Tenerife Food and Drink - The Making of a Walking Holiday

Tenerife Food & Drink

Canarian food is essentially Spanish, e.g. paella, gazpacho and a variety of tapas, but there are some some distinctive variations.

As you would expect from Tenerife's situation in the Atlantic Ocean, there is an incredible variety of fish, despite exploitation in recent years. Local favourites such as cherne, sama, dorada and vieja, as well as the more well known varieties, are delicious and very inviting.

When combined with Canarian potatoes the result is a feast. These are small, wrinkly and are boiled in a small amount of sea water in their jackets to produce a salty outer crust. Add mojo or verde, local spicy sauces, and you then have a traditional Canary Island meal.

There is not such a variety of meat but most typical are chicken and rabbit. Rabbit marinated in a sauce of oil, vinegar and herbs, is very tasty. Restaurants offer a variety of pork, lamb and veal but steaks are mostly imported from South America.

300 years ago Tenerife was famous for its wines. That was lost due to competition and a nasty plague of locusts. However, better times are returning with some good organic white wine being grown in the south. There are very good award winning reds being grown in the north in the Tacorante region. One such red is Vino Norte. It is a compelling ruby red wine, clear and very bright with a strong bouquet and aromas of dark fruits. It won an award at the World Wine Contest in Brussels in the face of 626 other Spanish wines and was analysed by 108 expert wine tasters from all over the world. Other gold medals at the recent French Internationale de Vin included Vina Melosa, a dry white from the Guimar Valley, and VinatigoTintillo, a 2006 red.

Look out also for Reina Beer, brewed since 2000 from a state-of-the-art factory in the Guimar Valley. Its mission is to produce all natural and 100% Canarian beer. Reina Beer contains no additives or preservatives which could impair the taste. The water used is filtered through their own land and comes directly from Mount Teide. The natural condition of this beer also means that you are less likely to suffer from a hangover!

Tenerife offers an enormous variety of restaurants, both in the tourist areas and outside. There are plenty that are cheap and poor quality as well as others, which are expensive and overpriced. However, a little research will take you to some gems.