• Home
  • About
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tofucado

It's always tofucado season

  • Books
    • Cookbook reviews
    • Food From Books
  • Meals
    • Breakfasts
    • Baking
    • Lunch & Dinner
    • Instant Pot
  • Season
    • Fall
    • Holidays
    • Winter
    • Spring
    • Summer
  • Special diet
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan

Tofucado travels: One week in Mayotte

October 23, 2019

Hi guys! It’s been one week since I have written something here but due to a busy schedule at the job and also a lot of social events outside of it, I could not prepare the two posts I wanted to publish during my week in Mayotte.

Today’s article will be a bit longer than the usual because I spent an entire week in Mayotte and I have a lot of nice things to share! Before we get into what I did while being there, I would like to do a bit of “background” on Mayotte.

Mayotte

Mayotte is an overseas department in France. It is located in the Comoros archipelago, in the Indian Ocean (next to the Souhteast African coast). It is divided in two “islands” : Grande Terre and Petite Terre. The total area of Mayotte is around 374 square kilometers and it is a densely populated area. In terms of political/societal context, it was a bit tumultous and tense during 2018 because of several reasons but mostly due to the high levels of illegal immigration and the poverty levels in the department.

Mayotte remains a hidden “gem” amongst other departments in France and does not have a lot of “national” tourism coming from Metropolitan France. Most people usually visit La Réunion, Guadeloupe or Martinique.

Why was I visiting?

Part of my job includes visiting every department in France and helping the home for disabled people with the planning and managing of a new IT project. I had been traveling to Metropolitan France departments since July of 2018 and this time, I got to visit a department with very nice beaches and weather! We worked with the department 4 days out of our entire stay, so we did not have a lot of “visiting” time besides the weekend.

What about the food?

As you might know, I am vegetarian and so one of my biggest concern was the food. I love food, I love to cook and I love to try new things. I knew before going there that being vegetarian was very hard, if not impossible. I still had some hopes before arriving, but they were quickly destroyed as I realized that practically nothing was veggie friendly in every restaurant we went to.

rrem

Mayotte has limited access to a lot of vegetables and fruits due to its location and most of them are imported, which makes them a) very expensive or b) hard to get. Most traditional dishes are made with either meat or fish. I will not be posting a lot of pictures because most of the stuff we ate was rather basic (meat/fish with some sides), but we did manage to get some traditional food on some occasions.

The trip

Day 1

We left on tuesday night (tuesday 15th of October) and arrived at Mayotte the following day. Wednesday (16th) was rather chill because we were a bit tired from the plane (over 12 hours). When we landed and got out of the plane, the heat was so intense I started sweating instantly. We got our suitcases and got into the car we were renting and proceeded to cross from petite terre (where the airport is located) to the Grand Terre (where the capital, Mamoudzou, is and where our hotel & working area was). We took the “barge” and started crossing the ocean. The view from it was a great taste of what we were going to see over the following week.

We arrived at the hotel rather quickly and we were shocked to see how pretty it was in real life. We were a bit skeptical because hotels usually put the best pictures online and reality is often not the same, but in this case, we just fell in love with the place right away.

We introduced ourselves to the owner and then she recommended us some stuff to do since we did not have that much time left before the sun would go down. The sun usually rises at 5:30AM and goes down around 5:30PM. We then took the car to the nearest restaurant and beach (we had not eaten) and it was the first reality check when it came to food. Nothing in the menu (not even the salads) were vegetarian. I accepted my fate for the upcoming week and I just ordered some basic stuff. After eating we visited our first beach: It took us some time to find it but we finally did after 20 minutes.

rrem

It was getting a bit cloudy (as you can tell in the picture), so we did not stay for long. We were also tired so we went to the hotel and then found a restaurant to eat dinner. We found one were most “expats” from Metropolitan France seemed to be hanging out and I was almost in tears when I saw they had some vegetarian options (little did I know, this was the first and last time I would see this). We had our dinner and then we went to the hotel to rest. I also wanted to wake up and take a bath in the pool in the morning so between the tiredness of the trip and my desire to bathe in the morning, I went to bed rather early.

