Reunionese cuisine is reflective of the island’s population: diverse. It finds its origins in the culinary traditions of the various ethnicities that came to settle on Reunion Island. From the French to the Chinese, and including the Madagascans, Mauritians, Indians and East Africans.
Reunionese cuisine is very colourful on account of the large number of spices that embellish the food. Livened up by the use of chilli, it can also have a sweet and subtle character thanks to its Madagascan and Indian inspiration. The most well known Reunionese dishes are without doubt carri (Reunionese curry), sausage rougail (tomato-based sausage dish), and massalé (Reunionese masala dish). Reunionese cuisine also includes a number of fried dishes, mainly enjoyed as an appetizer or dessert. And of course, no meal is complete unless accompanied with punch and ‘rhum arrangé’ (mulled rum) or tamarind syrup…
Reunionese cuisine, like any world cuisine, has its own codes of practice. The appetizer holds an important place within the Reunionese culinary tradition. Samosas, bouchons (meat-based appetisers wrapped in pastry) and bonbons piments (miniature spiced doughnuts) are enjoyed as a means of whetting the appetite.
Main courses – generally fish, pork or poultry-based – are accompanied by rice, grains, brèdes (amaranth greens), achards (spicy vegetable relish) or tomato rougail (typical Creole sauce). In all of these dishes, spices such as ginger, saffron (or turmeric) play a leading role.
As for sweets, these are generally enjoyed in the afternoon, rather than as a dessert following a meal. Usually in the form of fritters or flour-based cakes, these are eaten as a treat during a tea break. To round off a meal, delicious seasonal fruits are the choice of preference, something of which there is no shortage on Reunion Island.
For the inspired and curious traveller that you are, there is nothing better than tasting the very special dishes of Reunionese Cuisine as made by those who can prepare them best: Reunion Islanders themselves! Don’t be shy! Just push the door of one of the many “guest tables” and family restaurants you’ll encounter on your itinerary. You will get a chance to taste the very best of Reunionese Cuisine, an authentic treat of fish dishes (marlin and swordfish either oven baked, steamed or grilled), tartare of tuna, fish carpaccios or sushi…
If you prefer the formal setting of a classy dining room, you may want to choose from the wide selection of restaurants available on the Island. Set your sight on a small and cosy establishments, where the simplicity of the food prepared in the most traditional Reunionese way will excite your senses.
You will be likely to find on their menu the soft cake of crab and prawns with orange and pink grapefruit, the crusty raviole of oyster and mushrooms with lobster, the flamed trout with vanilla sauce, or the traditional coconut chicken…
Do not forget to eat at the bakeries, freshly baked goods to die for!
The island’s local boulangeries and pâtisseries remind you that while on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, you are, at the same time, in France. This French department, surrounded by the warm seas, with volcanoes and mountain peaks rising out of its fascinating landscape, is dusted with shops selling sweet and savoury slices of traditional favorites.
The Island with an appetite!
Samosas and dumplings, a cultural mix for appetizers
A golden triangle crunches between your teeth, and the exotic savour of the stuffing teases your taste buds. Originally from India, samosas are ideal to accompany a tropical punch. Dumplings are Chinese meatballs enveloped in a rice-based dough. Bonbons piments, made from broad beans, have their own place among Creole appetizers. They are sold in all the markets, and by many food sellers.
The First Course
The palmiste salad is prepared with a variety of a very small palm tree, which has grown in the wild for ages, yet almost disappeared as it was so often sought after.
Chouchou, elsewhere referred to as chayote or christophine, grows under the climbing vines that cover the ramparts of the Salazie circus. A selection of smoked fish from the tropics (sword fish, blue marlin, tuna, sea-bream…) is provided by the large game fishing, which takes place in the deep waters around Reunion Island.
Rice, beans, and rougail: the trilogy of traditional Reunionese cuisine
Chilli peppers, which make visitors to the island, perspire just as much as the local rum and the tropical sun, have found their way under the blackened skin of grilled blood pudding as well as in the accompaniment of raw cut vegetables called achards.
The term achard covers all sorts of vegetables cut in thin strips and marinated in a chilli pepper- based sauce.
