GASTRONOMY
La Palma has been, and still is, receptive with the uses and
customs that were brought by the colonists and the emigrants who throughout the
centuries established or returned. Desserts, liquors, fruits, dried fruits, meat
and fish came through very good for the palate of peasants and nobles. With
toasted and milled cereals, like flour, the gofio is made, it is not in the
habit of being absent in the milk of the children of La Palma. Potatoes (Papas);
Water and salt are needed to make them, cooked in the skin (that’s how the
people of La Palma eat them, the Papas arrugadas (wrinkled potatoes) to serve
the barbecued meat and the fried fish. Fish is usually taken as one dish, they
fry the cabrilla (spotted grouper), sea bream, pomfret among others, the grouper
is cooked and others like tuna fish are done on the grill. As an appetizer
sea-food (like limpet, shrimp, morey eel etc.). Another way of preparing fish is
salting it served with the traditional polines (fried bananas) or boniato (sweet
potato), which is another gastronomic preference of the people of La Palma. The
island is also known for its mojos; hot spicy sauces made with dried red and
green peppers. Cheese is produced with goat milk only; its taste is pleasant,
soft and fatty. The most known delicacy in La Palma is the rapadura (cane honey,
gofio, sugar, almonds, cinnamon and lemon). From this other varieties arise
(milk-rapadura, chocolate-rapadura, coconut-rapadura………). Sweets that are very
easy to locate in shops, restaurants or markets are, among others, Almendrados
(crumbly biscuit made with almonds); tortitas de almendra (small pancakes with
almond paste, sugar and egg) cooked in the oven; el bienmasabe (made with eggs,
sponge cake, toasted and milled almonds, sugar and grated lemon grind); los
marquesotes (flour sponge cake, eggs and sugar, cut in diamond shapes, some of
them soaked with honey-coloured syrup and others covered with stiff egg-white;
and almond-cheese, with eggs, grated lemon grind, cinnamon and of course
almonds. Most of the restaurants incorporate into their menu home-made desserts
where you also find the classic offers like bienmesabe, lemon cake and also
crème caramel (made with vanilla or eggs) and cheese. Fresh fruit, subtropical
or not, leaded by the banana, constitute one of the most attractive gastronomic
offers in La Palma: avocados, mangos, kiwis, custard apples, papayas, guavas,
pears, figs and oranges. From the rich and varied flora on the island, endemic
or foreign, many sorts of honey are produced with different flavours and aromas.
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