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Costa Blanca has a tasty cuisine based on rice. The staples of the
Mediterranean diet form the basic ingredients of
Alicante
cuisine. Rice is the most popular dish in the Costa Blanca. Dishes with rice, cooked
in all manner of ways and styles are all tasty and the favorite cuisine
of the region.
Rice and broth in
the coastal towns are eaten together with the fish.
The fish stew that the local fishermen used to cook up as a
tradition are popular.
Arroz a banda is a popular dish with rice and drier in dried red
peppers and served alone.
Flavored with squid (calamari) and tunny fish, chicken and
fillet of pork, baby squid (chipirones) and garlic shoots or
tunny fish and shrimps (gambas) are the other popular variations
of the dishes with rice. |
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Shellfish and salt-dried
fish are the popular menus in every restaurant along the coastal towns.
Menu of the day may include gilthead bream (dorada), bass baked in salt
(lubina a la sal), seafood with a squeeze of lemon or some delicious
sea-fresh red mullet (salmonete) and whiting (pescadilla). Clams (almejas),
king prawns (langostinos), pink and brown shrimps (gambas rojas,
quisquillas) both steamed or grilled are also remarkable.
Rice forms an integral part of the typical dish olleta in which it is
mixed with pork, sausage meats, pumpkin, turnip, chard stalks (pencas),
chickpeas and string beans in the mountain areas. Rice is also used as a
filling in bajoques farcides, an appetizing dish of stuffed peppers. The
inland regions offer excellent meat dishes such as pork cutlets, rabbit
cooked in garlic and tomato, leg of lamb, and local sausage meats.
Cocido con pelotas
(potage containing balls made of egg and finely diced parsley,
crumbed and fried), olla viuda (vegetable stew, with onion,
chickpeas, garlic and spinach, eaten during Lent), arroz con
costra (rice with sausage meats and chicken or turkey, sometimes
coated with a layer of egg and baked in the oven) and the heady
pava borracha (roast turkey a la cognac) are the popular dishes
in the Vinalopó and Segura river valleys.
The desserts of the Alicante region include the Jijona turrón,
ice cream, grapes, raisins, dates, almond pastries, pasteles de
gloria (a sugared confectionery made with egg yolk and
traditionally eaten on Easter Saturday, sabado de gloria) and
almojábenas (sweet, fritter-like pastries, dipped in syrup). |
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Also the coffee
liqueur from Alcoi and the herb liqueurs of the Sierra Mariola
Range are the other remarkable ones.
When it comes to wines, the finest wines of the reds, rosés and
clarets are made in the Alto Vinalopó and Marina Alta
districts. |
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