Characteristic products
Thanks to its varied topography, Réunion offers ideal terrain for a wide range of crops, despite its modest size. Most Réunionese eat rice every day. Then there's the chouchou - known as chayotte in mainland France or christophine in the West Indies - which resembles a pear, despite its potato-like taste. Chouchou is delicious au gratin, but can also be prepared as a salad or purée. Brèdes are the generic name for the green leaves of a vegetable (pumpkin, chouchou, songe...). In Réunion, bringelle, the nickname for eggplant, is used in rougail. Vacoa is the local name for pandanus, a type of palm tree. You can eat its young leaves in salads or its fruit (called pinpin), which looks like a large green pineapple. Red and white beans, lentils and broad beans( notablyCape peas ) are the most common dried vegetables. Palm kernels or palm hearts are very popular, as are taro , an aquatic plant whose tuber and heart are eaten. And let's not forget the ti jacque, the enormous fruit of the jackfruit tree, with its fleshy pulp, which is prepared as a curry. Condiments made from seasoned chopped vegetables, achards are used as a side dish. Be careful, they often contain a lot of hot pepper.
Reunionese cuisine has no shortage of flavors. Massalé is a spice blend - and by extension a dish - of Indian origin, generally comprising coriander, cumin, dried chilli and caloupilé. Caloupilé is the leaf of an Indian tree used to season both massalé and curries. Piment oiseau, the strongest of Reunion's peppers, is generally presented as a chili paste. In contrast, combava is known for its deliciously fresh zest. The zest of this small, bumpy lemon has an incredibly strong lemongrass scent, ideal for flavoring dishes in sauce. Reunion's Bourbon vanilla is reputed to be the best in the world, a benchmark for top chefs. There are several vanilla factories on the island where you can buy it. Another orchid, the faham, has aromatic leaves used to perfume real rhum arrangé. However, it is becoming increasingly rare on Réunion due to over-picking.
As an island, you'll find plenty of fish and seafood, as well as classics like tuna, shark, swordfish, sea bream and more. Camaron refers to large shrimp, while zourite is a type of small octopus, often eaten as a stew. Bichiques, tiny fish fry, are very popular on Reunion Island. Another animal - this time terrestrial - is the tangue, which resembles a hedgehog but belongs to the rat family. Rarely served in restaurants, it is more often served at tables d'hôte or by Creole families, who cook it as a curry.
The classics of Reunionese cuisine
Réunion cuisine is strongly influenced by both Indian and Chinese cuisine, and to a lesser extent by African and French influences. These include the unmistakable samoussas and bonbons-piment, small Cape pea puree fritters flavored with turmeric, cumin and chili pepper. They often take pride of place on local tables alongside bouchons, a Reunionese version of Chinese siu mai. These steamed bites are filled with meat, minced onion and spices. Eaten as they are, they can also be enjoyed in a "pain bouchon" sandwich, which can be enhanced with French fries, melted cheese and sauces. From France, pâtés resemble crispy turnovers, usually filled with pork stuffing with or without hot pepper. Or, more simply, graton is fried pork rind, eaten like potato chips as an aperitif.
Cabri massalé is one of the mainstays of Réunionese cuisine. Of Indian origin, this highly aromatic dish is made with goat's meat, tomato, onion and a host of spices. Cabri is sometimes replaced by pork, chicken, beef or fish. As in the West Indies, boucané refers to meat braised at a low temperature, taking on a unique smoky flavor. On Reunion Island, this is most often pork belly, which is then used in a curry.
Another emblem of local cuisine is rougail, a spicy sauce made from cooked or raw fruit or vegetables (tomatoes, mangoes, cucumber, etc.), finely chopped and pounded with salt, chilli and onion, served as an accompaniment to a curry. By extension, rougail also refers to a dish simmered with tomato: rougail saucisses, rougail boucané or rougail morue, for example. There's even baba-figue rougail, made with banana blossom. Another dish, civet, is - as in France - a meat stew simmered in red wine. In Réunion, it is generally prepared with duck or zourites. More rustic, zembrocal is turmeric rice topped with meat and kidney beans.
