Eating in Ferrolterra: produce and dishes
Ferrolterra's cooking is born of the sea and the Atlantic vegetable garden. These are the products and dishes that define the comarca — and the festivals where you taste them.
From the sea
Galicia boasts a hard-to-beat record: over 50 kinds of shellfish and more than 80 of fish. The local emblem is polbo á mugardesa — octopus boiled and dressed with paprika, garlic and good oil, served with cachelos (potatoes), a speciality of the town of Mugardos. The Costa Ártabra yields prized wild goose barnacles (Cedeira, Cariño, Ortigueira), and the rías give mussels, velvet crab, spider crab and the fine As Pías clam, gathered from the ría bed between the San Felipe and A Palma castles. Fish is enjoyed as caldeirada or «a la gallega», with an ajada of oil, garlic and paprika. A fishermen's tip: shellfish is at its best in the months with an «r» (September to April).
From the land
Grelos and nabizas (turnip greens) — the most Galician of vegetables — accompany winter dishes like lacón con grelos and caldo galego. Pork also gives raxo, zorza and roxóns; and beef, raised on the comarca's farms (including the Capelada breed, pasture- and milk-fed), yields churrasco and thick chops. Never missing are the Couto peppers, sweet and — unlike those of Padrón — never spicy, and the empanada, the «Galician pizza», filled with everything imaginable.
With its own seal
The comarca gathers several products with a European quality seal: Mexillón de Galicia mussels (PDO) — Galicia is the world's second producer —, Galician beef and Lacón Gallego ham (PGI), Couto peppers (PGI) and Patata de Galicia potatoes (PGI, Kennebec variety). A special mention for Neda bread, baked with water from the river Belelle, and Cariño's artisan preserves.
Sweet and to drink
Filloas and orellas at Carnival, and to finish, orujo, coffee liqueur or a house augardente. Galician wines from the nearby DOs (Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra) pair well with seafood.
Food festivals
Mugardos Octopus Festival (July, of Tourist Interest), goose-barnacle festivals on the Costa Ártabra, mussel and Neda bread festivals. Check the agenda for each year's dates.