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La Rougaille Creole, Mauritius: Curried Crab And Utter Joy
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Is La Rougaille Creole the Best Lunch in Mauritius?
Creole food is many things to many people: Afro-Brazilian, US Louisiana, Seychellois, Criollo. It’s a big brush, a broad roof to house a people rooted in colonialism, slavery and immigration. Europeans left to settle in Africa, Latin America, my West Indies and the Southern United States. It’s the slave trade triangle, an ethnic diaspora and the resulting melange of people, food and language.
The Highs
The Lows
The Highs
The Lows
A Quick background of Mauritian Creole
Some light online research reveals Mauritius is no exception and the parallels echo from my dear West Indies to this similarly idyllic island with a troubled past. A former British and French colony, the British ended slavery in 1835 but, of course, this intensive sugar cane does not cut itself resulting in indentured labour sourced from India, Malaysia, mainland Africa and even China.
Mauritian Creole food: a migration legacy
My own experience is that magic happens culturally when you bring multiple displaced people into one small island. The magic finds itself in language, music, skin tones and on the plate.
Testimonial
Let’s talk about La Rougaille Creole
So step forward La Rougaille Creole: a seafood creole restaurant tucked a back street in Grand Baie (or Grand Bay). I asked a shop owner if it was a good place to eat great local food: she smiled and nodded which was all the approval I needed.
It’s a modest restaurant with honey-wooden furniture and sunset orange walls. The menu welcomes you to the restaurant calling out that it’s focus in clearly creole and angels towards seafood. We needed no further signalling – we were picking up what they’re putting down.
There are other options available but this is an odd choice if you do not like creole nor seafood.
Would I return to La Rougaille Creole?
I admit nostalgia played a heavy hand in this experience. But it delivered. Nostalgia is a fickle mistress; sometimes makes you a voracious critic when authenticity fails to be achieved. It can also put the wind in the wings of a dish unintentionally triggering memories. I would definitely return nonetheless to find the courage to resist that crab dish and eat more of the menu.
You should also make a pilgrimage to La Rouigalle Creole. I recommend you step away from the hotel fodder and do not risk their sanitised renditions of creole food.
You should also make a pilgrimage to La Rouigalle Creole. I recommend you step away from the hotel fodder and do not risk their sanitised renditions of creole food.
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