La cuisine réunionnaise

This entry is all about food and it is dedicated to my parents ;) I guess it's about time I wrote about food here. I am after all a food lover and food plays an important role in most cultures. If it doesn't, then at least the lack of it does, I guess. With the latter I might be referring to a nordic country that starts with a capital F but now it's time to concentrate on "la cuisine créole".

On Reunion island you can see three kinds of traditions in the kitchen: food from France, local créole dishes and a mixture of both. The créole way of cooking is a mixture of Indian, African, Chinese etc. But it has been here for so long that I guess we can just call it a tradition of its own. There are regional and religious differences (no pork for muslims and no beef for hindus etc.) But I just want to give you a simplified and clear picture ;) So this is as simple and as clear as I am able to make it.

One of the first strange words I learned here was "bred". It is pronounced the same way as "bread" but with a French accent, obviously. It means all kinds of mostly green vegetable leaves and flowers that can be used for cooking. Every bred has its own flavour and should be cooked with certain spices. It sounds very simple but it is actually very good and it is part of every typical dish here. It can be replaced by chick peas or beans as well.

Every dish consists of four differents things; breds, rice, some kind of meat and chilli. The rice is the Chinese kind os sticky white rice, the meat can be pork, beef, chicken or fish in basically any form. The chilli part was a bit weird for me in the beginning because everytime you buy take-away food they will ask you "Du piment? Quel piment?" and I didn't understand how chilli could be anything other than chilli. Well, it means that it is always chopped chilli, either red or green, and it is then mixed with tomato, mango or pretty much anything. So basically piment just means a spicy sauce on top of your meal.

Meat, clearly my personal favourite. A part of almost any dish, it is delicious here. I don't usually like food that is too spicy because I feel like it takes part of the whole tasting pleasure away- haha. However, one of the typical dishes here is made with very spicy sausages and I actually like it a lot.
As long as there is a satisfying amount of rice accompanying it I am happy.
The fish is fantastic here as well. I cannot name any unfortunately but it is go-ood. Chicken is very different here just because of the way the spice it. A typical way of preparing chicken here is mixing it with a sort of vanilla sauce. Okay, it might sound bizarre, but it is not a sweet white vanilla sauce - of course not. The chicken is cooked in some sort of oily spiced sauce and then there are vanilla sticks added in the sauce. Potatoes are sometimes used to accompany the meat and also fruits like mango and green papaya (papaya that is not ripe yet) are used. - I LIIIKE!!!

The chilli sauce aka piment  which is usually tomato with chilli but when they have it, I always choose the chilli sauce mixed with mashed chick peas I think. It reminds me a bit of hoummous but it is fresh and spicy. Now you mix all of these four elements and voilà, bon appétit. :)

When French people talk about bonbons they are referring to sweets. Réunion people say bonbon when they talk about little cookies and such. Typical bonbons from here are crusty, baked things that I can't describe so I'll just add a photo of those as well. You can get them in different flavours but the main ingredient is honey and flour. Coconut is used in many many things and it is also a main flavour or topping on these bonbons.

Probably the most famous snacks are samoussas. Samoussa looks like a spring roll but it's a triangle

and it can be filled with meat, curry flavoured potatoes or French cheese.

I am not sure if samoussa really is from Reunion island originally as I also saw it everywhere on Mauritius, but people from here say it is local. Let's believe them. There are also other similar things that are all baked or fried in oil and can be filled

 with lots of things. They are clearly of Asian origin but I don't know more. Good and cheap - that's for sure.

What about all the French things that people eat here then? Well, I don't know what to call them in English so I'll just write their French names.

Baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat and all the most famous    French bakery products that you can imagine - they're all here and everyone eats them just like in Europe. Also, don't forget about the coffee ;) Another thing is wine, cheese and canned food. Baguettes are very cheap and in the mornings every other person you see in the streets is carrying a baguette or two. Other than this, all the little pies and tartlets that you can find in France and in Belgium. They're all here.

 

Le rhum arrangé

No, I am not finished yet because a very important part of the traditional cuisine or at least a part of this island, is le rhum arrangé aka flavoured rum!!!

It is a local alcoholic beverage that you all know but the difference is that here flavouring rum is almost an art.


People buy plain white rum at the supermarket or wherever and then there are numerous possibilities to make your own flavours. Vanilla is used for this as well and other typical flavours are litchi, coconut, cinnamon, orange, ginger, mint and even our famous piment aka chilli. And these are only a few because rum can be spiced and flavoured with almost anything. You can find ready made packages in the shops where you have instructions for making it, because not every spice or fruit has to stay in the bottles for as long. Vanilla for example has to mature for about four months which is quite the usual period of time one has to wait, but apparently like with good wine - the longer you wait the better it gets. I personally haven't tried any here on Reunion island but the same tradition exists on Mauritius so there I had the chance to try about ten different kinds of flavours. They were all very good except the chilli one, I guess chilli can be mixed with lots of things
 and I like it even in dark chocolate but with rum - no thank you.

On va manger au snack?

When I wrote that we go and have take-away food, it means that we go to a snack. It can be part of a small restaurant or then they really just have take-away food but whatever the case, it is always really good well-prepared meals and local. As most of the things are really expensive here, also in the supermarkets, I can happily inform that eating at these snacks is very cheap. Almost every meal is about 5 euros, sometimes 8 if you go to a fancier snack. The meals are very big though plus it is definitely good for you - no junk food :)

The snack places might look strange as they are often shabby little houses but that's what they always look like. The most famous style is painted in the colours of the local beer Bourbon. You can see places like this everywhere. 

Well, I am getting very hungry writing this so I'd better finish this now. Hopefully I'll be able to find a cookbook that has clearly explained recipies so that I will be able to try and cook some of these dishes when I am back in Finland, or wherever...

xxx Ellen