When the plate marks the route

In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of something that has become a trend: any self-respecting tourist destination has to add one more attraction to its visitors… its gastronomy! Neither Santa Cruz de Tenerife nor Anaga are alien to this, so the attractions of the city and the Biosphere Reserve are joined by many others that are served on a table and a tablecloth.

There is a wide range of modern and international cuisine as well as traditional cuisine, with the added bonus of trying to use zero kilometer raw materials. Tenerife has plenty, starting with the booze. The island has five Denominations of Origin that guarantee the quality of the local wine. One of them ‘Tacoronte-Acentejo’. includes part of the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, specifically the area of Taganana, where vineyards are cultivated on terraces ranging from almost sea level up to 600 meters above sea level. Mostly red wines that have been rated among the top ten in Spain or have achieved high scores in the prestigious Parker Guide.

¿Yto eat? Little by little we are working to ensure that, just as other destinations are associated with a dish, a product, a gastronomy, the same thing happens here. Anaga is a producer of sweet potatoes and potatoes, in several varieties, which have become a staple dish in the diet of its inhabitants. They are not grown in large quantities and are patiently harvested with little machinery and after waiting for them for longer than normal. For this reason, potatoes have a Denomination of Origin “Papas Antiguas de Canarias”, which rewards the tradition with this tuber that, after arriving from America, took root under the sun and among the mountains of Anaga.

And what shall we accompany that wine and those potatoes with? Anaga is land and sea, with a drop of almost a thousand meters in a narrow strip of land, so we have several possibilities. We can’t forget to try the octopus, stewed in the way it is traditionally cooked in the islands. From the sea you should also eat horse mackerel (also called chicharro), sama, grouper, tuna, wreckfish … or the popular vieja, little known in other parts of Spain, but perhaps the most characteristic of the Islands.

From the land, the goat is the queen, its milk gives the main local cheeses, and its meat, with potatoes of course or with the no less usual dish of chickpeas served in almost all restaurants, of which there are many. A lunch can be the ideal way to crown a day of hiking the trails of Anaga, surfing the waves of its beaches or simply after a day in the car enjoying the contrasts of the landscape.

You can walk around Anaga in search of its products or you can go to its markets, which are organized periodically, almost always in San Andrés, where the traditions and culture of the area are exhibited, in addition to the aforementioned foodstuffs.