A place where you eat well is not a place where there are many fabulous restaurants with algae-based spheres and shiny Michelin stars.
A place where you eat well is a place where you eat well everywhere: in a bar, at a bingo, at a gas station.
A menu of the day, an appetizer, a cake.
Good and simple.
Asturias is like this: it is easy to eat well wherever they serve food, whether it is a town house or a municipal golf course.
And Oviedo is the capital of Asturias.
This year also the Spanish Capital of Gastronomy, a title that last year was held by the city of Cuenca, which handed over the roles in the recent edition of the Madrid International Tourism Fair (Fitur).
Let's start at the beginning: the skewers.
The Asturians are not as sophisticated as the Basques, they are only small sandwiches of things - loin with cheese, stewed meat or chicken, the canonical pincho -, so much so that not even the people of Oviedo appreciate them too much for their gastronomic side, but for their practical aspect. .
But in some establishments they are working harder and harder.
They cost a euro or so and they provide breakfast, a snack, that mid-morning or mid-afternoon hunger that fills us with confusion.
There are them everywhere, but to say some place where they are worshiped, the popular and popular bars Campa (calle del Sol, 3) and Manolín Campa (Jesús, 20).
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A map of experiences called Spain
The aperitif is important.
Before eating you can visit Casa Montoto (San Bernabé, 9), which looks like a village bar from the past in the middle of a city of the present, and have a beer with a bollín
preñau
or an empanadilla.
In the famous bar of La Paloma (Independencia, 3), the classic gamba a la gabardina - with a stratospheric raincoat - and vermouth, among the crowd.
mythological cuisine
Asturian gastronomy is mythological and some of its gods are fabada, pote, hake with cider, fried pixín
,
pitu
caleya
, scorpionfish pie, tortos, various cheeses, all dipped, of course. , for cider culines, that drink that they pour you in just the right amount and that you drink when they offer you.
A transfer of autonomy, that of drinking when and how one wants, in favor of an ancient tradition, that of pouring, which runs the risk of disappearing at the hands of automatic pourers and pouring caps.
There is so much gastronomic chauvinism in Asturias, so much pride, that it is often difficult for fast food franchises—so beloved in other latitudes—or international cuisine to catch on, although in Oviedo there has recently been a certain boom in oriental food.
The cider house is king, and cider houses abound, for example, on Gascona Street, which for many years has been marketed as “The Boulevard of Cider”, precisely the years in which this drink, previously more limited to certain ages and places, has experienced a new
boom
.
On this steep street there are numerous cider houses;
to name some of the most notable: La Pumarada (at number 8), Tierra Astur (which already has several establishments in Oviedo and Asturias, two in Gascona) or El Ferroviario (at number 5), which is a winch More traditional, it has come to have a design that hints at modernity - like its menu - and whose waiters are dressed like badasses from the
Peaky Blinders series.
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Cachopo is Asturian gastronomy, but controversial: many do not recognize it on the same level as the other Asturian gods, but rather as a commercial, touristic ranch, an invention.
Hangover food.
The fact is that it is a success, and it is undoubtedly already linked to the idea of Asturias, perhaps more than Pelayo, Queen Letizia or Melendi, for several generations.
Others, however, claim cachopo, even claiming its invention in the second half of the 20th century, and treat it with care.
That is the case of La Corte de Pelayo (San Francisco, 21) or El Raitán (plaza Trascorrales, 6), where you can also eat, and very delicious, everything else.
Fish are the specialty at La Mar del Medio (Mon, 18), a seafood restaurant that is like a cabin and whose bar is a little boat: everything from the sea.
For example, the skewered hake or the pixueta octopus pot;
pixueto is a name for Cudillero.
Curiously, they serve one of the best beef cachopos in the city, although if you ask for it they scold you a little.
Rice and cod, at El Tizón (Caveda, 18), another all-terrain restaurant, with strong parish and neighborhood roots, where you can eat anything, serious or informal.
A particularly impressive fabada is the one served in a place on the outskirts of Oviedo, at Casa Chema (El Cordial s/n, El Caleyo): creamy, tasty, delicious.
Be careful, they offer vegan food.
Other options for vegans are El Manglar (Martínez Vigil, 14) or the
apunkarrada tavern
The Raposa (Carpio, 8).
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(@eltizonoviedo)
Haute cuisine, of course, is also present.
For example, in Ca Suso (Marqués de Gastañaga, 13), by the Feito brothers, who, in their quiet and friendly eating house, are amazed by their La Peral cheese croquettes, an indelible brand.
In the classic Casa Fermín (San Francisco, 8), which was given a lot of visibility by the recent visit of Meryl Streep and Antonio Banderas during the Princess of Asturias Awards, they boast of mixing tradition and avant-garde.
At Cocina Cabal (Suárez de la Riva, 5), with the “best fabada in the world 2022”, by chef Vicente Suárez Cabal.
Or in the proposals of the celebrated chef Nacho Manzano, frequent recipient of Michelin stars, such as La Gloria (Cervantes, 24), NM or Nastura (both on El Vasco boulevard), which mixes Asturian gastronomy with miscegenation (and even the pizzas ).
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Sweet things are important in Oviedo, and there are quite a few well-loved sweet shops and pastry shops.
The Muscovites—fine chocolate and almond cookies—begin to conquer the entire state territory after conquering Asturias.
They were invented in Rialto (San Francisco, 12), a place that preserves the air of other, friendlier times.
The chocolates from Peñalba (National Militias, 4) are famous, as well as all the pastries from Camilo de Blas (Jovellanos, 7), another place that seems frozen in time.
You have to try, for example, carbayones, a typical sweet made with puff pastry, almonds, egg yolk and a layer of sugar like a nuclear bomb, and which takes its name from the carbayón, the old century-old oak tree that gave its name to its inhabitants and that someone ordered to be cut down in 1879.
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The gastronomic capital of Oviedo will put all this gastronomy, and more, in the spotlight, collaborating with the city's growing tourist momentum.
A city in danger of decline, with an aging population and many empty stores that could use a shake-up.
Although the movement of tourism, as we know, can end up trapping it in its bear hug and destroying the essence of the city forever.
That being the capital does not mean a burden.
Finger Licking Activities
A group of musicians play on Gascona Street in Oviedo.
KATE HOCKENHULL (ALAMY)
Throughout 2024, Oviedo will organize a multitude of activities for its gastronomic capital status (oviedocapitalgastro.com).
These are the highlights of the first quarter.
January.
Every month, the Príncipe Felipe Auditorium in Oviedo, the main venue for the capital's activities, hosts a tribute to an Asturian cheese.
In January it was Afuega'l pitu.
February.
Guided routes will be taken through Old Oviedo that will combine history and gastronomy.
For example, the La Regenta route will travel through enclaves mentioned in the 1884 novel by Leopoldo Alas Clarín while tasting updated tapas from the period.
March.
Between the 8th and 17th, the second Oviedo-style tripe contest will take place in nearly 30 establishments in the city.
And during Holy Week, Bocados del Cofrade, a contest of pinchos and tapas made only with vigil ingredients.
All year.
Every Thursday, except in summer, the Cantares de Chigre series brings one of the most notable traditions of the Principality to the Gascona Cider Boulevard: singing in the cider houses.
The venues will host performances in which dialogued Asturian songs will be sung, accompanied by instruments as markedly Asturian as the bagpipes or the tambourine.
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