Bol Renversé: The Sino-Mauritian Upside-Down Rice Bowl
Mauritian bol renversé: chicken, Chinese sausage and stir-fried vegetables, egg at the bottom, rice on top. Recipe for 2 and how to flip the bowl.
Bol renversé, or “upside-down bowl”, is a Sino-Mauritian dish of rice, stir-fried chicken and vegetables. You build it back to front in a bowl, then turn it out onto a plate. A fried egg goes in first, the filling and its sauce come next, and the rice goes on top. Lift the bowl and the egg sits on top, with the sauce running down into the rice. The three published recipes agree on the basics: rice, an egg, and a sauce of oyster sauce and soy sauce thickened with cornflour.
What is a bol renversé?
The name describes how it is served. You fill the bowl in the opposite order to the way you eat: egg first, then the filling, then the rice, and finally you flip it all onto the plate. It belongs to Sino-Mauritian cooking, like mine frit. None of the published recipes dates the dish, so it is best not to pin a precise history on it.
In a restaurant on the island, you are often asked whether you want the normal or the “special” version. The special version adds prawns to the chicken, Chinese sausage and vegetables.
Ingredients for 2 people
- 1 chicken breast
- 2 sweet Chinese sausages
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 carrot
- 50 g bamboo shoots
- 2 pak choi (or a quarter of a Chinese cabbage)
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 eggs, one per person
- basmati or Thai rice, cooked in advance, enough to fill the bowls
- for the sauce: 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons oyster sauce, 3 tablespoons warm water and 1 tablespoon cornflour
- a little oil, salt and pepper
You will find Chinese sausages, dried shiitake and oyster sauce in Asian grocery shops. For where to shop on the island, see our guide to shopping in Mauritius.
The recipe, step by step
1. Prepare the ingredients
Soak the shiitake in hot water for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mince the chicken, slice the sausages and the pak choi, cut the carrot into thin rounds and crush the garlic. Squeeze the water out of the mushrooms, then slice them.
2. Stir-fry the filling
Brown the chicken in a little oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the sausages and cook for a few minutes. Then add the pak choi, shiitake, carrot, bamboo shoots and garlic, and season with salt and pepper.
3. Thicken the sauce
Mix the soy sauce, oyster sauce, warm water and cornflour. Pour it over the filling, stir, and cook for 3 minutes. The sauce thickens and coats the chicken and vegetables.
4. Fry the eggs
Fry one egg per person in a separate pan, turning it so both sides cook.
5. Fill the bowls
For each person, put an egg at the bottom of a bowl. Spoon in the filling with a little sauce, then fill the bowl with rice. Press the rice down gently so it holds together.
6. Turn it out
Set a plate over the bowl and flip the two together in one movement, without letting them come apart. Turn the bowl a quarter turn to the left, then to the right, and lift it slowly so the contents don’t collapse.
Three published recipes, one method
Quantities and sauces differ from cook to cook, but the method does not. The table compares three published recipes.
| Recipe | Servings | Chicken | Chinese sausage | Sauce | Rice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cuizine Maurice | 2 | 1 breast | 2 | soy, oyster, water, cornflour | basmati or Thai |
| This is a Book About Rice (Taras) | 4 | 396 g boneless thighs | 3 | oyster, light soy, Chinese cooking wine, stock or water, cornflour | jasmine, 660 g cooked |
| Selina Periampillai, The Island Kitchen | 4 | 300 g breast | none | light soy, oyster, fish sauce, cornflour | basmati, 250 g uncooked |
The last version stands out in two ways. The chicken and vegetables simmer for 10 minutes under a lid, and the egg, fried for about 4 minutes, goes on top after the bowl is turned out, with chives. The other two recipes put the egg at the bottom of the bowl before filling it.
What to serve with it
Serve bol renversé with a chilli sauce on the side. One recipe offers a fresh tomato and coriander chutney: blend 2 tomatoes, 1 small shallot, 5 sprigs of coriander and chilli to taste until liquid, add a little salt and pepper, and stir it into the rice. Another simply serves a chilli paste on the side.
For a full Mauritian meal, chicken curry and sausage rougaille are two other everyday rice dishes. You will find more specialities in our guide to Mauritian cuisine.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I make it without chicken? All the published recipes use chicken, and the “special” version adds prawns. None offers a meat-free version.
- Why does the egg go at the bottom of the bowl? Because it ends up on top once the bowl is turned out. One of the three recipes puts it on the rice afterwards instead.
- Which rice should I use? The published recipes use basmati, Thai or jasmine rice. In every case the rice is cooked before you fill the bowl.
Sources and checks
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