The Chinese influence on Réunion is very strong, and in addition to bouchons, there are many other specialties, such as chop suey, Cantonese rice and pâtés impériaux. Sarcive is a distortion of the Chinese word char siu, made from pork marinated in soy and honey, then grilled. Most often, it's made with pork ribs, but chicken is also available. It's eaten as an appetizer or garnish.
Reunionese cuisine has incorporated some emblematic dishes from the Indian Ocean, such as fried mines (fried noodles filled with omelette, meat and vegetables) and vindaye (fish in a spicy vinegar sauce) from Mauritius, or chicken coco from Mauritius. Of Madagascan origin, roumazave is a noodle and brèdes soup topped with fish, chicken or beef. Street stalls also offer some typically Mauritian snacks, such as dholl puri, split pea flour cakes.
Between desserts and arranged rums
Reunion's viennoiseries include macatia, a small round loaf sweetened with milk and sometimes filled with chocolate; pâté créole, a crumbly, hearty shortbread cake, sometimes filled with jam; sweet potato cake, which is as melting as it is hearty; bonbon-miel, a kind of doughnut soaked in honey syrup. Finally, the bonbon-cravate is a crunchy doughnut sold mainly in small traditional stores. Despite its name, it looks rather like a bow tie.
Mascarin chocolates are the island's best-known products, flavored with local flavors: rum honey, tamarind, combava, vanilla coffee and ginger. You can also take home jams and jellies made from Pei fruit: pineapple, mango, letchi, banana, guava, passion fruit, etc.
After all, fruit is the island's star attraction, unlike many other tropical destinations. One thinks of course of the victoria pineapple, described by some as the best pineapple in the world, grown only in the Indian Ocean. Then there's banana, papaya, mango (eaten ripe or green and crunchy with a little chilli salt) and, of course, letchis, a winter fruit that's even put at the foot of the Christmas tree. They're much tastier than those found in mainland France.
As for hot beverages, Bourbon Pointu coffee is reputed to be one of the world's finest coffees (and one of the most expensive too), and is sold in delicatessens as far afield as Japan. It's hard to find on the island. Alternatively, try café-vanille, an original product, since it's a Reunionese innovation. Very fruity. In addition to the many fruit juices consumed by locals, there's COT, a lemonade created in 1971, sold in a small brown glass bottle.
Reunion also produces "Pei" beer, such as the famous Dodo, a light 5-degree blond that has been around since 1962. Famous craft beers include Picaro and Les Dalons ("the buddies" in Creole). When it comes to wine, Réunion boasts local production, harvested exclusively in the cirque de Cilaos. Well sheltered from the wind and enjoying plenty of sunshine, without too much heat thanks to its altitude, Réunion's vineyards are the southernmost in France. Nevertheless, production remains very limited, with most of the wine served on the island being imported from mainland France or the rest of the world.
Last but not least, rum is present on Réunion as on all the sugar islands. Less renowned than rum from the West Indies, but just as good, rum from Réunion has caught up with its West Indian rivals in terms of quality in recent years. It can be drunk neat or as a punch, but is best prepared in a very Reunionese specialty: rhum arrangé. Traditionally made with the leaves of the faham orchid, rum arrangé has long been available in a variety of fruit and spice combinations: vanilla, pineapple, mango, letchi, coconut, govaye, cinnamon, banana, orange peel or even peanut, it is served more as a digestive than an aperitif. Conversely, punch planteur - a mixture of fruit juice, sugar syrup and white rum - is served more as an aperitif. It's worth noting that ti-punch, made simply with rum, cane sugar and lime, comes from the West Indies, not Reunion.
With very low taxes, rum is particularly inexpensive on the island. Charrette rum is the most famous. The 49-degree version is very strong and therefore best for rhum arrangé. For punches, prefer the 40-degree version. Charrette also comes in an amber version, aged in oak barrels. Isautier rum, considered to be of better quality, is also becoming increasingly popular. Savanna and Rivière-du-Mât offer more upmarket rums, with some bottles worth their weight in gold. The Chatel distillery produces liqueurs (vanilla, coffee, fruit, etc.) as well as blends for planters' punches and rhums arrangés. Other rums and fruit liqueurs have emerged in recent years, produced by artisanal, family-run micro-distilleries (La Part des Anges, Arômes Distillerie...).