Day 2

Day 2 was pretty intense. It was our first encounter with the people we were going to work with and we had a huge day with them. We started at 8:30AM and finished around 5PM. At 5PM it was starting to get dark so we went to the hotel, took a bath in the pool and then we went to have dinner in Mamoudzou.

Day 3

Equally intense day as Thursday was, but we managed to leave a bit before 5 and we were ready to visit some other beaches this time. We traveled to the west coast of the island and enjoyed the views from the Tanaraki Beach.

We were told that Friday was really hard to get some free tables at restaurants so we decided to take some pizza to eat at the hotel.

Day 4

Officially the weekend, which meant more stuff to do ! We were recommended to take some “boat” day-trip to be able to visit more stuff since we did not have much time to visit all of the island by ourselves. We reserved two tickets for an island tour with Mayotte Decouverte and it was so great. We left at 8AM from Mamoudzou and visited some smaller islands. We visited small islands of white sand, the small island of Choizil, a naturally preserved small island that was not accessible because of its protected status. We also visited the “lungs” of the island: the mangrove and some coral reefs.

The best part of the day was when we saw some dolphins swimming close to us and we managed to take a closer look at them while they were swimming and jumping around. We also visited a beach (N’Gouja) where we were able to swim with huge turtles! I do not have any pictures of the turtles because they were all under the water swimming but it was a magical experience.

For lunch, we arrived at the waterfall and beach of Soulou. We had homemade lunches prepared by the guys in charge of the day trip. We stayed a bit longer in this beach and we got to see some “Makis” (Makis are traditional animals from the region, they are a sub-type of Lemur). Below some pictures of the waterfall (and yes, that’s me on the left picture enjoying the cold water)

Day 5

Day 5 was also intense even though we did not plan for it. We wanted to find the “Prefet’s beach”, a hidden gem within Mayotte in the North of the island. I refer to it as a hidden gem because it’s super, super, super, difficult to get to it by land (with boat, much easier, no sweating involved). We wanted to get to it by land, and that’s what we did and boy, was I regretting our choice halfway through the walk. It was almost 40 degrees and we had to go through an unpathed area with barely any shade, and going up and then down, and then again up, to go down again. We got lost twice but the view was worth it after 1h of walking. The picture on the left is the beach (crystal clear water, and there was no one). The picture on the left was the path we took, and by path I mean just a bunch of rocks.

After this beach we went to a traditional restaurant for lunch and we ate the “brochettis”, meat skewers with a side of Yucca and fried bananas (And some rice). This restaurant was in front of a very beautiful small island (Choizil). The food was delicious, specially the Yucca. I’m still thinking about how tasty it was, and the smokey after taste I’d get after every bite. So. Good.

We visited another beach after lunch, very similar to the beach we did the first day: Tahiti’s beach

Day 6

Day 6 was similar to the second day. Tons of work and we left around 5pm which left us not a lot of time to visit. We were invited by the owner of the hotel to a homemade dinner in her terrace. We had homemade gazpacho with lobster and some baked pasta. We enjoyed our last night in Mayotte by working a bit next to the pool in the terrace.

Day 7

Our last day and it was an intense one. Macron was visiting Mayotte and we feared for the roads to be closed, the access to the barge to cross to the airport blocked and many other things. We enjoyed our last breakfast and the presence of the two cute pets of the hotel and then headed to work for the last morning before our plane to Paris.

Going back to Paris went smoothly. Our plane arrived sooner than we thought and I managed to rest even a bit! This trip to Mayotte was really an experience and I enjoyed the most of it while being there. I’m happy to be back to my autumn-paris weather and to my vegetarian cooking. I will be going back to my usual twice a week posting schedule and saturday I am back with another recipe!

