TASTE BUDDIES

This company offers an immersion in Mauritian culture (history, lifestyle...) through its culinary specialties. The first of its kind, the Street Food Tour dedicated to Port Louis not only immerses you in the various districts, but also allows you to discover the real local cuisine, that of the streets and gargotes. While the walking tour, in groups of 8 or less, begins with a reminder of the island's great historical periods, and the various pauses in front of monuments are always the subject of instructive commentary, it is above all the tasting stops that give rhythm and direction to the itinerary. This is an opportunity to push open some unlikely doors and learn, for example, that you don't enter New Ladies Corner in Port Louis just to buy clothes, but to access a courtyard where Ahmed (alias Mimosa) has been concocting and selling succulent dholl-puri for 46 years. This is how the sites come into their own: rather than observing the heaps of foodstuffs in the big market-bazaar, you can feel and taste them, like the delicious snacks made from fresh tropical fruit prepared by Baby and her family, or the dragon fruit in the Chinese section... In fact, Chinatown is the subject of a section of the tour, and even a tour in its own right - Chinatown & Port Louis Food Tour - such is its wealth of gustatory wonders. Food Tours are also available in other parts of the island, including Pamplemousses (north of Port Louis), Grand Baie (north), Mahébourg (south-east) and Flacq (east).