Gastronomy in Orihuela | Eating in Orihuela

Local cuisine in Orihuela is what you?d expect from typical food from the Vega Baja region and the Comunidad Valenciana, therefore it combines produce from the land as well as the Mediterranean Sea.

If we are talking about Orihuela?s cuisine, we are talking about the influence of many different civilizations that have dwelt in this land (the Celts, the Iberians, the Greeks, the Romans and the Muslims), a combination of races, customs and traditions that have left their mark on the lands cuisine.
Orihuela is rich in fish, seafood, fresh vegetables right from the fertile land, olive oil, rice, dates, oranges, lemons, mandarins, and other fruit, ingredients with which they are used to making great, delicious and healthy dishes.

Among the dishes that they make with such great produce, are the typically Valencian food like the Paella, in its many varieties, like black rice, baked rice, rice a Banda (fish and rice stew), rice with a crust, rice with vegetables, and rice with rabbit and rice del señoret.

They also really know how to prepare seafood.

Other traditional food in Orihuela are lamb and pork chops, rabbit, roast leg or shoulder of lamb, lamb with rosemary and fresh garlic, cold meats and all types of salted fish (anchovies, sardines, cods, tuna, roe, mullet?) ?salazones? are raw produce from the sea that are preserved or cooked in salt and eaten as you buy them in the market or supermarket, accompanied with salted dried fruits, like almonds, peanuts?or with olives and pickles, like gherkins, pickles onions?

With regards homemade desserts then you can try things like the ?hielo-crema? or slushes, as well as the traditional flans, candied egg yolks, burnt breads, as well as all the deserts and ice creams made with turrón (an almond base traditional sweet) that is made in jijona, belonging to the province of Alicante, made with home grown almonds.

Gastronomy also refers to gastrobotánica, which makes reference to produce in our area that is produced ecologically, or that were produced back in the olden days according to the different civilizations that have lived in the area, methods that they are trying to recuperate in the meadows of the Vega Baja, like for example the blossom jams, the Damascus apricots, the de la Vega Limes, other varieties of oranges and mandarins that had disappeared, sun dried tomatoes done as in the old days, spices?.

At the moment, this type of food, associated with gastrobotánica, is a real advance in gastronomy that is having a great success at specialized fairs, like Madrid Fusion, in fusion cuisine restaurants and gourmet shops, where you can buy these articles both in the shop or online, the prices will be slightly higher than at your normal market and supermarket.


Regarding drinks, don?t forget that Orihuela belongs to Alicante, and in this province there are great wines, White, red and rose, thanks to the mainly white and muscatel grapes in the area. White grapes are the most famous, they are collected in November and December due to the area?s climate, and later used for the 12 grapes that are eaten on the 31st of December, one for each chime of the bell that takes us into the new year, or the muscatel grapes that make one of the sweetest wines in the country, great with puddings, cocktails or aperitifs.

All this gastronomy of traditional food is available in the restaurants, taverns, inns and tapas bars in Orihuela, with different names and settings, so that sampling the traditional dishes becomes a true pleasure to the eyes, nose and of course the mouth.

You can find out where to eat out using the information in this guide or by recommendations from the locals who will tell you that Orihuela is a great place to practice excellent food tourism.