Picnic Lunches
On an Original or Original Car-Free Escape, your Upland Manager will provide you with a healthy, varied and nutritionally balanced deli-style packed-lunch, freshly made every day. A wide selection of locally produced and often organic fruits and vegetables, meats and cheeses, bread, grains and pulses will be used, giving you the opportunity to really savour the flavours of Gran Canaria. Try local goat’s cheese, bread flavoured with wild fennel seeds, delicious salads of seasonal vegetables, fresh fruit and typical almond pastries.
If you have chosen a No-Frills Hosted Escape, you will find your own delicious picnic ingredients available to buy in the shops in Tejeda and Artenara.
Evening Meals
There are plenty of bars and restaurants in Artenara and Tejeda, few of which are in any way smart, but all of which serve simple, local cuisine. The Bar Diaz is basically a small cave with just one table, where the locals gather to eat Eduardo’s delicious chick-pea stew (garbanzada) at the bar and share the gossip over a glass of rum. At the Bar Tamadaba, Ana and Favio make sure they always have some fresh fish and a warm welcome, and at the Restaurante Cueva de la Tea, the selection of tapas is great.
Canary Islanders eat well and local specialities include gofio, a toasted maize staple going back to aboriginal times. They grow delicious little potatoes, often served in a spicy red sauce (papas arrugadas) or accompanying local lamb and kid. Rabbit (conejo) is another traditional staple and locally caught tuna, hake and squid are popular. Freshly picked tomatoes, bananas, guava, chestnuts, apples and citrus fruits are all excellent and the goats that roam the scented hills produce delicious cheese. The local bread is flavoured with wild fennel seeds and the traditional bakeries produce potato bread (pan de papas) and almond pastries, marzipan and paste (bienmesabe). Artisan wines are produced on the island, as is good beer and rum.
