so they've got that kind of chewy texture to them. What I find really interesting about this dish is how lightly cooked the Dal Puri is. It's very quickly fried and just with a little bit of oil they don't get it crispy like I was saying. They keep it nice and fluffy and in pairs. So there's also curries that will be filled inside the Dal Puri. They're cooking a bunch of different curries with cabbage and different things out back. I can't wait to try this. This is arguably or like we said it definitely is the most famous street food here in Mauritius. Just so you know how important Dal Puri is for Mauritians. Let's say I have family living in France in the UK and I'm planning to visit the UK. I'm gonna come. I'm gonna order like a hundred pairs. They're gonna pack it okay and then I'm gonna take it to the UK and distribute to the whole family for them to have a good taste of it and this when you bring this to a Mauritian who's living abroad they are over the moon. This place is absolutely packed with locals. There's a constant line. You can get the roti or you can get the Dal Puri or even I saw some people get one Dal Puri one roti mix because they come in pairs and they're filled with curries. What are the I saw four different types of curries. So normally the main curry is going to be butter bean curry which is like a lentil but bigger in size. You cook it very creamy. You cook it with a masala okay which is going to give you that curry flavor. So what's in the masala you're gonna have a little bit of coriander seeds, a little bit of cumin seeds, a little bit of turmeric and other spices. You're gonna serve it with a rugai sauce. Now the rugai sauce is a tomato based sauce coming from the south of India. The fourth curry is something that we call bread song. It's a leaf that grows near rivers. It's very similar if you've ever seen taro leaves which are very large. It's very similar to this. So you're going to cook it for a long time. It will become very creamy a little bit like if you cook spinach for a long time. Then we're going to add a little bit of tamarind inside just to balance that flavor. So we've got a mixed plate of all the different things they serve here at Shea Bhai but I have to admit I'm looking forward to trying the Dal Puri the most. But what are the other things we've got on the plate here? We've got the roti. I told you. So with no dal inside. And then we've got a couple little balls here as well. So we've got the samosa. We've got the Gatou Piment which is quite similar to a falafel but it's made with yellow split peas. Also very famous here. Exactly. And then you have a taro cake which we call Gatou Awi. Let's take a peek inside here. Very quickly for our viewers here. This is how the finished product looks like. You can see all the dal which has been boiled and crushed. And then this is going to add an extra layer of texture to the Dal Puri. All those different curries you can see on the inside. You can see those big beans there. What did you call those? This is butter beans or lima beans. Okay. One, two, three. It's so fluffy. So fluffy. Tons of flavor in the filling but also the dal has quite a bit of flavor too. What I love about the Dal Puri over the roti is really that extra layer of texture which you get from the dal. A little bit sandy but creamy at the same time. You can see it kind of like crumbled all out. It's almost got the texture of an egg yolk I would say. And look at these beans spilling out the other side here. It's kind of a messy eat but I love it. I love how lightly cooked it is. It keeps it so fluffy. Not crispy. There's no crispiness at all. It's just super fluffy. Like look at this. The texture of that is just insane. Oh man. That is so good. Okay. It lives up to the hype. I've been waiting to try this since I planned my trip to Mauritius. Oh yeah. I feel like Dal Puris are in Mauritian's blood. Like this is the most famous food to try here for sure. Ashwin told me he's team Dal Puri. I have to try the roti to decide what team I am. And just look at how packed full that is. So the only difference here is it's not filled with the lentils. But you can see also it's toasted up a little bit more than the Dal Puri too. Also very good. But we are in agreement. Dal Puri is the best. I gotta give it up for the Dal Puri. It's just that fluffiness. This one's a little bit like doughy. A little bit maybe drier than the other one. But still good. Same flavor but the texture is different. Yeah. So these are the fried taro balls. Yeah. Is it gonna be sweet? Yeah. Yeah? Oh crunchy. Oh look at that. It's like creamy inside. Yum. So Mauritians would actually get this as a snack and put a lot of chilies on top. Yeah. And have it. Yeah the the ginger's really coming through at the end there. Yum. That's awesome. That's really unique. It is sweet but savory at the same time. The owner here at Shei Bai is so kind. Everybody here in Mauritius has been incredibly friendly and that Dal Puri was awesome. Totally vegetarian and super cheap. Only about 40 cents for one Dal Puri. However they wouldn't let us pay. And that's not the first time that's happened here in Mauritius. The people have just been so accommodating. So we're going to