Before you leave, have you ever visited Mayotte? Would you like to now that you’ve seen what it looks like? Also, have you ever visited an area where you couldn’t eat vegetarian? How did you cope with it? Tell me all in the comment section!

in Other food content # boat, business trip, department, dolphins, foodie, mamoudzou, mayotte, sea, spicy, spicy food, tofucado, traditional food, travel, turtles, visiting, voyager

Reader Interactions

you may also like
Lithang restaurant review, discovering tibetan cuisine
5 cheap restaurants in the 13th arrondissement in Paris
La Catrina, a cheap-eat homemade mexican restaurant in Paris

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Follow me

Join my newsletter!

Categories

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

bookswithtofucado

bookswithtofucado
Surprised at how many 5 star books I read recently Surprised at how many 5 star books I read recently
💀📚So these are some of my fave horror books. 💀📚So these are some of my fave horror books. What are yours?

I made a full video with more horror book recs if you want to check it out👻

#bookrecs #bookpictures #book #books #horrorbooks #spookybooks #spookyseason #spooky #dracula #stephenking #horrorcommunity #bookswithtofucado #bookstagram #booklover #bookish
💀Babel by R.F. Kuang turned out to be much much 💀Babel by R.F. Kuang turned out to be much much better than I thought. 

💌Read this if you like: nerd students being nerdy about languages, magic, suspense, conspiracy plots and close friendships! 

#bookswithtofucado #babel #rfkuang #darkacademia #academia #darkacademiabooks #babelrfkuang #babelbook #books #beautifulbooks #bibliophile #bookshelf #bookreview #fantasybooks #magicbook ##bookrecs #bookpictures #favebooks #favoritebooks
The new member of the family 🐈 The new member of the family 🐈
🥐 🥐
September was a great reading month even though I September was a great reading month even though I felt I didn't read at all. I read two 5 star books 🌟and one of them is definitely gonna be in my top 10!!

🌞What's the last book you gave a 5 star rating ? 

#bookswithtofucado #books #acertainhunger #yabooks #lgbtqbooks #lbgtqrecs #lgbtq #bookrecs #favebooks #5starbooks #5stars #bookpictures #bookstagram #book #booklover #reading #bookworm #bookish #bookaddict #bibliophile  #love #bookshelf #readersofinstagram #libros #reader #bookphotography
Smells like autumn over here 🍁🍂 Smells like autumn over here 🍁🍂
📚🌻So these were my 3 favorite books of the s 📚🌻So these were my 3 favorite books of the summer, what were yours? (The pallbearers club was also one of my favorite ones, if not my nº1 of the summer but unfortunately I don't have a physical copy)
Books featured in the picture:
- Book lovers by Emily Henry
- Crying in H mart by Michelle Zauner
- Le livre des Baltimore by Joël Dicker

#bookswithtofucado #booksofthesummer #summerbooks #summerreads #booklovers #frenchbooks #tiktokbooks #booktok #cryinginhmart #japanesebreakfast #michellezauner #emilyhenry #joeldicker #booktube #romancebooks #fictionbooks #sadbooks #favoritebooks #topbooks #summerwrapup #summertbr #holidaybooks #beachreads #summer #books #beautifulbooks #beautifulcovers #bookcovers #covers #top3
🌻 🌻
Category is: beautiful, stunning covers🤩 I am s Category is: beautiful, stunning covers🤩
I am so excited to read these books but except the "for the throne" book, I don't really know what they are about. 

💬 Do you usually buy books just because of the cover?
📚Book review: A haunted road atlas by @theemsch 📚Book review: A haunted road atlas by @theemschulz and @xtineschiefer (podcast @atwwdpodcast) 

I gotta say I was way too excited about this book because it is the first time I can actually buy something from my favourite podcasters without having to pay +50€ of shipping. But that's just a side note. 

🌍What is this book about? As the title says, it's a guide of haunted places in the US :  a mix of paranormal and true crime stories told by Em and Christine and other cool / haunted places to visit in each city/state. 