The most explosive of Reunionese chilli peppers is the tiny “piment-zoiseau”. It is generally used in the spicy sauce called rougail, which usually accompanies the main dish, a local curry mix.
There are several kinds of rougail. The most common are tomato, aubergine, green mango, lemon, and last but not least, peanut. These fruits and vegetables are finely cut or crushed with a pestle, then mixed with green pepper. Salt, onion and a little salad oil are added.
The rice really develops its taste when the beans are added. They are usually red or white beans, broad beans, or even better, lentil beans from Cilaos. Just as in the case of Le Puy in mainland France, the volcanic soil in Reunion produces an excellent variety of lentils.
The different types of curry
The basic preparation for the local curry dish “cari” is similar. Onion, garlic, thyme, tomatoes, salt, pepper, turmeric (of course), local saffron and sometimes ginger are lightly browned together. These simmered dishes are often mixed with vegetables such as jackfruit, originally from India. While still green the jackfruit is prepared as a vegetable; once ripened it is eaten as a fruit. Other vegetables used in curries are the chouchou (christophine), potato and palmiste (the bud of a palm-tree).
The term “rougail” is used to designate both a condiment and a kind of curry used for fresh or smoked sausages and cod fish.
Since the 19th century, Reunionese cooks have found an appropriate use for a local treasure – vanilla. One or two vanilla pods to tease the palate and flavour a duck sauce or a grouper filet.
Brèdes as a side dish
“Brèdes” are edible leaves and stems of different plants (chouchou, Chinese cabbage, pumpkin or mouroom…) that are served fried with garlic, ginger, onion and some chilli peppers.
Creole sweetness: tropical fruits
Lychis and festivities go hand in hand! The little red fruit with its milky flesh ripens with the coming of Christmas time. Towards the end of the lychi season the longan fruit takes the relay in February. Mangos ripen earlier, and are often a result of learned breeding. In abundance, there are some fifty varieties of mango in Reunion. Only about six of them are actively cultivated among which there is the long and reddish “early gold” American, the “José”, and the “Auguste”. They may be eaten while still green, cut in thin strips, and seasoned with a mix of salt and chilli peppers.
The small Victoria pineapple is sweet and tasty, and it eaten all year round. Goyaviers, also known as strawberry guava, are an upshot of an invasive imported plant; they are little red acidic fruits. As soon as the month of May comes along they are gathered in the hills of the island on the footpaths.
Plenty of other fruits, whether eaten as such or in sorbets, are appreciated: bananas, guanabana, passion fruit, guava, pitaya cactus, tangors, and even peaches, which grow in the Salazie cirque.
Cheese and dessert
Reunion has begun producing diverse cheeses and red or white wines, which originate in Cilaos.
Gâteau patate, a potato or corn-based cake, is equally enjoyed as a snack or for dessert.
The only thing left to do is to have a little cup of old-fashioned coffee, or to sip the inevitable little glass of “rhum arrangé”, a learned mix of plants and macerated fruit in alcohol.
Cooking classes
La Sirandane – The Taste of Reunion Island
Come and (re)discover traditional Reunionese cuisine in a friendly homestay.
With friends or family, come and experience a typical Reunionese day by participating in a traditional cooking workshop with us in the Abondance district on the road from Takamaka to Saint-Benoît.
To live this experience, we give you an appointment from Tuesday to Saturday from 8:30 am.
The day will begin with an old-fashioned breakfast in which you will be offered a “Rizsofé” and a “homemade grilled Ti ca fé”.
After gaining strength we will move on to making curries, rougails and a péi cake for dessert, all made from local products cooked over a wood fire.
“Gouni empty, don’t stand up!”, place for the aperitif, for us the samosas, chilli candies, corks and homemade rums, then come the dishes served in “la Vane” (banana leaves) as tradition dictates local.
We will end this day around 3:00 p.m. by tasting our dessert with a “ti Yapana“
Some more info: http://en.reunion.fr/practical/reunion-island/gastronomy
CREOLE RECIPES YOU CAN COOK AT HOME:
http://en.reunion.fr/practical/reunion-island/gastronomy/reunionese-creole-recipes
Honest Feedback: https://www.lisaraleigh.com/blogs/all-blogs/why-reunion-island-has-my-heart