head now to a very important Hindu site here in Mauritius called Grand Bassin. So we have come now to Grand Bassin. This is a sacred lake for the Hindus of Mauritius. The Hindus make up the majority of the religious groups here in Mauritius. It's a beautiful lake. You're forbidden to swim or even eat or drink beside the lake. And I'll let Ashwin explain a little bit more about the meaning of this lake and why it is so sacred to the Hindus. Well Grand Bassin, to start with, used to be, it is actually a dormant volcano with a lake here. And it has a lot of significance for the Hindu population here because for Mahashivratri, hundreds of thousands of people are going to leave their home for a great pilgrimage for the Lord Shiva where they're going to come here to get the sacred water from the lake and bring it back to their villages where they're going to do the Mahashivratri which actually means the great night of Shiva. So they are going to do all their prayers using the holy water from Grand Bassin which we call Ganga Talal. Very much significant to Ganga from Ganges from India which is also known as Ganga. So a few prime ministers and a few people who traveled have also brought water, holy water from the Ganges to devise it here in Grand Bassin. So you were saying earlier people will pilgrimage from wherever they live on the island. Yes. And you'll walk. You will walk. So let's say I leave the furthest part of the island, it's Cap Malheureux. So I'm gonna walk from Cap Malheureux to Grand Bassin. Some people do carry what we call a kawal which is made out of bamboo sticks, a structure which is well decorated with flowers, with a lot of ornaments. They will carry that on your shoulder and in there you will have like containers to, we call where you will have these to carry the water back home. Okay. So it could take up to a day to walk here. So let's say you're coming from Cap Malheureux, given your time to rest as well, it should approximately take you 15 hours. It's like a 15 hour walk to Grand Bassin and then you have to get back home. And you're gonna carry the water home too. And then they'll take that water and they'll do the prayers. But it's very special to our heart because when you go into a pilgrimage for Grand Bassin and other pilgrimages as well, for Cavadie, for Père Laval, you can see how Mauritius unites together because all of the places you're just gonna have like tents put up for people to be able to rest, you're gonna have food, you're gonna have, it's really a great atmosphere to be in. Wow. Besides being an important religious site, this is also just an awesome place to visit as a tourist. You can learn about the religion here in Mauritius, but also you can just take in the incredible views of the jungle, the lake, there's monkeys here, there's ducks, there's fish in the lake. It's really just a beautiful place. Grand Bassin should definitely be on your list when visiting Mauritius. It's an incredibly beautiful and sacred lake that you don't want to miss when you're visiting Mauritius. So next we're heading to have our lunch. We're going to be having a creole feast that I'm really looking forward to. Let's go. So we've come to Marie-Michel's restaurant. This is Marie-Michel here. She's gonna be cooking us up a table. Sorry, got the name wrong. You're gonna be cooking us a creole feast today. What exactly is creole food? Because this is something that's quite hard to explain, so I'm gonna leave it up to the pro here, Ashwin, to explain it. Not quite a pro, but what you need to know is that creole itself, the name, means anything that is born on an island and the cuisine here has been influenced by so many cultures. African cultures, European cultures with the French, Indian cultures and Chinese culture. And when we bring it together, it makes for creole food. So it's safe to say the creole cuisine is a fusion. Maybe some of the ingredients were brought from India, but maybe some of the techniques were brought from the European settlers or even from the African slaves who were brought to Mauritius. So all these different cultures are kind of blended together into a fusion which we call creole now. And I've actually never had any creole cuisine, so this is gonna be my first time trying it whatsoever. And this place is so cool, so let's try it out. Marie-Michel just made a tomato chutney all by hand on this rock traditional stone grinder. Sort of like a mortar and pestle, but instead of crushing it this way, you actually roll it out and kind of smash it into that tomato chutney with just a little bit of mint and some coriander and salt and tomato. So what she's going to serve us first is going to be a fresh juice made with roselle, which is a type of hibiscus, okay, hibiscus flower. Okay, let's try the roselle juice, hibiscus juice. Yum, a little bit sour, a little bit sweet, not too sweet. That's refreshing, very fresh. So we've got some appetizers before our main meal, some samosas with the tomato chutney that she just grinded. That's so cool, that very traditional stone. That chutney is so good, it's like pure tomato flavor, a little bit tart, nice crunchy samosa too, awesome. So Marie-Michel has a chicken curry cooking away in the Karahi