Mine Bouille: the Mauritian Boiled Noodles Recipe

Mine bouille is Mauritius’s boiled egg noodles: the noodles go into boiling water for a couple of minutes and are served under a topping, most often minced beef cooked with oyster sauce and soy sauce, but also a tomato rougaille or a fried egg. For four people you need 400 to 500 g of noodles, 250 to 350 g of minced beef and about twenty minutes. Unlike mine frit, nothing goes into the wok. The noodles stay plain, and the topping makes the dish.

Mine bouille vs mine frit

Both dishes belong to Sino-Mauritian cooking and use the same noodles, but they are cooked differently. For mine frit, the noodles are stir-fried in a wok with vegetables and meat. For mine bouille, they are simply boiled and then put on a plate or in a bowl. An expat forum puts it plainly: they are two different dishes.

A travel blog that tried the dish on the island describes two ways of serving it. The dry version, sometimes called “touni”, comes with a sauce and either meat, minced meat or a fried egg cooked on one side only, the “œuf miroir”. The soup version sits in a clear chicken broth flavoured with ginger and garlic, with bean sprouts, cabbage and spring onion. Each restaurant decides which one you get, so ask when you order whether the dish comes with or without broth.

Ingredients for 4 people

• 400 to 500 g egg noodles, ideally fresh. Chinese grocers sell them, and dried packet noodles will do in a pinch
• 250 to 350 g minced beef
• 1 onion
• 1 to 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 spring onions
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• a little water to loosen the sauce, pepper, and salt only with care, because soy sauce is already salty
• optional: a small handful of frozen peas and sweetcorn, half a teaspoon of sugar

Oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and fresh noodles are sold in Asian grocers. To find shops across the island, see our guide to shopping in Mauritius.

Method, step by step

1. Boil the water

Fill a large pot with water, add a drizzle of oil and bring it to the boil. It will be ready by the time the meat is done.

2. Cook the meat

Brown the minced beef in a hot pan for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped onion and the garlic, stir, and cook for another 5 minutes.

3. Season

Add the oyster sauce, the soy sauce, pepper, the sugar if you use it, and a little water. Stir until the meat is coated and cook for 5 minutes. Taste, adjust, then turn off the heat. If you add peas and sweetcorn, they go into the pan with the sauce.

4. Cook the noodles

Put one portion of noodles in a long-handled strainer (or a large strainer set over the pot) and lower it into the boiling water. Unlike spaghetti, the noodles do not go loose into the pot: you lift them out in one go, so they do not overcook. Fresh noodles take about 2 minutes, and 3 to 4 minutes if you follow a packet. An expat forum gives a handy test: take them out as soon as they float to the surface.

5. Serve

Put the drained noodles on a plate, top them with the meat and sprinkle with sliced spring onion. Serve very hot with the chilli sauce of your choice. One recipe names a very hot mint and coconut chutney as the usual side dish in Mauritius.

Three published recipes compared

Quantities and toppings differ from one source to the next, and so does the cooking time for the noodles.

Other toppings

Minced beef is the most common topping in the published recipes, but it is not the only one. One of them also lists tomato rougaille, tinned sardines cooked in tomato sauce or curry, and thin strips of omelette. A forum mentions a curry, sautéed chicken, sautéed vegetables, or sautéed chicken with chillies and tomatoes under a fried egg.

The SBS recipe takes the idea further with an aubergine rougaille. The aubergine is browned over high heat, then simmered with shallot, 50 g of ginger, chilli, thyme and 1.5 kg of tomatoes, 10 minutes uncovered and then 5 to 7 minutes on low heat. The noodles are then dressed with a drizzle of oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar. Beef can replace the aubergine.

For a full Mauritian meal, mine bouille goes well with a chicken curry or a bol renversé, another Sino-Mauritian dish. More specialities are in our guide to Mauritian cuisine.

Frequently asked questions

• Can I use dried noodles? Yes. One of the published recipes accepts them in place of fresh ones, using the time on the packet.
• Is mine bouille eaten as a soup? It depends on where you eat: both the dry version and the ginger broth version exist, according to a travel blog.
• Is it the same as mine frit? No. The noodles in mine frit are stir-fried in a wok, while those in mine bouille are only boiled.

Sources and checks

• Cuizine Maurice — Mine bouilli, boiled noodles with ground beef
• Brinda Bungaroo — Mine bouille, boiled noodles with minced beef
• SBS Food — Mine bouille and rougaille (Nagesh Seethiah)
• Jídlo na cestách — Mine bouillie, boiled noodles
• Expat.com — forum “Fans de mine bouillie”