Local Cuisine in Spain

Tarragona enjoys a typical Mediterranean climate and the local cuisine reflects it. Fish is the star, along with many other excellent products. Combined with the excellent organic fruits and vegetables, including grapes and olives, these products make up an incomparable fare. The most conventional dishes are all made with fish, such as esmarris, xató (cod and tuna with almond-garlic sauce), i pebre (fish with garlic and pepper sauce), fish and seafood casserole, fish stew, grilled sole with almond sauce and baby octopus, all served with a delicious sauce on the side: romesco, made with tomato and garlic. Excellent local produce, like calçots (which are long and tender sweet onions) are the main ingredients of traditional dishes. The amanidas are simple salads made with lettuce, tomato, curly endive, bell peppers, celery, etc. Rice casserole, rossejat (oven-baked rice or pasta dish) and black rice, plus rice dishes made with fish, vegetables, chicken or rabbit, make up an excellent repertoire to choose from, all with the excellent quality of the rice from Delta del Ebro.

In Barcelona, the finest quality olive oil, vegetables, fish and meats are the norm, making up a cuisine that is both delicate and delicious and that will delight the most demanding tastes. It alternates the simplicity of dishes with the refined and elaborate specialties of modern fare. Barcelona's cuisine merges tradition and innovation. Its dishes are varied and original due to the proximity of both the sea and the mountains, which offer their fine products. The sea gives Barcelona plenty of fish and seafood, like anglerfish, hake, cuttlefish, cod, prawns and shrimp, used to make many of the most traditional dishes. Among these dishes we must mention the different seafood casseroles or zarzuelas. Other fish dishes include the cod esqueixada and the suquet de peix (a traditional Catalan fish stew). The escalivada (a roasted vegetable salad) holds all the flavor of the land and constitutes an excellent appetizer for main courses like empredrat, Catalan bean stew (fabes a la catalana) and white bean stew. Dishes like butifarra amb mongetes, escudella and carn d´olla are very complete meals. Barcelona is also a great place for meats and sausages. Traditional Catalan sausages or butifarras are delicious, as well as the excellent salami-type sausage from Vic, the cured ham, the chorizo (famous Spanish sausage cured with paprika) and the many cheeses. Pork is the favorite meat, including pork products, used to make great dishes like pork loin with beans and peus de porc. Lamb, chicken and rabbit are also very good and used to make stews.
Girona's cuisine is rich and diverse. Dishes as original as goose with pears or the many sea and mountain specialties (that combine fish and meat) are the result of the plentiful, local produce, the abundance of fresh fish, seafood and good meat, the great wild mushrooms that can be picked throughout the year, the fruits that compose many sauces and, in short, of the combination of all these great ingredients. The local organic farms yield tomatoes, aubergines, onions, courgettes and peppers of excellent quality that constitute the essential elements of many dishes. Anglerfish, hake, gilt-head seabream, sea-bass and suquet are some of the region's most traditional dishes. Sometimes, seafood and fish mix with inland ingredients like snails. The result is a creative yet traditional fare, with dishes like lobster with snails and cod with thrushes. The list of imaginative dishes from this region goes on with delicacies like rabbit with snails, goose soup with honey mushroom, duck with white beans, rabbit with turnips, and partridge with snails and pig's feet with aromatic herbs.
Lleida's cuisine has some very interesting contrasts, a result of the combination of a myriad of ingredients that lend the food a very special character. Vegetables, wild mushrooms, snails, a variety of meats, pulses and fruits give the local cuisine a great personality. The wonderful soupy rice dishes, lentils and so on that will lift the spirits of everyone that comes into this region. Their chicken, rabbit, duck, turkey, and pork, supply the markets in most of the country. You must try the delicious soufflés, the potatoes and cabbage stuffed with minced meat and the traditional pâtés from Valle de Arán.

This article is part of an informational article group brought to you by Paramount Places Holiday Spain.