On Tuesday I hiked from the gofio museum at Las Trcias down to Burracas cave. I’ve done the start of the walk before, but this is the first time I’ve actually got down to the cave at the bottom, because it’s not far, but it is very steep. I think I’m getting a little fitter at last. I’m glad I did get down there: I knew about the cave (which…
If you write the 14th of March American style, you get 3.14, so American geeks call it “Pi Day” and generally celebrate by eating pie. This strikes me as silly and arbitrary an excuse to eat pie. So of course we celebrate it. I don’t cook pie often because pastry is a bit of a faff on and cleaning up afterwards is worse. One of the few exceptions is Pi…
The persimmons are ripe. On La Palma, persimmons are called Kaki or Sharon, and I believe the tree comes from Asia originally. They’re much nicer when really ripe. The catch is that by the time they’re ready for eating, they’ve gone squishy, so they don’t travel well. Personally, I love them with Greek yoghurt.
The fruits of several different cactuses are called pitahayas. The yellow ones in the picture are Hylocereus megalanthus, and the pink ones are Hylocereus undatus. To be honest, I was rather disappointed by the (lack of) flavour of them both. Some time ago I had what I think was a Hylocereus costaricensis, which was deep red all the way through, and much tastier. I wish I had a bigger garden,…
The Pulpo bar and restaurant has been open for 40 years down on the beach at Los Cancajos. There were no charter flights to La Palma when the Pulpo opened in 1974, and it was a simple bar just for locals who fancied a beer after their swim. It’s grown over the years and for some time they’ve been serving food too. The menu isn’t that large, but it’s mostly…
Mulberries were originally introduced to the greener parts of La Palma to feed silkworms for silk production. The fruit is a delicious side-effect. Sadly, you rarely see it on sale, because it’s fragile and doesn’t keep. It’s also a strong, natural dye (and is used as such). If you pick your own, expect stained fingers and watch your clothes. In fact, if you’re staying near a mulberry tree in fruit, don’t…