👻The stories, while obviously dark, are told in a funny way and it goes by like a breeze. I read it like a normal book, but you can totally read it one state at a time and it'd be even greater.

The book is quite original because well, there is a million road trip guides out there but few like this one! 

🔥I'm a huge fan of ATWWD so i may be a bit biased, but nonetheless this was great and entertaining and I really want to do a freaking road trip now! 

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 
Genre: Horror/true crime/road trip guide
📚 two weeks ago I posted a video about all the 📚 two weeks ago I posted a video about all the on-going series I am reading and all the ones I want to finish in 2022. ⁠
⁠
Some of them (shown in the picture)⁠
- John dies at the end series (horror/comedy)⁠
- The last magician series (YA/fantasy)⁠
- Wayfarers series (sci-fi)⁠
⁠
And others: ⁠
- Scythe (YA/dystopia)⁠
- I hunt killers (YA/mystery)⁠
- The Wheel of time (Fantasy)⁠
- Mistborn era 2 (Fantasy)⁠

⁠
The list is long and in total there are 25 books I want to finish in 2022! ⁠
⁠
📢What series are you currently reading or want to finish in 2022 ?⁠
Here's all the books I read in April 2022 ! Not th Here's all the books I read in April 2022 ! Not that many for my average but I also got a PS5... and that kinda distracted me 🙃

The 6 books I read : 
- Gallant by V.E. Schwab (2/5⭐️)
- Homicide and halo-halo by Mia P. Manansala (3/5⭐️)
- If we were villains by M.L. Rio (4.5/5⭐️)
- The school for good mothers by Jessamine Chan (3.5/5⭐️)
- The last thing he told me by Laura Dave (3/5⭐️)
- The broken girls by Simone St. James (5/5⭐️ absolute favorite!)
I also re-read the first two heartstopper volumes! 

Check out the video in the link in my bio ! 😍

#books #bookwrapup #bookhaul #haul #book #bookreview #heartstopper #yabooks #yanovels #youngadult #bookpile #haul #bookstagram #booktok #booktube #mysterybooks #horrorbooks #lgbtq🌈 #aliceoseman
Come book shopping with me in Paris and celebrate Come book shopping with me in Paris and celebrate Sant Jordi (Saint George's day)🌹📚! A little book haul in the end with all the books I bought/got offered in the past two months. 

Hope you enjoyed it!

Book stores I visited: 
- Librairie Jousseaume 
- The Abbey bookshop @theabbeybookshop 
- The red wheelbarrow @theredwheelbarrowbookstore 

Check out here the vlog 👉https://youtu.be/aLMwKKfpBnE

#bookstores #parisvlog #vlog #bookshopping #bookshoppingvlog #bookhaul #haul #bookhaulvlog #readingvlog #reading #librairieparis #parisbookstores #bookstore #shopping #books #bookvlog #paris #parisianbookstores #fantasybooks #sanderson #brandonsanderson #yabooks
📚all the books I read in march + a super yummy 📚all the books I read in march + a super yummy vegetarian pot pie

If you want to find out more about all the books I read in march (Spoiler alert, there are some very good ones and some vvvv bad ones) while I cook some vegetarian dutch oven pot pie 👉 it's right here ! https://youtu.be/pJCCM0ab62I

What's your favourite book of march ? Let me know! 

#bookwrapup #marchwrapup #bookstagram #sjm #crescentcity #truecrime #vegetarianpotpie #dutchoven #potpierecipes #dutchovenpotpie #lecreuset #bookstragram #booktube #bookreview #frenchbooks #vegetarianrecipes #onepotmeals #onepotrecipes #tofucado #bookhaul
Ever since I made this recipe two months ago it ha Ever since I made this recipe two months ago it has become my go-to quiche. Every time I make it, it is a success and everyone loves it so it definitely need to be here. The recipe is a spinach, mushroom and sun-dried tomato quiche with some goat cheese and let me tell you, it is not only super easy to make but also freaking delicious. 