on the wood fire, which is looking awesome, smelling even better. And also a deer curry. So here in Mauritius, there is a population of deer that I believe were brought here by the Dutch from Indonesia. And for a limited time each year, there's a hunting season that you can hunt the deer. So I'm really excited to try deer. I actually eat it a lot in Canada, but I've never had it, I don't think in any other country. So this will be my first time trying deer curry. I like to cook on firewood. So a few more dishes we're going to be trying. We've got a wild boar curry, so there's also wild boar on the island. And then this interesting fruit they call susu, right? Susu? Yeah. And also the susu leaves and a sausage. So all kinds of different things, it looks so good. So she's truly a master of the fire. It's so much more difficult to cook with fire, but really in the end, the result of the flavors are always better. And she's using a thing in Creole they call pukni. It's just basically a pipe that she gets down low and blows some oxygen into the fire just to keep that temperature always consistent to make sure the food is cooked evenly. So Marie-Michelle and Christine have prepared us a Creole feast. There's one, two, three, four, five countless things on the table. You know I'm trying to diet. Why are you making me eat so much food? Well, you're not supposed to hang out with me if you want to diet. We're going to start with this. I brought it here. This is a chayote or chayote. In Mauritius, we call it the susu. And we're going to have the leaves right here, which is what we call toupee bread. So it's really the leaves which is cooked with a little bit of onions, garlic to add flavor to it. And then, yes, this is the veggie. So it's actually from the same family as the zucchini. So it has a high water content. It's almost like a mashed potato. Exactly. So you're going to cook it down with some herbs inside like thyme and ginger, garlic just to add flavor to it. And then what have we got here? Some sausage. We have some rougaille saucisse. So as I told you earlier, the rougaille is a sauce from South India. And this is actually a very, very popular dish in Réunion Island as well. Réunion Island, which is right next to Mauritius. This would be their most famous. And then what kind of sausage is it though? This is a pork sausage. Is it? Okay. This is the wild boar. Okay. And you call it salmi. The salmi is a dish which is cooked with a lot of spices like cinnamon, cloves, tomato. Normally you deglaze it with a little bit of wine as well. It is said that it was inspired by the French civet because the composition, not the spices, but the deglazing with the wine is very similar. And it's one of most popular Creole food. And it's, I remember it's something that my parents, for example, would made on special occasions, you know, on Sundays. Exactly. On Sundays, everybody gets together to have a nice meal. We're going to have this. And it's also said that this comes from the slaves who were cooking this. So Luke was telling me on the first day that he really wanted to have some deer. And I told you that the season was over, which it is, but they've kept a little bit with which they've been able to put us together for us. And then you have a chicken curry. Chicken curry, which we just watched Marie-Michelle prepare. It looks so good. Smells amazing. And then here you have a soup, which we call a lentil soup. A lentil soup in Mauritius, which is known as red lentils. Red lentil soup. And then to go with that, you have a choice of starch. You have either the farata or you can go with it with a little bit of rice. So you're it's the folding, the layered, layered roti. Okay. Farata. Okay. I'm going to give a little sip of the red lentil. It's very hot. It's not red though. So I'm going to start with the salmi, the wild boar. Whoa. Very tender. Oh my gosh. And you get that hint of spices, cinnamon and cloves. It's really amazing. Actually, usually when I've had wild boar in the past, it's lean. Wow. That is like the most tender wild boar I've ever tried. Okay. Next up, the one I'm looking forward to trying, the surf, the deer. Also so tender. No offense to my father, but I don't know what he's doing wrong, but this deer is so ridiculously soft. Every deer I've tried has been so much more lean. It's must just been cooked down for such a long time. I mean, it is really tender. That one's got a hint of spice to it. Yum. Let's try the chayote, the leaves and the vegetable mash. Really unique flavor. A little crunch to them. It's also organic. Oh yeah. So they grow it in, because we are in an area where it's very cold and very wet. It's a good environment for the chayote to grow. That's why it's, it has a lot of flavor. Yeah. The last one I haven't tried yet is the sausage with the rugai sauce, which is like a tomato based sauce. I'm going to try it with the paratha. There's a hint of sweetness over there, in there that gives it like a, yeah, it's really good. There's a lot going on here. Tomatoes, onion, a little bit of thyme, a little bit of garlic as well. Give it flavor. So I almost forgot about the chicken. Can't forget about the chicken, green chicken. Very rich, thick curry