🇲🇺 STREET FOOD TOUR IN MAURITIUS 🇲🇺 Port Louis Market 🤩

Okay, so we've arrived in Port Louis in the capital of Mauritius and we're just waiting to meet up with our tour guide from Taste Buddies. His name's Ashvin and then we're gonna head deeper into the city to discover all of the wonderful food of Mauritius. I'm super excited about it because Andy's tried all this before, his dad's Mauritian, so he's done it all. I haven't tried anything, dolpuri, roti. I'm just super excited and I'm starving. So, yeah, can't wait. So, we're gonna head in and try and find Ashvin. So, the Port Louis street food tour is actually the most vegetarian, vegan and if you don't eat fish as well, it's very friendly. So, as you are aware, most of the Mauritian street was really vegetarian but then you can walk around and find some good, if you're a meat lover, I think you will find your place as well in the Mauritian street food tour. They're better than me. Can you see them? All the bats. Oh, wow. Yes. Now, these are called the russet bats. These bats are endemic to Mauritius and they are considered as one of the largest species of bats in the world. These bats mainly eat fruits, okay, and some of them do eat some insects as well but they're actually protected by law. You can't eat them and you can't kill them. Thank you. Two of the most famous street food of Mauritius. The dolphui is very also often considered as being the national dish of Mauritius. The first layer, just a very thin layer on top. Not this one. The outer layer. His is a very good example. So, that would be the yellow, yellow split piece. Inside, you will find the gropoi which is butter beans or lima beans which is cooked in a curry style which is not very spicy by itself but it adds a creamy texture. And then you have the famous rugai sauce which is a sauce, tomato-based sauce coming from the south of India. Some chili in there and then you have the brezong. Now, the brezong, very similar to taro leaves but in texture when you cook it, it's like spinach but cooked for a very long time. It becomes very creamy. These are what we call here, very famous. These are called gateau piment or chili bites. They do have them in Réunion Island as well. Okay. They call it bonbon piment. Okay. So, this one is made again with split peas with coriander inside, a lot of chives and some dried chilies. And then, what makes it good is that it's deep fried. We've got some dal curry and some roti. Let's give it a go. Right first, you get that creamy texture that is very soft. And then when you have it with the curry, it wets everything. And then, there is often a big debate in Mauritius which do you prefer the best? The roti or the dal curry? Okay. I am team dal curry but many people are team roti and I don't befriend them. I see what you were saying the other day. You can't explain what that's like. I was trying to ask Andy like, what is dal curry? What's it taste like? What's the texture? And you can't explain it until you try it but it's quite like grainy, isn't it? Yes. Lovely. Go for it. What team are you on? Dal curry. I like them both. This is the root. Mate, you've got to pick a side. They're both delicious but... No, I don't think I can make my mind up. Let me just try this one again. This one is more dry so it makes a balance. I like them both. I think I liked maybe dal curry a little bit more but I do love roti. These aren't very spicy though. Has this got chilli in it? We did the tourist version for you. Oh, you did the tourist version. Oh, sorry. I thought you said spiciness though. Okay. But you kind of get the spiciness in the middle. It's a little bit, yeah. Yeah, at one place, aren't you? Right, roti time. Roti time. Andrew's first experience of a roti. That's kind of like the cross between a chitia and a pancake. Like a British flat pancake. This is ghatot bimur so it's like chilli cake. Chilli bites. What is bimur? Chilli. Ah, all right. Let's see. Chilli bite. Not much, it's good. Ghatot bimur, it's nice. But not so dry actually. Yeah, normally you would dip them in like chilli sauce but we didn't get any. But we've had the tourist version so it's actually not very spicy. So hopefully... Actually, is this going to get hotter as we go? On the next stop, we can try some spicy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I actually genuinely want one. Originating from the Hakka cuisine in China. So when the Chinese came to Mauritius, they wanted to recreate whatever they were having back in China but they don't have the same ingredients. So they kind of adapted a little bit to the local scene and these roulettes are very unique to Mauritius. You can find similar ones in Hong Kong