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CATALAN GASTRONOMY |
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Between the sea and the mountains, the Oriental Pyrenees have inherited a luscious kitchen, typically Mediterranean, with countless colourful culinary specialities, filled with colour and flavour, emphasizing the fresh products.
It is the result of the ‘marriage’ between regional cooking (vegetables, fish, venison, mushrooms) and influences resulting from the region having been occupied by Visigoths, Greeks, Romans, and then having been influenced by Arabs, Jews and Hispanics.
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REGIONAL PRODUCTS |
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The region’s typical condiments are the olive oil, saffron, cinnamon, anise, which give a special taste to the food. One should not forget ‘Ailloli’ (a type of mayonnaise made with garlic).
The salting for conservation and Catalonian meat (dry salami, ‘fuets’) together with ‘pan con tomatoes’ tarts with garlic and olive oil.
 - "Botifarres" black pudding and the white Catalonian pudding
- Catalonian lamb, sagi (rancid bacon) with measles, white beans, spicy sausage
- Specialities such as "boles de picolats" (lumps of spiced mincemeat, olives, spices)
- Rabbit stew
- "l’Ollade" a pottage made from beans boiled in a ceramic pot
- "Cargolades" Snail grill with garlic
Sea products :
The Oriental Pyrenees region is surrounded by the Mediterranean in the east, a sea rich in fish crustaceans. Back in the day, Collioure would supply the Catalonian province with fish and shells, wolf meat, mackerel, a species of sea pig, gurnard gurnet, sardines, red tuna, merlucius and crustaceans such as sea-snails, shrimp from the Atlantic Ocean, shrimp, crabs, oysters, which are present in all the regional dishes: ‘Fideus’, "Zarsuella" and ‘Esqueixa’ having ‘Bacalao’ or morua as base dish, made with tomatoes, onions, black olives which are frequently served with ‘lAilloli’. The famous Collioure anchovy are the delight of the hors d’oeuvres.
Local cheese :
- Catalonian tom made in the heart of the Pyrenees
- Surcea and goat and sheep cheese
Catalonian sweets :
- "Rousquilles" Aromatic pineapple cake, covered with caramel
- "Panallets" Pate based on almonds, pinion, honey and nuts
- "Croquants with almonds and honey"
- "Biscotins de saint Paul" or almond cakes
- "Crème Catalane" with caramel and covered with cinnamon
- "Les bunyetes" golden puffy fried pies, covered with sugar, a desert which you cannot miss during Easter
- Rice with milk and cinnamon
- A farandole sponge cake with almonds and pistachio, soft or crusted. These specialities have almonds, buts, pinion and they need to be tasted. The almond and pistachio sponge cake is sometimes flourished with fresh fruits.
- Delicious seasonal cakes (Roussillon apricots, plums)
FIRST FRUITS
There are the salads with lettuce, round radishes, asparagus, potatoes, artichoke, Elne celery, Toulouges onions. And of course we should mention only the sweet pepper and tomatoes which are the basis of the ‘Catalonian Escalivade’, as are chestnuts, hazel nuts, almonds and others.
The different fruit varieties which benefit from the same climate are :
- Red Roussillon juicy apricots
- The Reynes and Ceret cherries which prepare a celebration in this Oriental Pyrenees’ town in the Easter morning. Among the sweetest and most succulent we enumerate only the rocky cherries, the soft pulp cherries, the small sour-cherry etc.
- Apples: Jerseymac, rennet apples, Gorden apples from Roussillon
- William and Conflent pears
- White and yellow peaches, nectarines
- Violet Baho figs with red and juicy pulp and the white figs which we find growing in the bush areas
- Wild strawberries and yellow melons
- Reine Claude plums and mirobolam trees
- And of course the white and black grape, genuine drinks as the ones in the Collioure hills
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THE WINE ROAD |
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 Countless red, white, rose wines are to be chosen from in different domains, cellars, co-operatives or small private owners.
The regional wines which are stamped with Controlled Naming Origin (CNO) as well as the wines in the Ceelir cellar which belong to the Banyuls Templars, re-group only the 750 vineyards that are produced on 1250 ha of vineyards. Among these we find the Banyuls wine and excellent Collioure wines.
There are, also, sweet wines based on white muscatel grapes, big bead black grapes, maccabeu wines and sweet Greek wines.
The most famous are ‘Muscat de Ricesaltes’, ‘Rivesaltes’, ‘Banyuls’, ‘Banyuls Grand Cru’ minimum 2 and a half years old and ‘Maury’. They are drank, according to one’s taste, with Catalonian hors d’oeuvres, but they are also added as ingredients into sweet or salted dishes.
The hors d’oeuvre wine from the Cave Byrrh cellar in Thuir is the world’s largest oak wood tub, made in 1930.
The most famous are :
- Banyuls (Coume Del Mas)
- Maury (the Pouderoux domain), (old reserve)
- le Muscat (Rivesaltes from the Roussignol domain) (the Piquemal domain)
- Rivesaltes
- Bubbles de Nayandei, wine’s colour or with very fine bubbles
- Bubbles rose, with light froth
- The Rivesaltes wine: (the Cazes domain) (fir tree castle in the middle of Baixas village)
- Rivesaltes Ambre (fir tree castle), (Terrassous)
- Rivesaltes (du père Puig, cuvée de l'Avi de Nicolas and, Carla Grenache, black 2000)
- Dom Brial wine cellar in Baixas
- Esparrou Castle’s domain (the vineyard’s visit was organised here)
- Zoé, red wine from the Catalonian hills
- The wines from Clos de Paulilles, red, rose. Also, an excellent Banyuls.
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