What is gastronomy on the Costa Blanca North all about?
Let's find out!
In this film we are focusing on the gastronomy on the CB North. CB North stretches between Alicante and Denia.
We will visit a variety of restaurants, bars and a bodega, and you will find out how diverse
and delicious the food is in this region.
Whether you are a fan of fine dining or you would like to relax with your family in nice surroundings
you will find it all here, and the value will amaze you.
It's an amazing value for the money.
You can taste any kind of food you like and the choice of restaurants and bars is endless.
Let's visit some of them and see what gastronomy on the Costa Blanca North is all about.
Anil, Indian restaurant here in Villajoyosa. What inspired you to open here?
There is 2 things that inspired me.
First of all because of my wife,
who's sadly not with me.
She had a dream and I had a passion for Indian food and we came to Spain in 2002-03 looking for a place
after she had the big C, the cancer.
This is the only place we found that was next to the beachfront.
We traveled all the way from Malaga, going up to Denia, but we couldn't find a good location like this.
And this is an original Indian restaurant?
We've been to many, but this is different…
Yes, my style of cooking is totally different, though it is Indian, you see I've got a bit of African cooking in it
because my mother and father they moved to Africa in the early 50s.
And in those days in Africa, there were no restaurants.
So my mom and my dad they used to cook home.
And she taught us how to cook as well.
And though they were the vegetarians, I've taken some of the veggies out and put meat in it and experimented,
and they turned out to be better meals than what most restaurants provide.
But we do have a traditional Indian restaurant theme.
In the beginning it was the English and most of the Northern European that used to come here and eat.
Now we've got a lot of Spanish that we depend on.
We did a trial run during the recession on the beach taking food out, samples giving to the Spanish
trying to convince them because they've got this one thing that Indian food – "picante" that means hot.
We tried to convince them that not everything is hot.
You can taste all the spices, but not everything is hot.
The local people are crazy here about the Indian food.
Hello.
Hello, Natalia. Nice to see you, my darling.
Buongiorno.
Ezio, tell me, what is Mastroianni?
It's the only authentic, Italian restaurant in Albir, and we are proud to be Italian and present our Italian menu
with all the choice of starters and main courses, and our chef is from Calabria.
We are naturally happy, it's a very happy place, so everybody is welcome to come here, you know.
We speak good English, we speak a little Dutch, a little German, but mostly it's English and Italian,
and a bit of Spanish.
From Italy to Belgium in Albir.
Alain, Costa Blanca North has a lot of bars. What is special about yours?
We have over 100 beers, and with beer you have so many possibilities.
There are sweet beers, there are sour beers, there are beers infused with whisky,
there are beers made from honey.
There are American beers that has been in bourbon barrels
and some kinds of beer go better with meat,
some kinds of beer go better with fish.
It is like wine, but the variety of beer is much wider than wine.
And we can also enjoy food here?
We have a specialty of the house, it's spare ribs. It's a very special recipe, it's cooked for 2 hours,
the meat is very soft, it has dark color and it's has a very nice taste.
We have fish soup made from seafood.
We have an international kitchen, we have special things from Belgium, but also from other countries.
We are at El Riu restaurant and museums. Would you explain what you have here?
It's a family restaurant –my family has always worked here.
And we cook traditional food from Guadalest Valley.
Our most traditional dish is charcoal-grilled meat.
And we have the traditional dishes from this area.
We are in a very privileged area.
Visiting the Guadalest town; the Algar waterfalls.
We have a store with traditional products form the area.
High-quality products.
And also behind the store is the Historical Vehicle Museum,
which is the hobby my father has had all of his life: a vehicle collector –specially motorbikes.
Buen Apetito.
What kind of food do you offer?
It's a little bit International food, more in Masena, more Spanish; Mediterranean.
We started Vall de Cavall 8 years ago.
In Vall de Cavall they try some Asian things, Chinese things in the middle but most of it is the Mediterranean.
Let's talk to the biggest wine producer in the Jalon Valley.
Emily tell us about Bodegas Xaló.
We have a record that dates back to 1742 when the Muslims started to collect, cultivate
and commercialize the Muscatel grape.
The Muscatel grape is one of the varieties of the white grapes in this region.
It's one of the best varieties of the grapes as it has its own character and extremely sweet taste to it.
In 1962, 14 agriculturists decided to join forces and open the Bodegas Xaló, that's
one of the most popular wineries around this region.
There is about 370 partners and between all of them we have about 420 hectares of wine land.
Wow, that is impressive.
Emily, I've noticed that there are some young people working here and they are also living here.
What can they do here?
This valley is amazing, you have lots of stuff to do, it's a small village, but you can
get to everything walking distance.
It's like being in a family.
You can walk out of your door at home and everybody on the street knows you and it gives you a good
sense of feeling to be able to come out and walk here.
For example, I've worked here for nearly a year and coming here every day is fun.
It's entertaining, we are always laughing.
In some ways it's one of the best jobs you can have, being happy every day with your coworkers.
