Immersion in the City: Desforges Street, Port-Louis- Mauritius

It was dinner time, and I was on the road back from work. It has been a hard day at the office, with loads of angry phone calls and last-minute meetings. I doubted if I will be home on time for dinner, with the traffic jam in the capital city. On driving through Desforges street in Port-Louis, I could smell nice scents of freshly cooked meals: grilled BBQ chicken, sausages, burgers, kebabs and so much more of the mouth-watering spicy meat breads or wraps.

Desforges street in Port-Louis is the place to be, especially for after-hour street food at the Capital city. Indeed, most of the vendors only start operating as from six in the afternoon until nearly midnight. You could find a large variety of food available at different locations, including the famous Mauritian biryani (a mix of spices cooked with rice and chicken, beef or fish), fried rice or noodles and so on. For those with a sweet tooth, you could also find some locally made cakes, desserts and ice creams. Recently, I have heard of this guy selling pancakes with melted chocolate at a street corner.

I parked the car and made my way to buy myself a nice dinner but the choice would not be that easy with all those appetizing meals! Besides the place was packed with people coming back from work on their way home. Desforges Street is known to be a very buzzing place in the evenings where people from the surroundings head to when they wish to buy nice Mauritian food.

I made up my mind and finally found myself eating a mix platter consisting of grilled meat and prawns accompanied by French fries. While I was eating, I had a quite interesting chat with the vendor who explained that it was quite recent that this street had become so popular, most probably due to today’s world when both women and men are working more and more late hours. In the past, Port-Louis used to be quite busy during the day only and there was not much happening there after-hours compared to more recent days.

I ended my meal with a delicious chocolate pancake and quenched my thirst with our famous cold alouda (local drink with milk and basil seeds). What a well-deserved treat after such a hectic day! Definitely a place to be if you wish to feel the after-hours atmosphere of Port-Louis!

Zafi