Beef- Bef

Although goats and chicken were introduced into the new colony very early during settlement, it appears that cattle was only introduced around late 1771 or 1772. They were shipped across from Mauritius on the Marianne who was under the command of M. Sicard.

Cattle is not reared in any big quantity on the islands. This is mainly due to the lack of space because the islands are small and hilly. Consequently, freshly slaughtered beef was and still is quite a rare commodity. Despite of this, every now and then, a cow will be slaughtered in the different villages. I remember as a young boy growing in the village of Grand’Anse on Praslin island, a cow would be slaughtered approximately once a month usually on the day before a special festivity like Christmas, Easter or New Year. We had only one butcher in the village who was also a shop keeper, restaurateur as well as dance hall operator on Saturday evenings. His name was Ahfan and he used to sell his meat from the local market in the centre of the village.
The market, which has undergone some minor modifications, still exists to this day. The equipment he had to work with were his butcher’s block, his super-sharp cleaver and his old fashion scale hanging from a beam over his bench with all appropriate brass weights.

Grand Anse Praslin Market- Bazar Grand Anse Praslin

I would often go to buy meat from him. This would mean waking up very early if I wanted to get the best cuts or if you were lucky enough to know the butcher well , you could place your order the day before and take your time to pick it upon the day.The beef carcass was not butchered as is done to-day. In fact, I recall very few cuts that were available and apart from that you just asked for a kilo of meat or laviann bef, and you get what he had closer to him. The cuts that I recall asking for were the bascot, derived for the French word basses-cotes, meaning chuck steak; the bavet , from the French word bavette meaning flank steak and the grasdoub. The grasdoub or gras-double in French is tripe that comes form the thickest part of the first stomach or rumen of the cow. The meat would invariably be wrapped nicely in giant taro leaf or Vya. There was no glad wrap or plastic bag then!