For example, there is another young boy here.
He came here for work studies doing practices
He liked the way everyone was friendly and he asked if he could stay and he's been working here ever since.
He is an oenologist.
That means he controls the grape from when it gets from the vineyard to the bodega, and
is elaborated and studied all the way through the process, from its becoming as it grows
and transforms into the wine here in the bodega.
In a year we collect about 3 million kilograms of grapes.
In total in a year we produce about 1 million bottles of wine.
Corinna, tell me what you offer here are Ammos.
Here at Ammos, we have a bit of everything, that's the unique thing.
We have a very large variety of things, we have pizzas,
we have a bit of Mexico with fajitas and nachos, and then we have a very International cuisine,
sandwiches like club sandwich it's a favorite as well.
We have burgers and we also have homemade desserts which are very nice: the tiramisu, a chocolate mousse,
and we not only have a chocolate brownie but we have a white chocolate brownie which is very special as well.
The location is excellent, we are just right by the beach. If you are going to come for a cocktail, milkshake, or
you can just come for food after the beach.
The kitchen is open from 10 in the morning until 12 at night.
So the great thing about Ammos is that people can come, have a big party
and everyone can taste a different part of the world, right?
Exactly, that's exactly it.
Yvonne, you are German.
What are you doing here in Dénia?
I came here when I was 12 years old with my parents because of work they had better chance to work here
and open a restaurant and I had to go to school here and join Spanish people.
We do have some German dishes, but normally we have everything International from steaks to fish.
We are specialized in flammkuchen, it's very thin, so it's a kind of pizza the German way.
And light, very light…
Yes.
I'm the waitress here, my mom is in the kitchen and my dad is behind the bar, serving drinks and also serving
food if he needs to help.
Life in Germany is a bit more stressed because everyone goes his way like all straight ahead.
Over here it's more cozy.
I arrived here 17 years ago.
Very small town;
it's grown.
For me, I enjoyed seeing the town grow.
I have a very big transient base of clients, if they all were here at one time, this would be the biggest,
the busiest bar in this town.
I may be English, but my clientele is Belgian, German, French, Italian.
I don't portray to be an English bar, you don't have the same stories when you walk into most bars,
it's the same people, on the same chair, doing the same thing;
this is totally different.
Egidio tell me why you are in Altea.
The first time I was here was in 1995 and the owner is almost like a family to me and he knows me since
I was born.
So I often came here and also spent my honeymoon here and I wanted to take over and continue a tradition
of Italian cooking here in Spain.
Why is this restaurant different?
Oh, good question.
First of all because it's an Italian restaurant, a 100% Italian restaurant; also because the staff, the chefs
are from Italy.
Also the products we use are coming from Italy twice per week so we use fresh products,
lots of things homemade.
And traditional pasta,
traditional pizza,
and we make ravioli of swordfish and shrimps; it's homemade.
Why do you love Altea?
Altea is a nice place to be, to live, the sun is shining,
people are really kind and,
you know there is a beach.
It's a small village but big enough to have all the services, but not much noise so also for my family it
should be a good place to live.
We are in Kitsume Japanese restaurant and we will talk to Aleks and Sam today.
Thank you for being with us…
Why a Japanese restaurant in Altea?
Well because I'm in Altea and I have always loved Japanese cuisine
because I like how the prepare the dishes; the quality of the food they prepare, and it has flavors that I quite like.
In Japanese cuisine, for many years, the most popular dish has been ramen.
We have a special ramen.
We also have sushi – the new modern of Japanese food. Japanese have many, many different foods.
I wanted to have a high quality Japanese restaurant, inside a five star hotel, with reasonable prices for
everybody –so they can eat and taste Japanese food.
Melitón Jardin it's a bodega and a garden restaurant in a very old traditional finca in Altea la Vella.
We have a simple but very traditional Spanish authentic kitchen with natural food of the season and of the region
and of course fresh specialties of the sea.
We have part of the classic menu and we have the menu of the regional food.
We are open the whole year from morning till night.
What is Melitón Jardin, what does it stand for?
The name "Melitón" is for any sweet like honey and the word "jardin" it's a garden place where we have a very
big garden, so much terrace.
In the summer time we have more places, but in the wintertime we have a very cosy restaurant
with two fireplaces.
Cocas are small Valencian pizzas and we make it in the wood oven.
In 2013 it was a very old finca and we needed 6 month to renovate completely.
It was never a restaurant before.
Who makes all this delicious food?
It's our chef Pablo.
Pablo is 61 years old and he came specially for the production of the traditional food.
Why did you move down here?
Oh, I came with my husband 10 years ago to the Costa Blanca to live here for good.
Of course the weather in the wintertime is nice and the sun gives you special energy.
And you are German?
Yes, I am.
Are you going back to Germany?
No, I'm sure, I am not going back to Germany and my family comes to visit me here in Spain.
José, explain a little bit about Taita...
Taita... we opened 14 years ago.
