Anwar Buchoo (Blog)

BBQ Rougaïzza @ Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut Mauritius has been giving out free pizzas quite often, lately. For instance, last week itself, they launched 4 "challenges" on their facebook page and gave away many free pizzas to the winners.

Friday afternoon, I came across their 4th challenge which was as follows :

Suppose you have to create a real mauritian pizza. What would be the name and the main ingredients ?

Since, I love cooking at home, I thought why not give it a try and let my imagination do the rest. I posted this :

Name : "BBQ Rougaïzza" (as in Rougaille)

Toppings : Lychee/litchi (bring in some sweetness in a unique way), stringy white mozzarella, tomato sauce for flavour (a bit of lycopene in :)), crushed garlic, mushrooms, green bell pepper (or roasted), slight amount of corn, caramelised onion (done in olive oil), grilled chicken breast (pre-marinated in a BBQ sauce), baked cashew nuts (cashews on pizza are just great)

Top finishing layer : 3-4 tomato (or sun-dried) slices, a couple of jalapeño slices, 2 slices of eggplant on the top finishing layer, sprinkle some shredded parsley and dried oregano on top.

Shape : Circular (the classical one) or square pizza like the ones they serve in Rome or even Heart-shaped pizza.

Pizza base : Current Pizza Hut base (thin or thick crust)

Serve with some good hot Tabasco® sauce :)

For those who adventurous in culinary, you can even replace the chicken by some local salted fish of ours :)

Ten most creative ones (winners) were announced this Monday morning. More than 30 recipes were posted and mine was among the best 10. To my surprise, "BBQ Rougaïzza" was selected by the Pizza Hut team as the best among the 10 best. 

I just got my voucher/code for the free large pizza, perfect ! Pizza night tonight, I guess.

However, the best pizzas are definitely served in Italia. The big square pizzas they sell in Rome are just too good and different (those I tasted there). A bit fatty but the best in the world, for sure :-)

Maya Maya, kya hain drama !

Maya Hanoomanjee fer Rajesh Jeetah gaga lor Radio Plus. Ou bizin écoute moi kozé avant do !
Rajesh Jeetah so programme : "Deeaaarrrr prrraaavinnnddd" ! :)

It's good to laugh once in a while with such local actors. Bollywood / Tollywood même fail la.

Halal, Haram food. Doubtful ?

Recently, having come across a statement (by the Jummah Mosque of Mauritius), made me willing to write an article about this topic.

There are so many halal committees nowadays that each committee tends to claim superiority over the other. Now there’s this new one, named “Jummah masjid halal council (JMHC)”.
When you ask them about the status of Pizza Hut, KFC, Nando’s, McDonald, Debonair’s, Steers, FAIL, other restaurants, their simple answer is DOUBTFUL !
Now what’s that supposed to mean ? I wanted an answer halal or haram, and I get "doubtful".

For sometime in the past, their main problem was with KFC. All they wanted to have was the recipe of KFC before issuing the certificate and I wonder why :)
Come on, that’s its business secret. How do you expect them to share it with you ?
I’ve recently visited some Arab countries and there was KFC, McDonald’s, Hardee’s, Pizza Hut everywhere with the official halal status. Do you think KFC shared its recipe with them ? :)

There’s much hypocrisy on this subject and maybe some hidden agenda too.

When I eat at these places in MRU, I ask if it’s halal. They say yes, with the certificates. So, I eat freely without being DOUBTFUL. Some people don’t eat at these places because the JMHC or the Halal Research Committee (HRC) of Mauritius has not issued them a halal certificate.
My question : are the JMHC or HRC the only authentic halal committees on this planet ?

People tend to complicate simple things; that’s what we do best. Anyway, I think to be 100% sure that your meat is halal, you should raise the cattle yourself, slaughter it with your own hands or watch another person do it and lastly, cook it yourself.
Despite the JMHC/HRC issuing halal certificates to slaughter houses in Mauritius, how can they be sure that on any particular day the slaughtering is being done as required ? Are they present 24/7 there ?

As you see, we should do our own research too because with so much halal committees cropping, we can never be sure ! Moreover, there exist corrupt certifiers too, due to the financial gain in this sector. I was, myself, duped in Europe, by a muslim restaurant-owner, affirming that it's halal (he had certificates) and later I learnt it wasn't.

This debate will never end among some muslims; meanwhile, I’ll continue eating Pizza Hut, Debonair’s, Steers, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDo and at other halal restaurants.
God, alone, will judge me and no one else has the right to do so!

