Creole Cooking Fires up Mauritian Vacations
What do you get when you blend African, Asian and European cultures together? You get a melting pot of traditions, festivals and, above all, food. Mauritius and the Seychelles are two slices of tropical island heaven that have benefited from such a blend. When you visit these islands you get sub baked goodness, water sports, exciting open air markets, cute lemurs and assorted wildlife, and food that is out of this world.
Creole cooking is famous up and down the African coast, particularly in Mozambique, Tanzania, Seychelles and Mozambique. Creole cooking has it origins in slavery, but don’t let the inhumanity of the slave trade deter you. The food is rich and spicy and relies heavily on sauces and fresh local ingredients.
The ingredients themselves are simple and largely interchangeable, depending on what’s in season.
The defining characteristic of Creole food is its spiciness. Peppers, any peppers, and chilli are a stable ingredient whether you’re cooking fish, chicken, vegetables or red meat. Other primary ingredients include beans (black beans, kidney beans, and borlotti beans), okra, rice and gumbo, which is a kind of hearty stock or broth.
Given that Creole food is so popular up and down the African coast, it stands to reason that fish is incorporated into most dishes. Mozambique is famous for its prawns. The Seychelles is famous for its lobster. Mauritius is famous for its big game fish, such as marlin and tuna. Octopus is also popular in Tanzania. Any of these can be used to make jambalaya, gumbo, stews, curries, crepes, and croquettes.
Creole cooking is incredibly versatile and can be combined with several other styles. So you can mix ’n match with Italian-type pasta, Asian noodles, potatoes and the like. You can add some tang to lasagne, fire up bangers and mash, and put some bite in your bouillabaisse.
The upshot of all this deliciousness is that when you head off to your tropical island paradise to enjoy soft, golden beaches in the Seychelles, luxury accommodation in Mauritius, or awesome scuba diving in Zanzibar, you are also guaranteed some of the most amazing gastronomic experiences of your life.
Now, if that doesn’t inspire you to book your tickets, get a dog sitter, pack your bags, and jump on the next available flight to the African coast, then you can consider yourself a lost cause.
Sandy writes for a number of blogs on a variety of topics, including Mauritius accommodation, technology, media, the environment and careers.
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