Gastronomic Notes

A few years ago - not so many - it used to be a bit difficult for a traveller given to the pleasures of the table to be sure where he ought to go and eat in Andorra. There were some serious kitchen stoves producing traditional meals, a few brief but enthusiastic attempts to open restaurants but very few establishments worth visiting with high hopes.

If one takes as the starting point the fact that the main resource of the Principality is cattle and sheep rearing and that there is a sizeable presence of pigs, we must also add to this culinary basis the richness of its trout-bearing rivers and then we shall have the elements on which traditional Andorran cooking, which is essentially Pyrenean and very Catalan, relies.

Let us mention a few dishes and products:

Why not begin with trout which is prepared in various different ways: in the style of Pallars with ham, almonds, butter, parsley, garlic, lemon, salt, pepper, oil and cheese; or baked in the oven surrounded by lemon, radishes, tomato, lettuce, parsley, butter, salt, pepper and bacon. It is also served with the skin and bones removed, simply done in a skillet or roasted on a slate basted beforehand with ripe bacon and garlic.

Game dishes are worthy of honourable mention - whether boar, Pyrenean chamois, venison, hare or partridge - with their well-rooted tradition. But if we are talking about tradition, we should not forget rabbit, meat done on the hearth and served with aïloli, which are still among the most popular dishes.

On the trail of native savours let us linger a moment by the slices of ham lightly fried with good vinegar and just the honey they need and another dish which in times past reigned joyfully: rice with squirrel.

There is a great variety of omelettes thanks to the different types of mushrooms found in the woods and also roasts. Among curious drinks we could mention mulled red wine to which lemon, apple, cinnamon, raisins and cognac are added. It is the perfect drink to accompany the traditional festive cake.

As is logical, there are many traditional dishes in the Andorran recipe book. In former times - a natural consequence of living in high mountain communities - cooking became a ritual and was surrounded by customs which are surprising today, such as the taboo on women sitting at table with their guests. This rule was relaxed only for Christmas and the New Year.

All the festivals and celebrations in the year were based on the kitchen stove. There were menus for marriages, baptisms or first communions and even a special one for the death of a family member: first a substantial soup was served and then the elements used to make the soup (potatoes, cabbage, chickpeas, "botifarra" sausage, meatball and meat). Then cod with tomato and chicken on the spit. The finale was provided by dried fruit and then there was coffee, aniseed liqueur and cognac. Smoking was not allowed on that day out of respect for the dead.

There were menus for Carnival, for villages fetes, for Lent and, of course, for Christmas festivities, besides that splendid occasion, the killing of the pig, when an afternoon meal and supper followed lunch.

Dishes like EGGS FRIED WITH HONEY, CONGER EEL SOUP, GREEN CABBAGE WITH BACON, CHICKEN WITH PEACHES, DUCK WITH WINTER PEARS, STUFFED CASSEROLED RABBIT, STUFFED WOOD RABBIT, LAMB'S FEET IN BATTER and VEAL WITH BEANS, besides many other from the Andorran recipe book, would lead us far into the history of cooking in Andorra, which is not our aim, but we did feel it appropriate to pen this short not for the reader interested in these matters.