And we opened as a creperie.
I went to Britain and learned to cook crepes,
and we opened as a creperie.
But I got hooked and little by little I learnt how to cook.
And we currently cook native and mediterranean cuisines.
We kept on cooking crepes though.
We have specialized in native cuisine.
We cook... we also cook author's cuisine, but...
we cook types of rice.
Types of rice nobody cooks because they are native,
and the recipes were our grandmothers'.
And the restaurant is quite famous, right?
Well...
Plenty of pictures.
Oh, well, yes. Some famous people have come, but many clients are pictured.
For me clients are the most important thing.
Yes, yes.
More than famous people.
And wine?
Wine. This is our wine menu, so... we also have a paper menu, but I like people seeing and touching the
product, the wines. With the menu people only ask for the wines they know, and this way you come, you see
a bottle, for example, Cuatro Pasos, which is a Bierzo wine.
You see wine from Alicante.
You can see how much the wines cost.
And it's our menu. A more physical menu.
And very unique.
Exactly.
And why is Benidorm the place to live and visit?
Well, Benidorm is a city... it's a town, but it's a city
that has its fans
and the opposite. There are people who do not like Benidorm at all.
But I can only tell you good things about Benidorm because my grandparents were from here, my parents
are from here
so, to me Benidorm is wonderful.
There are people who may not like it, but Benidorm is a very open-minded city for all tourists.
Irena, explain to us la Andaluza.
What do you have here?
Andaluza is a restaurant with traditional Spanish food, but the food we present are dishes,
so the tapa is presented as a gourmet dish.
Each tapa is presented with its meat, sauce, and side dish the big plate includes.
It is served as a small portion.
Especially because we have traditional dishes from Bulgaria.
Are you from Bulgaria?
I come from Bulgaria, yes.
And why are you in la Cala?
In la Cala, well, I don't know... luck.
There are a lot of restaurants in the Costa Blanca, why is the Andaluza especial?
Because we present Spanish food in traditional Andalusian style.
We are in Olayo in la Cala, why are you here Lily?
I decided to try something different.
We are always open, every day we make food. It's all homemade, it's fresh, and it's big.
Big tapas, drinks, all drinks, the paella too.
Every day I make a big paella and tapas.
I also make the same paella for take away, also nice pizzas, nice burgers.
Dean, what is La Plantación?
Well, it's a family run business, it's a small hotel,
medium size restaurant,
And we specialize in weddings throughout the year.
Are you also open for normal restaurant hours?
Yes, we do.
We open throughout the summer time, we open every evening, and then normally we also open
on the weekends: Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
And you are American?
Yes, correct.
So, what are you doing here in Finestrat?
My wife actually, she is from Spain
and she is from Madrid and we spent many years in the Middle East working.
I worked as an engineer in Saudi Arabia
and when we decided to leave the Middle East,
we decided to come back to Spain rather than United States.
And Finestrat was one of those chance things we fell in love with,
and bought a piece of land here and
it started out as a small home but then it became a small hotel and then it became a big
a big end of it basically.
What do you like about it?
Especially the weddings.
It's really fun to be a part of somebody's special day.
You know we get constantly people saying,
it's incredible that you have this place available to us and everything that you've got and then you are a part of
somebody's memory for life.
So, it's not just a good steak one day, it's a memory for the rest of our lives.
What kind of cuisine do you offer here?
Well, it's quite international, very Mediterranean of course with natural products and everything
and our specialty is meat on the grill, we do even for the wedding, we do meat
straight from the barbecue to the plate.
A lot of imaginative things with all good, home cooked food.
We do everything here on site.
Tell me a little bit about this building.
Is it old?
No.
We actually constructed it. It's a replica of Lord Baden-Powell's home in Kenya
which is a coffee and tea plantation over there; today it's a hotel.
When we visited there we fell in love with Kenya, we fell in love with that area
and we wanted to bring that perspective to Spain,
so it's a colonial style home as you would find in East Africa.
And how many rooms do you have here?
There are 7 guest rooms, large 35 m2 with a big 25 m2 porch so almost like a small apartment.
They all face the pool and they have direct access and are very private.
Indoors we do about 140-150 covers and then we can do another 50-100 outdoors as well.
Ana, what is an Italian lady doing here in pueblo of Finestrat?
Well,
originally
we were in la Cala and then we decided to move up to Finestrat.
We got an opportunity to get a place and I know many foreign people from every nationality.
They love Italian food and we like that the people have the original food to be made fresh.
We have homemade pizza with our own dough, and we also make our own fresh pasta
with fresh sauce and it's all made at the moment.
We also have fresh meat,
fresh fish.
And we make homemade sweats, we decided to do all our own food.
Many people come here to the mountains.
Puig Campana is a beautiful place.
There are quite a few nice things to see.
We hope you enjoyed the documentary and if you'd like to know more about other towns,
and the people of the Costa Blanca,
please tune into our website at: UPnowCostaBlanca.com
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