The McDo "Sega" in Mauritius

After the recent opening of the McDonald outlet at Phoenix, I decided to pay them a visit a couple of days ago. Since last year, there have been quite some manifestations from the ISKCON/Kranti groups to oppose the opening of this beef-selling outlet. The reason is same as that of McDo in India, i.e. religious conviction of our Hindu citizens and this outlet being near a to-be temple.

I was there around 18h and the McDo parking was nearly full. At the entrance, there was a paper with a notice on it saying “We are not able to sell any Beef products temporary until further notice” (ed. ongoing case in court). When I entered, I was amazingly surprised to see all the communities of the society, sitting and eating. There were many Hindus, Christians, and Muslims.

While at the queue, there were two Hindu boys in front of me waiting their turn. Suddenly, one of them started talking, a bit loud, to the other saying

Guy 1 : “this place is not too ok to sit and eat, though ...” He continued “it’s got glass panes all over and people from outside can see us”.
To which the second guy added “yeah true, if my dad comes here and sees me.. gonna be in trouble. we can try sit in the corner (not that visible from outside)”.

But, finally, there they were, all burgers on a plate and walking to a table.

I, furthermore, noticed two police officers, on duty, in front of the McDo building. It’s the first time I saw this in Mauritius, where you got 2 police officers outside a restaurant for security purpose.

On a final note, today I heard that the Kranti group is calling for a boycott of Phoenix Commercial Centre, entirely. This made me smile while thinking that if people are not even boycotting the McDo outlet there, how can you get people to boycott the entire mall ? :-)
We just got to wait for the court's decision next week (previously 29/03) and hope that everyone gets satisfaction out of this. If McDo will be forced not to sell any Beef, fair enough I think, compared to a shut-down order.

For info, I ate my meal over there in a secure, hygienic and relaxing environment. The restaurant was nearly full, inside (raining outside). I guess all the recent “segas” about McDo did a great free publicity for this American QSR.

Ena dimoun mank rol dans sa pei la !

Tout problème ki ena dans sa pei moris la, bizin ena ene zafer rélizion ki rent en jeu !

Fran tou, bane socioculturels sa pei la (tou rélizions, pa ziss ene !) mari mank rol. ena dimoun p mort san manzer/ou ek la drog (tou rélizions enkor ene foi !), mai aucain sa bane socio-sipaki-moloyo la pa pou fer naryen. zot program, invite PM dan fonction, gagne privilez pou zot ek zot ti clik, fer ene ta tapaz, gagne couvertir media ek apres ene poil na pena dan le concret !

Si ene touriss vine moris, li a croir morisien mari relizieu ek sa kantiter mouvement relizieuz ena dan sa zil la. mai pa pou autan ki crime ou delinquence p diminier. ena bane homme relizieu (couma zot apel zot !) fight pou bane zafer nonsense net ena coup, fer rier tou. vraimem bane socio-sipaki-moloyo ti bizin apel plito "communalo-politik" !

(Extrait de lexpress.mu d'aujourd'hui, ci-après)

Un front commun hindou pour protester contre le restaurant McDonald’s à Phoenix

L’ensemble des mouvements socioculturels hindous de l’île se réunit à Phoenix à 11h30 ce mardi 25 janvier. L’objectif s’organiser pour empêcher l’ouverture d’un restaurant McDonald’s à Jumbo Phoenix.

Hare Rama Hare Krishna passe à l’offensive. Elle réunit ce matin l’ensemble des associations hindoues de l’île pour dire publiquement son opposition à l’ouverture d’un restaurant McDonald’s face à son centre, à Phoenix.
Le recours à un front commun hindou était envisagé dès fin décembre. Mais la direction de la branche locale de l’International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) voulait avant tout discuter avec le promoteur du projet afin qu’une solution soit trouvée.

Il est inconcevable pour les fidèles que le fumet de boeuf parvienne jusqu’à leur temple alors qu’ils sont végétaliens. De plus, les écritures saintes hindoues décrivent la vache comme un animal sacré.

Le mouvement dit s’être adressé à la filiale du groupe Rogers - propriétaire du centre commercial de Phoenix - qui gère le site, ForeSite, le promoteur du restaurant n’ayant pas, ajoutent-ils, répondu à leurs sollicitations pour des discussions..
Une rencontre était à l’agenda vendredi dernier mais ForeSite ne s’y est pas fait représenter. ForeSite dit étudier le dossier avec ses consultants pour avoir une idée sur «les implications» du projet.

«Nous avons suivi toutes les procédures pour avoir le permis de construire le bâtiment qu’on a ensuite loué à McDonald’s. On est même allé au-delà des requirements. Le centre commercial a publié des notices dans les journaux comme le stipule la loi et on avait même installé un panneau sur le site», a expliqué Sanjiv Mihdidin, le directeur de ForeSite à lexpress.mu.