on the chicken. Okay, I'm going to put a little bit of this chili paste. I can smell it already. It smells spicy. That might've been too much. Be careful. Be careful. Okay. Green chili paste. Yum. Yeah, that kicks up a notch. That's good. Now that we've tried everything, I know it's not the vegetables, but what would be your, your favorites? Gotta give it up for the wild boar and the deer. I just can't believe how tender they are. Yeah. Really, really, really tender. Usually like I was saying, the wild meats, it's a little bit leaner, a little bit chewier, but not at all. Wow. It's delicious. Thank you so much. It's incredible. My first Creole meal. So we've got a dessert here. Coconut with jelly pineapple, homemade. Pineapple is a little bit sour and the coconut is so strong. Really just condensed coconut flavor. So finishing off our meal with another famous product of Mauritius, the famous local rum made with sugar cane. And this one's been infused with guava. Smells strong. Oh, good. That's awesome. Actually, the guava flavor really comes through. It's not, it doesn't burn as much as I thought it was going to. And it's got a sweetness to it. Huge thank you to Marie-Michelle and Christine. That was delicious. Thank you so much. And everybody can come and visit when they come to Mauritius. Okay. Bye-bye. The absolute best way to travel here in Mauritius is to rent a car. So you'll find the island is small, but the attractions are quite spread out. You'll be driving an hour here, an hour there to see all the different things you're going to want to see here when visiting Mauritius. And before I came here, I did a lot of research about the best car rental agency. And what I landed on was Ola Car Rentals. They have a kiosk at the airport so you can pick up your car as soon as you land. And you can trust the guys at Ola that they're going to take care of you. They're an honest company that's going to hook you up with a great car so you can explore this beautiful country of Mauritius. Right now we are with my friend here, Irfan, who is one of the owners of Molkia Pastries. We are in Saipol and we're going to try a few classic Mauritian pastries. So what you can see here, this is called a Puit d'Amour, which literally translates in English to well of love. Okay, so if you need to propose to your girlfriend and it's the right cake for you to bake. And then we have the Napolitan, or Napolitan as we can call it as well. So this is made with two shortbread cookies, which is flour and butter mixed together. You cook it in the oven like cookies and then you will stick it together with a little bit of strawberry or guava jam and then add a little bit of icing on top. And this is a Fete Banane, which is actually made out of puff pastry. The original recipe would actually be with custard inside, but we've done a very tropical thing with it. We've added banana inside. Which one do you want to start with? It's really creamy, super flaky on the bottom and it's nice and cold, which I like too. Really good. It's delicious. Now this one is going to be just a little bit drier. Okay, so you can see the shortbread cookie, the layer of jam and then you have the icing. You said this is like a guava jam? Yeah, it's strawberry or guava. Strawberry, okay. It's dry, but not in a bad way. A little bit more sweet than the other one. Okay, and finally we've got the banana cake, or how do you call it? Puff pastry. Puff pastry, yeah. So you use ripe or overripe bananas that you're going to cook for a long time with a little bit of sugar. And some people like to add a little bit of cocoa powder as well, just to give it that dark texture. Oh my god, that is amazing. Okay, that one's my favorite by far. The least sweet, really good banana flavor in there. It tastes like banana bread, like we make in Canada, but the flakiness from the puff pastry is totally different. Gives the texture completely different. So flaky, yum. Some sweets to end an incredible day of eating. Thank you, Ashvin. No worries. It's been another great day. You guys can go on a food tour with Ashvin if you want with Taste Buddies Mauritius, and check out his channel too. I'll leave all the stuff down in the description box. We're going to show you guys now some of the beauty of Mauritius. We're actually going to go swimming with dolphins, and we'll catch back up with Ashvin on the next episode. Sure, see you guys in the next video to learn more about Mauritian food. That was truly an unforgettable experience to swim with the dolphins here in Mauritius. There were two types of dolphins that we saw. The spinner dolphins, which are a smaller species, and also the bottlenose dolphins, which are a little bit bigger. And there are lots of companies doing the swimming with the dolphins here in Mauritius, some of which are definitely not doing it in the most humane and respectful way to the animals. But we went with a company called Mateo's Attractions, and I thought Mateo and his captain were really respectful, and we didn't get in the way of the dolphins, but we were still able to get up close and swim with them. It's truly an amazing experience that you have to try here in Mauritius. The aquatic life and nature here is outstanding.