Culture

Imagine that you open the fridge and are faced with a whole wealth of ripe fruits and vegetables ready and waiting to be diced into salads, desserts and stews. That’s what you get in Gran Canaria. The magnificent climate on the island means that there is a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, a whole hotpot of goodness imported from all parts of the world and cultivated here.

The cuisine of Gran Canaria, then, is a compendium of flavours from all parts of the world, spiced with the cultures and traditions of other peoples who have set up residence here, and made with magnificent ingredients, the fruits of both the sea around the island and the volcanic land itself.

So take time out to get to know what we call good food for great moments, the local cuisine. First take the ‘tapas’ route here called los enyesques (starters) and then move on to a good first course, perhaps a fish broth or a watercress pottage.

Then make room for a wonderful, salt-fish sweet-potato ‘sancocho’, the local speciality accompanied by the typical ‘papas arrugadas’ or small salted jacket potatoes. But don’t rule out meat as an option, and certainly don’t forget to ask for a local wine to wash it all down: look for Denomination of Origin, Gran Canaria.

Last, in this very brief list of suggestions (take a look for yourself, there’s much, much more) we recommend you have the sticky honey almond sauce or ‘bienmesabe’, made in the higher part of the island where there are almond trees, with your dessert. Called ‘it tastes good to me’, it will certainly set you right for the rest of the day.