«Je ne vois pas où est le mal. Légalement, il n’y a aucun souci. Un voisin nous a écrit, on est en train de discuter avec nos consultants pour décider quoi répondre», a-t-il ajouté. Le restaurant de 250 couverts devant ouvrir ses portes à la mi-février, Hare Rama Hare Krishna ne veut pas prendre le risque de se retrouver devant le fait accompli.

Read the rest of this post »

Parti Malin Ringtone

I've selected bits of Parti Malin speech to make a ringtone (SMS too) which I've been using these days.
I thought of sharing it with you. You can use it (download link below) and make people around you laugh when your phone rings :-)

1. Right click and save as : parti-malin-p-diiir.mp3

2. SMS Tone - Right click and save as : parti-malin-p-diiir-sms.mp3

Post electoral satisfaction in Mauritius

Now that the election 2010 in Mauritius is over, I can express my full satisfaction of this felicitous outcome.

I'm very happy that Corruption, Communalism and Casteism prevailed anew. I call it the "3Cs Law". Be it from the Labour Party or MMM or MSM, they all applied this winning formula in a very satisfactory manner.

I am very glad for my country today that we still commend the "3Cs Law". You know, we make our ancestors really proud. When we were brought onto this beautiful island, we were intravenously administered a dose of Corruption, Communalism and Casteism with half-life of 500 years (into our blood). This makes me feel more positive about the future of our beloved country which is Mauritius. At least, we don't have to bother for the upcoming 20 generations; we cannot be safer than that.

Beloved country of ours, may God help thee.

Mauritius Political Speech on MBC

I've shared extracts of these speeches (in fact my favorites) and these are the real winning teams of this upcoming election 2010 in Mauritius :-)
A nou vote blok (mais zot pa present dan tou circonscriptions ek zot symbol pa blok !)
Note that the short voice interruptions are not due to streaming. That's the speaker's style ! (see photo below)

8. Parti Malin and PPM (Parti Pli Malin) - 04/05/2010 (fav)

7. MDM Collection and Parti Malin - 03/05/2010

6. Parti Malin and PPM (Parti Pli Malin) - 02/05/2010

5. Parti Malin and PPM (Parti Pli Malin) - 01/05/2010 (fav)

4. Parti Malin and PPM (Parti Pli Malin) - 29/04/2010

3. Parti Malin and PPM (Parti Pli Malin) - 28/04/2010

2. Parti Malin - 27/04/2010

1. Parti Malin and PPM (Parti Pli Malin) - 26/04/2010

How to bribe a police officer in Mauritius

Disguised caste system among Mauritian Muslims

I wanted to post for so long on this sensitive topic and here I am, finally. So what really is casteism? In general terms, it describes the hierarchical arrangement of individuals into divisions of power and wealth within a society. This exists among many religions.

Although it appears that in Mauritius there are lesser manifestations from such Muslim groups, they still do exist. Here I’m referencing to groups that call themselves “Sunni-Surtee”, “Mehman” and so on. Ok, to understand the origin of these groups, we should go back in time (a little bit).

At the beginning, there was a group of traders who came to Mauritius, from north-west of India. This Muslim group is divided in two: the Surtees (from Surat) and the Mehmans (from Kutch). Both of them are from the state Gujarat. Although being a minority, they were influential and economically powerful communities to be settled in Port-Louis. Unlike other Muslims, they did not come here under contract. They were “free”.

Up to now, everything seems more or less normal.

Moreover, they considered themselves high-class and were highly endogamous (up to the point of marrying only with spouse from their town in India). They did not marry with Muslims of indentured labor background (the “Calcutteea”).

So, why (in our modern Mauritian society) do these Muslims (some, not generalising here, of course) continue to adhere and use such names to designate themselves? Can’t they be plain and simple Muslims like others? Can’t they marry other Muslims outside their groups (though I must admit this is happening slowly nowadays)?

They have been here for a long time now (more than 5 generations I must say), but why do the young “members” are still so excited to call themselves “Sunni-Surtee” or “Mehman”? Come on seriously, you still consider yourselves to be high-class? You must face it (one day I hope so) that you are Mauritian Muslims, who, as a matter of fact, don’t speak Gujarati but Creole!

I’m not against any of these groups (and I’ve got many relatives in these groups). Simply, you just need to realise that your ancestors left their respective towns because they understood that they would earn much money in Mauritius, then. Otherwise, if they were really satisfied with their towns/cultures/socio-economic conditions, they would never have left for Mauritius.

So, please bear in mind that Mauritius is the country you need to be proud of. Instead of being within your closed sectarian circuit, break through it and mix up with others! All together as one we will fight sectarianism/casteism (disguised or not)! And God knows best.