Eating out in Mauritius is an experience set to tantalize your taste buds. French, African, Indian and Chinese gourmet influences are found in our still evolving cuisine. A legacy of the Dutch is the plentiful supply of venison, served as popular curry or in creole style in a spicy tomato and onion gravy. Dutch settlers who first colonized Mauritius 400 years ago brought the deer from Java and in the absence of predators they thrived and have long provided both sport and meat. The hunting season runs from June to October. Although the deer remain a favorite game for hunting, it is also widely bred in different pastures across the island. Goats, wild boars and seafood which are plentiful in our marine territory are also great taste sensations. Our cuisine made up of a wide spectrum flavours has olfactory and visual powers which render it virtually irresistible. 

Since variety is the spice of life, Mauritians can turn out a feast of international foods calculated to revive the most jaded palates: Indian and Creole curries, French peppered steaks, English roast beef, Muslim brianis and a host of Chinese delicacies.

The Mauritian gastronomy thus starts with a rich and varied mix of sauces and condiments, chillies, cinnamon, root ginger, garlic, cloves, caraway and coriander seeds, turmeric, mustard and aniseeds, black pepper etc. Boldly inventive the Mauritian gastronomy makes inroads into the sophisticated French cuisine with its delicate sauces, roasts and puddings, kneads its way through the dainties of the Indian cuisine, chapattis, puris etc, experiments boldly and successfully with crusty chinese cuisine. To wind it all up, it will end its course with dashes of creole, African inspired culinary treats of green 'bouillon' (light vegetable soups) or pulses and with dried or fresh fish, meat or octopus, cooked very spicy with rich, fresh tomato spreads.

Thus, these different influences combine to give a particular taste, which cannot be found elsewhere, to the deep Mauritian cuisine.

For very special occasions or for Christmas or the New Year, the heart of the palm tree called here the millionnaire's salad, served with buttered toast and canapés of camarons (our delicately- flavoured fresh water prawns) prepared with wine and red sauce finds its way on the festive table. Or else for the amateur of venison, braised deer or roast boar (our local cochon marron) served with yam purée, totted up with some cognac near cooking time. This highly integrated cuisine is usually preceded by sun-downers accompanied by the sampling of snacks or starters - in French hors-d'oeuvre but locally called 'gajacks' - to tease the appetite, usually deep-fried Indian or Chinese cookies or tasties. These are also to be found on sale in colourful street-stalls, all along our lively roads. In fact it is common in Mauritius to find locals eating on the road for lunch. These quite spicy snacks and fast foods are easily accessible as they are not expensive and our happy visitors relish the opportunity to taste this particular type of food.

Our gastronomy thus mirrors that invisible osmosis or transference that has been quietly threading its way across the various communities and silently seeped through one end to the other of the racial spectrum.