A guide to the best food and drinks you must try in La Gomera | Arantxa Aniorte
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Top specialities to try when walking in La Gomera
What to eat and drink on your next walking trip in the Canary Islands
When on your walking holiday in La Gomera, you'll discover that Canarian cooking resembles Mediterranean cuisine in style but with its own unique character. There is a distinct preference for traditional farm produce, fish and meat, with typical dishes including Gomeran vegetable stew, cress soup and salad with Spanish tortilla omelette. There's so much choice to fuel you up after or during your walk.
Here is our cheat sheet on the foods and drinks you should try during your next
walking holiday at La Gomera:
Gofio
Gofio is a traditional staple of the Canary Islands, which has its roots in prehispanic Canarian culture. Made from ground and toasted maize or wheat, gofio is highly nutritious. It can be eaten as a dough mix with savoury foods such as fish but you can also have it as a drink in milk.
Sancocho
Be it fresh or salted, fish is probably the most common staple across the Canary Islands. The one dish to try during your walk is sancocho, a traditional fish stew made from salted sea bream, stone bass or ‘cherne’, a species that has no English equivalent (but loosely translates as wreckfish!).
Papas arrugadas
Papas arrugadas translates as ‘wrinkled potatoes’. The ubiquitous and aptly named dish consists of potatoes boiled in extremely salty water and eaten with mojo sauce. Mojo sauces range in flavour and strength, from the extremely hot and spicy to medium or very mild. It's a great dish to eat after a day exploring the trails of La Gomera.
Guarapo
Guarapo is essentially the sap taken from the (countless!) palm trees dotted around the island, which is then cooked to make ‘palm honey’. Although its extraction used to take place across all Canary Islands, over time the practice was abandoned… except for La Gomera.
While you are on your walking holiday in La Gomera…
- Have a red banana, a softer, creamier and less sweet variety of the conventional banana that is grown on the island
- Enjoy a cup of the local style of coffee called barraquito, it has a sludge of condensed milk in it… and a touch of alcohol - might make you walk faster?
- Sample some of the excellent cheeses that are made only in La Gomera (in our view, the best are the white cheeses from goat milk)
- There are a lot of pigs kept and pork is a common ingredient of succulent stews and hearty soups – try one for a hearty meal during your hike!
Bonus trivia: Bar Sonia, which is included in all our hiking trips on La Gomera, is a hidden gem – all dishes are homemade, prepared by Sonia’s mum!
If all these delicious flavours are whetting your appetite, book one of our
walking holidays at La Gomera or contact our team of experts and you could soon be tasting them in person.