Cuisine of La Palma Island for gourmets. Places for dinner - best restaurants

The cuisine of La Palma differs from traditional Spanish, because of big influence of Latin American, African, and traditional local cuisines. The courses here are simple, but contain quite a lot of calories, and one of the main ingredients in a recipe is gofio, corn flour. They do not only use to bake bread and porridge, but also add to the most of the types of pot roast. The second most important ingredient for the island chefs is potato. With meat or fish there usually will be served papas arrugadas, small wrinkled jacket potatoes, which were boiled for a long time to evaporate all water from them. They usually dip the vegetable in different sauces, mostly red and green mojo.

Mojo is prepared with wine, olive oil, and garlic or pepper. The sauce has a bright spicy taste, but is totally natural, and is always served with bred. Traditional Spanish tapas, different kinds of light appetizers, you can also find in La Palma. They serve sausages, shellfish, and pieces of pork, and small portion of salads. By the way, you should definitely spend an evening discovering the diversity of tapas at least in two or three restaurants . the locals sometimes prefer tapas to a full meal. They are served here in big portions, unlike in continental Spain.

In La Palma they also cook soups. Just remember, that some soup are so thick they remind more of a stew, than a regular soup. By the way, soups may be served here cold as well as hot, so don’t hurry to ask a waiter to heat it up, maybe it is supposed to be like that. Caldo soup is a familiar one. It is a vegetable bullion, in which they may add meat, fish, or seafood. Sopa is a thick vegetable bullion, which can contain noodle, and rice, and wheat. Potage is the one, that is more like a stew. It is made from meat with pulses – beans, pea, lentil, and cabbage with potato. Sometimes there also can be zucchini in it. You should also try potaje – a favorite soup of aboriginals, which is made from pork ribs and corn. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

Those, who prefer meat, should try pata asada – a fried pork leg. This simple but a tasty dish is one of the favorite on the Canary Islands. Try Chacon, a pork sausage, which because of a big amount of pepper has an unusual orange or red color. Morcilla, a blood sausage with raisins, almond, and yam, will be a more exotic delicacy. Puchero Canario, a beef and pork stew, is a must for everyone, who wants to learn more about the culture of the local people – this dish came from their cuisine, as well as chuletas – fat pork or lamb chops. Rabbit stew is also worth your attention.

You should try fish courses in the restaurants near the shore. Then there are some guarantees that the haul will be fresh. Sancocho Canario, dried fish with potato, is one of the main courses on the island. Fried vieja or dorado will satisfy any gourmet. Boquerones, a tasty appetizer from marinated anchovies, and parillada, a fish assortment, will be great with any side dish. Try shrimps with garlic and langostinos – big fried shrimps.

Barraquito is an original local drink. It is a type of coffee, served with liquor or brandy, slices of ginger, and milk foam. Freshes are also popular here. However, the choice of spirits is much more interesting. Marvelous wine, rum, liquor in large assortment will please any gourmet. Among original local desserts, you can try bananas with syrup from palm honey or jam from prickly pear cactus.