Imagine standing in the early winter gusts in Port-Louis, holding a paper bagful of hot peanuts. The tips of your fingers are warmed as you crack the shells open and the smell of roasted peanuts tickles your nostrils. The first mouthful is so tasty that you immediately crave for more.

Standing behind his stall on La Poudrière Street, Ali Yadally throws a handful of peanuts into a pan full of hot grey sand. He has been roasting peanuts in this old-fashioned way since 1976. ?I learnt this method from my mother.? Roasting peanuts in sand is very rarely seen nowadays. ?I roast them in sand because the heat is constant, and penetrates the shell from all surfaces,? he says, adding with a little wink : ?It also has a better taste like this.?

Ali explains how he cleans the peanuts he buys from planters before preparing them for roasting. ?I sell two different types of roasted peanuts, the ones with their shells on and the shelled coloured ones. I shell the latter, boil them slightly, add salt and bright pink colouring and leave them to dry in the sun for a few hours.? The next day he takes them to his stall to roast them.

Naseem, his wife, spreads the semi-boiled peanuts on a metal tray and neatly stacks the packets of roasted ones. ?People either want hot peanuts, which are still soft, or the cold ones, which have already hardened,? she explains, while giving a few peanuts to her daughter who is hiding in her skirts. Ali always gives his clients a few peanuts to taste before they buy a packet so that they know they are buying something that really tastes good.