04/10/2026
Oral sensitivity ... Elyza has sensory processing challenges when it comes to food. The question is how to get her to have a balanced diet ... and have a variety of food.
Bananas are definite NOs. So need be creative and get her to eat bananas. What can be crunchy? Crunchy she likes. But not just fried stuff and where we can also have other healthy ingredients in? Gato banane Mauritius style. Crush ripe banana and mix with flour, an egg, milk, and little to no sugar, then deep fry. Added other ingredients to the original recipe to get more and other food into Elyza’s diet.
For Elyza, I first do small bits so they become crunchy, and after she had a few of the crunchy, i give her the actual size gato banane (Mauritian banana fritters) - same taste different (not so crunchy) texture, and she eats :)
Banana eaten checked :) Along with a visit back to her roots in Mauritius. A bit of history lesson:
Gato banane is tied to the colonial history, slavery, and cultural survival of Mauritius. During the era of slavery in Mauritius (under French rule and up until British abolition in 1835), enslaved people were given meager food rations, consisting almost entirely of corn and manioc (cassava). To supplement their diet, they added bananas that they could grow or find for free all over the island. Bananas grows easily in the tropical climate of Mauritius. Mixing overripe bananas with a bit of flour and frying them made nice gato banane that now are nice tea time snacks :)
Gato banane is also one that the "maroons" (enslaved people who bravely escaped into the island's dense forests and mountainous terrains like Le Morne Brabant mountain) would make wirh the many bananas around the island, as it would provided them with the quick energy needed to survive on the run.
The frying technique and the use of bananas is cultural blending ("creolization"), namely the African and Malagasy roots as many enslaved people were brought from Madagascar and west/east Africa, regions where cooking, mashing, and frying bananas or plantains has been a traditional culinary staple for centuries. And the Indian contribution: After slavery was abolished, indentured laborers arrived from India. They integrated into the island's culture and added their own touch to the recipe, sometimes adding cardamom or fennel seeds (gros lani), which made the snack very similar to traditional Indian fritters like gulgula.
Today, the humble gato banane stands as a direct product of this historical melting pot, without any official documentation of such but from what has been passed on over generations to help us understand Mauritius history. Gato banane born from hardship but preserved as a symbol of Mauritian identity.