where there's a huge Hakka community as well but for most of them, you will only find them here in Mauritius. Good. So normally here, we make you taste the dumplings plus the fried noodles. Good. It's roulettes. Roulettes and minh phir. Oh, okay. Minh phir means fried noodles. Oh, nice. It's made with a vegetable called the chayote. Okay, that's great. Suck all the water, it's filled with chicken inside. The white one is your normal fish ball but made with fresh fish. Wait, you want it spicy? I mean, I didn't say I wanted it spicy but... Right, okay. He loves it spicy. How much did he give you? Just flavour the broth a little bit. So you'll find that the chilli is also a little bit sweet which makes it like extra flavourful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it spicy? Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not too spicy. Mate, the flavour on that is just... It's like an explosion. Wow, that's so good. What's this? Thank you. All right, so we have some noodles here. Vegetarian noodles. Okay, so we're going to try the chow mein. It's vegetarian chow mein so... Look a bit good. He's already had some. He couldn't wait. Honestly, that's delicious. I'm not sure on the prices though. So I'm going to have a look at how much it costs. But you definitely need to come and try this one. This is delicious. This bowl of noodles costs £1.10 or 60 rupees per portion. So it's very reasonably priced and is super delicious. All right, what do we have here? What you are having is fish and cheese, crab, crispy fish. This is a type of fish ball but it's longer with a lot of herbs inside. And the traditional fish ball. Amazing, thank you. So we have a bowl of soup. We have lots of different like fish dishes in here. So there's some crab, fish. Ashwin just explained what they are but we're just going to give it a go. That one's really nice. Five different ones to try so I'll just take little bites. This one's crab. And then I don't know what this one looks like but I think it looks a bit like a dumpling. It's like white inside. I'm not really sure what that is. Was that fishy tasting? I think all of these are fishy. Yeah, my one tasted a bit fishy. Again, that one's really nice. That's fish with cheese. Ah, that's why it's good. Everything tastes good with cheese, yeah. This is really nice. And then the last one is this. I don't know the name, I'm sorry. But I think Ashwin explained. I mean, I don't think you need to apologise. There's a lot to remember, yeah. And then that one as well. My favourite one, no surprise, is the one with fish and cheese. It's really delicious. You should definitely come and try this one. And then there's also some broth in here as well. Super good. Really nice. But come check it out. This place is called Special Boulettes. But this is Chinatown. It's crazy. Quite quiet in Chinatown on a Saturday. I thought it would be a bit more busy. It's quiet in this whole city. Yeah, true. Yeah, Ashwin was saying that it's actually really quiet in the city on the weekends because most people go to the beach. But on the weekdays, it's like super hectic. The papaya and the peanuts. And then it's rolled in sesame seeds and it's deep fried. I'll give it a go. Oh, the consistencies. I don't know if you can see, but it's like really stretchy. Can you taste the papaya? No, thank God. That's what I was going to say. I don't like papayas. I really hope you can't. It's actually crystallised papaya. How is it? It's cooked in sugar for a very long time. Right. And then it's like chopped. You get like crispy bits, but you don't have really the flavour. Oh, no. It's actually really nice. Have you tried yours yet? It's chewy, it's crispy on the outside. And it's very unique. I've never had anything like this. Genuinely nice. It's like a sweet and sour chicken ball from like a Chinese. Do you know what I mean? With sesame seeds on the outside. And cold. Minus the chicken. Minus everything that is a sweet and sour chicken. Basically. These ones are called Napolitan. Yeah. They are like two shortbread cookies with a little bit of jam in the middle. And then with some icing sugar on top. And you pair that normally with tea in the afternoon. Wow, that's the best one I've ever had. Super crumbly shortbread with jam inside. What do you think? That is like the softest, crumbliest shortbread ever. These are definitely my favourite. You should try these. I'll find out how much they cost. I don't even really like the sweet food so much, but I could eat about 50 of these. 