*Check out the full recipe here👉 https://youtu.be/_Eg1QD_sKvM 

#tofucado #quicherecipes #reels #foodreels #quicherecipe #vegetarianquiche #spinachquiche #sundriedtomatoes #mushroomrecipes #mushroomquiche #eggrecipes #quickrecipes #30minfood #quickfood #quickmeals #quiche #recettequiche #quicheepinards #recettes #homemadefood #vegetarianrecipes #vegetarian #veggie
Kinda realized I had never posted the reel of one Kinda realized I had never posted the reel of one of my favorite recipes of 2021, so here it is: my kimchi mac & cheese recipe which I have done at least 10801854 times since I first posted it. 

Check out the full recipe in the link in bio! (👉 https://tofucado.com/20-minutes-spicy-and-creamy-kimchi-mac-cheese/) 

#tofucado #tofucadoandbooks #kimchi #kfood #kimchimac #kimchipasta #cheesekimchi #cheesykimchi #koreanfood #koreanfoodlover #koreanjunkfood #kimchirecipe #kimchimeals #quickmeals #kimchirecipes #koreanmeals #koreanrecipes #easyrecipes #comfortfood #macandcheese #macandcheeserecipe #spicyfood #spicymeal
I have been talking about this recipe for so long I have been talking about this recipe for so long and it's finally here!! I basically make this 25 minute creamy swiss chard pasta every week because 1) it's super simple to make; 2) I looooove swiss chard and 3) it's freaaaking delicious!! 

Check out the full recipe in the link in bio! (👉 https://tofucado.com/25-minute-creamy-swiss-chard-pasta/) 

#tofucado #swisschardpasta #swisschard #recipes #vegetarianrecipes #veggiepasta #pastarecipes #homemadepasta #creamypasta #creamyvegetarianpasta #easyvegetarian #vegetarianlunch #vegetarianpasta #swisschardrecipes #easyrecipes #quickrecipes #quickveggiemeals #quickmeals #easymeals #vegetarianmeals #pastameals #pastabowl #onepotpasta
✨ January wrap up ✨ Some very good books but s ✨ January wrap up ✨
Some very good books but some very bad ones too in January. My fave read was "Le refuges" by Jérôme Loubry, such a Great thriller. 
The worst was house of accidents, it could have been SO GOOD, yet it was...so bad.

How many did you read this month? And which one was your favourite? 

#bookreels #books #januarywrapup #januarytbr #january2022 #bookwrapup #bookreviews #yabooks #youngadultbooks #horrorbooks
✨Meat & veggie broth✨ Quick recipe with the In ✨Meat & veggie broth✨
Quick recipe with the Instant pot today : this is one of my favourite things to make because you get : awesome broth, awesome meat and veggies, and tons of possible meals out of it. 

To make this easy broth you will need : 
- 2 to 3 different types of meat : I usually get jamón (but in France it's very costly to find good one), chicken legs, beef ribs or beef meatballs). For this one I used the chicken legs, beef ribs and pork belly. 
- veggies: all you want, everyone is welcomed !! I mainly use cabbage, carrots, leek, celery, potatoes. Sometimes I put garlic in there. 
- chickpeas 
- salt and pepperrrrr
- i use a bit of soy sauce to give an extra quick as well. 

Now, put everything in the instant pot, put water till almost the max limit and close the lid. If you making it with meat, go 1h + natural release (up to two hours). 

*If you want the vegan version, check out the full recipe here👉 https://tofucado.com/instant-pot-rich-vegetable-broth-recipe/ 

*If you are new to the instant pot world and wanna know more about it, I have a guide for you ! 👉  https://tofucado.com/instant-pot-basics-and-recipes-for-beginners/

That's it for today! How do you like making your broth? 

#tofucado #homemadebroth #instantpot #instantpotrecipes #iprecipes #easybroth #pressurecooking #meatbroth #veggiebroth #homecooking #ipbroth #instantpotbroth #ipideas
Load More... Follow on Instagram
2021 © Your Blog Name
made by soulmuse
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT