Food
The harbour at Roses provides a fresh, plentiful and varied supply to the local restaurants, and the menus are therefore biased towards delicious traditional Catalan fish dishes, but there are usually local meat and vegetarian alternatives.The most traditional dish is 'Suquet de Peix' (fish added to slowly fried tomato and garlic). Among other varieties of Suquet are 'Arrosejat' (fish soup), and Suquet with allioli (a strong, thick sauce of garlic and mayonnaise).
Other Catalan fish dishes include 'Gambas' a la Plancha (prawns), 'Fritura de Pescado' (red mullet, hake, squid and grouper) and 'Melillones a la Marinera' (mussels from the nursery in Roses Bay). The list goes on - Doradas, Llobarro, Besugo al horno….. just go and sample them!
The famous El Bulli Restaurant is just five miles away at the tiny bay of Cala Montjoi. To experience the legendary 27-course gastronomic menu is pure ecstasy, but to secure a table there requires timing! Bookings for the season commences in mid-January, and "the Best Restaurant in the World" was fully booked before February.
The El Bulli website is pretty but not particularly informative, but click here for an excellent article from The Guardian Newspaper archives.
Drink - including Cava
There are a plethora of vineyards on the lower slopes of the Pyrenees, and on a short random drive in the area, it is inevitable that cooperative wine shops will be passed. All the vineyards produce excellent reds, roses and whites- they are always happy to provide tastings without obligations to buy.Most restaurants and bars are biased towards local produce, including 'Cava' - a great sparkling wine.
More about Cava:
Cava outsells Champagne worldwide, and is produced with various degrees of sweetness. These are (from dry to sweet): Brut de brut, Brut Nature, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Seco, Seco, Semi Seco and Dulce. Most cava does not carry a year on the bottle, as grape juice from different years is often used to maintain a consistent taste.
Cava is sold ready for drinking. It does not improve with being kept, indeed it deteriorates with age. Buy it, store upright in a cool, place, for as little time as possible, and drink it as soon as a suitable occasion arises! The sweeter the cava, the cooler it needs to be served. A brut nature can be served at room temperature, but the sweeter Cavas should be well chilled.
| Catalan
Recipes are now being compiled. Click Here for the current recipes |
|