Tapas is the perfect way to sample different flavours. Photo: © Toniflap
Spend your time in Tenerife trying some of the most delicious dishes and sensational Canarian cuisine by checking out the most highly recommended regional variations. There are a wide range of different tastes and styles to be found on the Canary islands, but it’s on Tenerife, the most cosmopolitan of the seven, that you’re most likely to be able to find a rich variation of traditional dishes.
Why Tenerife?
In Tenerife, you’ll find savvy restauranteurs who’ve realised that many tourists no longer want food too familiar to the kind they would find at home, instead they are hoping to have their taste buds and their expectations challenged with local cuisine.
If you book flights to Tenerife, you can expect to find traditional Canarian dishes as well as plenty of Spanish dishes with influences from Africa and Latin America. Of course, you still need to pick your restaurants and dishes wisely to be able to sample the most interesting dishes.
Where to go?
The southern region of Tenerife is warmer and brighter, and therefore is where you’ll find the largest concentration of resorts and tourist-friendly restaurants. While this is ideal if you’re gasping for a cup of tea, it is harder for you to find a wide variety of authentic restaurants.
When you move out of the resort zones, you’re more likely to find the kind of small restaurants typifying the Canarian approach to food – that the customer should be able to eat whatever they want to, whether that’s a sandwich at dinner time or a selection of starters for your main course.
What to eat?
Be sure to try the many different variations on a classic stew you’ll find in Tenerife, the meat is generally succulent and the vegetables locally sourced and flavoursome, including garbanzo compuesto, a gorgeous chickpea and meat combination.
You’ll also want to experiment with fish dishes, as the lobsters, crab, dorada (a type of sea bream), mussels, oysters are all easily available and of a high quality, while the salted and spiced fish of ancocho canario is an excellent taste of Tenerife. Complement these with sides such as papas arrugadas (wrinkled potatoes) and ensaladilla, which is actually a Russian salad but which can be found all over the Canaries.
How to eat?
Tapas is the perfect way to sample a huge selection of different flavours and the small portion sizes perfectly suit the climate. There are few better ways to make the most of cheap flights to Spain than by indulging in as many experiences as you can while you’re there.
Bienmesabe, a very sugary dessert made from a blend of honey, almond cream, eggs and rum will end your meal on a high note but if that’s too rich for you, you should definitely try ron miel, a sweet honeyed rum.
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