What to eat in Costa Brava? Local dishes

Paella, seafood and fideuà (a noodle paella) are among the most commonly served dishes on the Costa Brava, but vegetables also feature strongly in the Mediterranean diet. The region’s “mar i muntanya” (surf and turf) dish is justifiably famous, a delicious combo of seafood, meat and cured meats, cooked together to draw out the flavours.

Here are some of the region’s most typical dishes, in no particular order, as they are all equally good:

• Grilled Palamós prawns with olive oil and garlic, or red prawns with monkfish stew and potatoes. Delicious however they are served.
• Buñuelos de bacalao (fried cod dumplings).
• Any rice dish prepared with rice grown in Pals.
• “Recuit de drap” with honey. Recuit is a fresh curd cheese which is wrapped in a cloth during preparation (drap in Catalán), hence the name.
• Toasted bread with tomato and anchovies from l’Escala, or cured meats, preferably butifarra, a Catalan sausage, which comes in white, black and even sweet varieties. This last is a speciality eaten almost exclusively in this corner of Catalonia.
• Esqueixada de bacallà: a fresh, refreshing salad made with dried cod, onion, green and red peppers and black olives.
• Escalivada: oven roast peppers, aubergine and onion.
• Black rice with mussels, made with cuttlefish or squid ink. Summer is not complete without it.
• “Espardenyes” or sea cucumbers. However they are cooked, they are exquisite, but this can be a pricey dish (although for a long time they were underappreciated and only eaten by fishermen).
• Sea urchins, served plain or with a variety of sauces. The fresher the better.

It is hard to choose just one dish from this list, we recommend you visit the Costa Brava regularly in order to try them all.