50? I could probably do the same. Andrew's going to try one of these chicken buns. Are they steamed or cooked in the oven? Ashwin basically said they are the same as the bao bun, but instead of being steamed, they're baked in the oven. I'm filled with chicken, which sounds like heaven to me. Is he inside? Oh wow, there's lots of stuff in there. It's only one pound, or 50 rupees. It's sweet. There's lots of sweetness inside. Wow. Anyway, I think we're heading off now, so we'll take this one for the road. Let's try it. Salted fish here, then dried octopus over here. Dried? Dried octopus. And there's dried shrimp. I know you can't smell it through your phone, but... I'm hoping that's not part of the food tour, let's just say that. It's a bit fishy. It's quite strong, isn't it? The smell. We skipped that stop, didn't we? Yeah. What we're going to do here is, firstly, we're going to try a very typical thing of Mauritius, which is the Victorian pineapple. Okay? But we're going to have it with a little twist. Okay? I'll let you have it like natural one, but then on a small side of it, I'll add a little bit of salt and chilli powder to enhance the flavour. And then we also have like a special tamarind sauce. It's very similar to a caramel, but with tamarind inside. You let me know how you like it. Maybe you like it all natural, but maybe you like it the Mauritian way. Good? They call it a Victorian pineapple. Wow, that was a good catch. You should have filmed that. Yeah, I just stopped it. Oh, it's a tamarind? Yes. I didn't hear you say that. Just get the b-roll running. Honestly, it's completely different to the pineapples you get back home. This is like the sweetest pineapple ever. But we're also going to try it with some chilli salt on as well, which is like a Mauritian twist. So, a bit spicy. I think Ashwin's going to come over once he's given out the pineapples. And we'll try it with some chilli salt as well. With the chilli salt. Good? Spicy? Just like a tiny bit of like spice in the background. It's very strange, but it works. And you should definitely try it at least to see if you like it. I'm a fan. Okay, so this is what the sugarcane looks like before it's pressed. Okay, so this is the stem that they will use to extract all the juice. And you end up with something like this, which is very, very fibrous. And this is where all the juice has been extracted. Cheers, everyone. Thank you for the food tour. Thank you, you're super nice. Cheers. Sorry? Oh, I think I might have lemon in it. Sugarcane, pineapple. I mean, I guess it's just pure sugar. Green apple and lime. Oh, it's not just pure sugarcane. I thought it tasted a bit tropical. Apparently, it's not just tropical juice. Sorry, it's not just sugarcane juice. What else? What does it have in it? I have the little mustache. I like it. Sugarcane juice, pineapples, oranges, green apple and green lime. Amazing. Very, very, very sweet, I would say. But this comes from someone that drinks. He drinks water all day. I mean, all I drink is water. Mauritians are brought up on sugar. For me, this is just like really lovely fresh fruit juice, but Andrew's quite sensitive to sugar. Really nice, though. Very, very nice. And I'm not really like a fan of sweet stuff. But yeah, fruity, cold, chilled, refreshing. We even got ice inside. So these are Mauritian raspberries, which are like a cross between a raspberry and a strawberry. So they're actually 100 rupees for the box, for the whole box, which is around two English pounds. So it's actually quite reasonably priced. Apparently, they normally eat them covered in sugar. Are they good? They don't need sugar. They're very squishy. You can see how they're quite sharp between the strawberry and the raspberry. Yeah, a little bit sour. So maybe the sugar might balance it out. But I think they're just good on their own, to be honest. We'll buy the box. 100 rupees for the box. You should definitely try these. I've never seen them anywhere else. He's also given us a banana to try. You can see how small they are. This is the extension of the food tour. You pay extra for this. Yeah, this is not included in the food tour yet. Oh, yeah. They're like tiny, but they just pack so much flavour. It's like 10 times better than in England. I've had these many times before, and honestly, they're incomparable compared to... The ones you get in England are just so tasteless, but these ones are just so sweet and delicious. How much are they? Seven rupees for one bag. Seven rupees for one? Amazing. Yeah, we'll take some... Should we get some bananas? Oh, you can have only one, two, three, whatever. Yeah, can we take a couple for the road? Yeah. So that brings our food tour of Port Louis to a close. So we're just going to finish off these drinks. But thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you in the next one. Cheers.