When you talk about Seychellois food, there are four primary ingredients that inevitably come to mind; coconut, breadfruit, chillies and seafood. Heavily influenced by the various different cultures and traditions of the people that have settled on the island over the years, Seychelles’ cuisine is a melting pot of different flavours; it has been blessed with the best of many worlds, and this really shows in the high quality of the dishes found in Seychelles restaurants, from small roadside shops to high-end restaurants at the country’s many resorts such as AVANI Seychelles Barbarons Resort & Spa and others.
When it comes to seafood, this archipelago of islands which lies off of Africa’s eastern coast in the Indian Ocean, offers a bountiful variety. Dishes such as giant crab soup, shark chutney, tec tec and pumpkin soup (made from shellfish), octopus zourit (a creamy curry), as well as others, made from a variety of other seafood delicacies such as barracuda, red snapper, kingfish and parrot fish are easily found here. As mentioned previously, coconut and breadfruit feature quite heavily in Seychellois cuisine. An example of this is the sweet dish called Ladob; it is often made using coconut milk, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, and ripe plantain, with sugar, vanilla, nutmeg being used for flavouring. There is also a savoury version of this dish that is sometimes made minus the sugar, and with the inclusion of salted fish pieces.
If you’re up for a challenge and looking to eat something a little more daring during your holiday to Seychelles, try ‘rousette’. This dish is, interestingly, made from fruit bat. Each eatery seems to have a slightly different take on this item, but the main point to note is that the meat has been said to be comparable to venison. Additionally, apart from being quite a foreign meat to most palettes, the dish poses an additional challenge due to the many little bones that have to be removed/navigated around as you tuck in.
Auburn Silver is a travel writer who has a passion for fashion and a deep interest in admiring new and exotic attractions around the world.