Pizza at North of the Island in Tenerife

What is the difference between Samosas of India, Spring Rolls of China, and Chagio of Vietnam???, the stuffing right? ...... On the same theme, here is the new snack, with stuffing that contains a piece of white cheese, wrapped with a spinach leaf and fried in the crispy rice flour wrapping, served in the bed of sweet and sour sauce with a dash of soya sauce....imagine the taste….its yum...gone in a second leaving behind its lingering taste....but wait.....what I like the best is...er..the serving appetizer spoons...I need to buy those......

The chef said, “Its on the house, my new creation”.

He was introducing a new snack, Paquetos de quesos y espinaca con salsa agridulce and he wanted me to try it.

I gave him full marks.

I like restaurants that care for its clients and are always trying new creations and this Italian restaurant ‘Tasca Pizzeria Maracay’ gets a brownie point.

I actually went for pizza because that is what it specializes in. They have oven-roasted pizzas with great variety of combination. We ordered three kinds

Pizza cuatro quesos: Pizza with four different cheeses: Mozzarella, Parmesan, Camembert, rogurfort.

Pizza Stramboli: with tuna, ham and prawns

Pizza Vegetariana: with Mushroom, asparagus, black olives and capsicum.

The oven-roasted pizzas have their distinct burnt taste, that sets it apart from the normal ones.

Since most of the Spanish food has bland taste, I like restaurants that have good sauces to go with the meals. We ordered ‘Queso asado con dos mojos (cilantro and rojo pimientos’ which is actually roasted white cheese soaked in two sauces :coriander and red capsicum.

We also had a pretty looking salad, okay, it was not just pretty, it was delicious too. With the combination of rocket leaves, lettuce, black and green olives, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, red cabbage, basil, olive oil, it is hard to imagine it can be anything but tasty….

Tasca Pizzeria Maracay’ is an Italian restaurant in the north of the island at La Guancha in Tenerife. It has very good ambience with pine furniture and many artifacts decorating the walls. They have bamboo furniture outside in the open and on a bright sunny day, it’s a perfect place to spend an afternoon.

Wok-An Asian Cuisine

Would you prefer ‘Buffet’ or ‘A la carte’?

H says she would love to go for Buffet because there is a big variety to choose from and there is no hurry to eat, we can take our own sweet time to eat whatever we wish, Chinese, Japanese or Intercontinental food. There is lot to choose from and if we don’t like what is on display we can select the raw stuff and go to cooking station to get it cooked.

Sounds interesting, so family and I headed towards Puerto de la Cruz at ‘Trompo Centro Commercial’ to a special restaurant called ‘Wok’ that serves only buffet. The rate of the buffet varies with 15 Euros on weekends and 10 Euros during weekdays.

“Don’t rush to grab the food like some starving urchins” says B, “let us order drinks first”. The drinks are not included (“they need to make money on drinks”, informs H) so we wait for our order to arrive.

Whenever I go for buffet, I always make a round to see what is on display and make a mental note of the food that I might want to try. There is not much variety. There are only about hundred containers to choose from, and that includes soups, salads, starters, mains and dessert.

I don't have a very large appetite, therefore I must be very selective. I start with sushi, cabbage salad and boiled egg. How pathetic, I pick only two sushis from the variety of twelve different types. one is coated with salmon and other with dried mushroom. I soak each sushi in wasabi and soya sauce, add a bit of pickled ginger and take mouthful. yum...it tastes good.

My brother and his wife are pure vegetarian, so while they nibble on few  vegetarian finger food and salads, they order some food from cooking station. Within ten minute, a plateful of freshly prepared fried rice and Pakchoy arrive.

Pakchoy with sea weeds is crispy, stir fried and cooked in ginger. Brother has his Aha moments with every bite.

After my second round of finger food that includes assorted roasted chicken and some vegetarian snacks, I walk to select few raw stuff for cooking. I pick up shells, shrimps, black mushrooms, capsicum, squids, lettuce and carrots and head towards cooking station to make me a spicy dish.

I want to see him prepare, so I wait. He empties my plate of raw food in a big pan, adds water and lets it boil for five minutes. Filter out the liquid and keeps the boiled stuff aside. He has different containers of differently prepared sauces. He takes a spoon of one sauces, stir fries and then puts the boiled ingredients, add few more sauces, few spices and the plates it.

It is steaming hot, ready to eat.

Completely satiated I head towards dessert station that has fruits, sweets and big range of ice-creams. 

Did I tell you that I am a small eater? Well..they should have served Chinese tea for digestion..you know.....

When in Spain, Eat like Locals do

I asked the kids at home if they would like to go the club for swimming. They didn’t want to go swimming but agreed to come with me to spend few hours at the club and probably try some Canarian food.

Our social club is a great place to spend few hours. It offers beautiful view from all sides and over looks the San Marco beach that has black sand. It is well-equipped club with tennis lawn, play area for kids, swimming pool, sauna, gym, indoor games room and a small restaurant.

We headed straight to the restaurant hoping to eat a typical Spanish food. The menu card had pizzas, sandwiches and few tapas.

We ordered squid fritters, French fries, salads and tortilla. The bread was freshly baked and the lunch was filling. I was hoping I had brought my chili sauce with me because Spanish don’t eat chilies at all and many times I find the food bland.

tuna salad

freshly baked bread

vegetarian salad which contained mayonnaise,pineapple and raisins

egg omelette called tortilla

squid fritters

Okay, I agree what we actually ate were just tapas, one of Spain’s great contributions to world’s gastronomy, and Spanish are seen indulging in this kind of tapas at any hour of the day, eating tapas and sipping beer or cortado (strong coffee) is their general passtime. It’s a good way to sample variety of tastes in short time.

Spanish eating habits are very much different from other Europeans. Spanish normally don’t have breakfast like a king but instead have small meals during day with a large meal during siesta time.

For breakfast they have freshly squeezed fruit juice, sweet roll, croissant or pastries. If you go early mornings out, you are likely to see Spanish enjoying freshly fried Churros with hot chocolate.

At around 11am you see them again in the restaurants having their bigger breakfast, that’s ‘merienda’ or ‘elevenses’ which is always sandwich or ‘bocadillo’ made from baguette and filled with anything from tuna fish, cured ham, cheese or meat.

Lunch hour is the feast time for Spanish people. All the shops close from 1:30pm to 4pm and it’s siesta time. Proper meals at eaten at this time which consists of lentils with chorizo, rice and fish/poultry/meat. Their meal lasts for an hour and it’s a grand feast followed by desert or fruits. Even the restaurants are full during this time with offers of ‘menu del dia’ that is a three-course meal with fixed price and includes starters, mains and desserts. Bread and drinks are also included in the price and sometimes coffee as well. This is more economical that ordering a la carte.

All the shops close around 8pm, and Spanish people socialize after 8pm, eating tapas and sipping beer, to return home around 10pm.

Dinner is very light, just soup, salad and maybe a sandwich while enjoying their favorite TV programs in Spanish language only.