Gâteaux piments, napolitaines and other treats

Between lunch and dinner, Mauritius does not fast. The island has a snacking culture that shows everywhere: at market kiosks, on Sunday beaches, in pastry shops, supermarkets, food courts and the small neighbourhood shops known as tabagies. Savoury or sweet, crunchy or melting, the Mauritian snack has its classics, and the first of them fits in the hand.

The gâteau piment is a traditional island snack: a crisp fritter made of split peas, chilli and coriander. It is readily compared to a fierier falafel. It is eaten on its own, but also crumbled into a soft white baguette, which turns it into a sandwich in its own right, and one of the simplest there is.

Chilli, for that matter, is everywhere in the island’s cooking, and it is grown locally. In 2025, Mauritius harvested more than 3,100 tonnes of it, on a little over 416 hectares. Mauritians love it even on their fruit, and we shall come back to that.

Gâteaux piments have their place at the same counters as dholl puri and samosas. At the Port Louis bazaar, they are bought from the street-food kiosks, before a sweet pastry and a glass of alouda, the island’s creamy milk drink.

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At the teatime counter

Hotels have adopted the gâteau piment at teatime. At Tropical Attitude, in Trou d’Eau Douce, the Taba-J cart serves gâteaux piments, faratas and rotis from 4pm. At its neighbour, Friday Attitude, the same cart offers gâteaux piments, rotis, boulettes and fried aubergines from 4pm to 6pm. At Heritage Awali, in Bel Ombre, Kizuri serves sandwiches and faratas from noon to 3pm, before tea from 3pm to 5pm. At Récif Attitude, in Pointe aux Biches, the Taba-J serves Mauritian street food at lunch, from 12 noon to 3pm, then an afternoon tea from 4pm to 6pm with crêpes, tea, coffee and local sweets. So the farata and the roti travel from the street all the way to the poolside.

On the sweet side, Mauritius is an island of pastries, cakes and confectionery. The napolitaine is the favourite. It most often consists of two melting shortbread biscuits joined with jam and coated with a layer of sugar icing. It can be found in pastry shops, supermarkets, food courts and tabagies all over the island. A Mauritian, Ana Patten, adds another favourite: almond paste cake, flavoured with vanilla and almond.

Poudine maïs is a more rustic traditional dessert. It is made with cornmeal, milk and fragrant spices, and topped with grated coconut. Creamy and fragrant, it ranks among the island’s traditional desserts.

The island’s sugar also goes into more elaborate desserts. At Le Fangourin, the restaurant of L’Aventure du Sucre in Beau Plan, the sweets are made with the unrefined sugars of Mauritius: muscovado tartlet, fresh vanilla crème brûlée, dark chocolate and molasses fondant and, more recently, a lime pavlova.

Festivals have their sweets. At Holi, pastries filled with dried fruit and nuts are shared; at Divali, families prepare traditional sweets. And in the Chinese quarter of Port Louis, biscuit makers and Chinese cakes are handed down from generation to generation. At Beau Plan, for its part, the shop of L’Aventure du Sucre lines up coconut rocks, peanut nougat, tropical jams and island honeys.

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Salt, chilli and fruit

Which leaves the most Mauritian snack of all, the one that surprises visitors. On beaches and by the roadside, stalls sell cups of jamalac, a sweet fruit full of water that comes in several colours, doused in tamarind juice, with a little salt and chilli on top. Pineapple is eaten the same way. Tany, who sells fruit on the beach at Mont Choisy, knows how Mauritians like it: with plenty of salt, chilli and tamarind sauce. Her stall is piled high with pineapples, mangoes and pink and white jamalac, and her busiest day is Sunday, when families flock to the public beaches.

The mix of sugar, salt and chilli is disconcerting at first taste. It is, in short, Mauritian snacking in a nutshell: nothing is quite sweet or quite savoury, and the chilli is never far away.