Galicia begins the year loaded with gastronomic novelties
There is nothing like arriving anywhere on a trip and having the help of someone from the place to guide us, to tell us where the people of that city are going and to take us by the hand to those places that we would hardly have reached otherwise.
The guides are good to start locating, the opinion of those who write about gastronomy in national media is always useful but still there are things that are left out.
Paper publications cannot keep up with the constant opening and closing of premises, reforms and management changes; mainstream media overlook, in many cases, more modest places or places far from the big centers that, however, also have their interest.
A good excuse to go to Galicia: the food!
That is why the best I could do at the time of writing this text is ask those on the ground, to those who each week write or speak on the radio about news, to those who know the rumours, the openings that are not yet official.
I have my opinions, of course, and some will end up finding a place in this text, but the leading voice is yours, that of the experts and the experts who from different areas of Galicia tell me which ones they think are the novelties of the year in this northwest corner of the Peninsula.
And we start with the interior, with a ** Ourense ** that little by little reinvents itself. Manuel Bustabad, who every Saturday talks about gastronomic novelties from Radio Voz, proposes “new places like ** Hotel Rústico San Jaime by Miguel González,** a chef who became famous in the city and in Galicia for reviving the cuisine of the reference place in Ourense for decades, the sanmiguel, and president of the recently created association of chefs in the province", comments Manuel.
"Another place that has to hatch immediately is the ** Café Pacífico, one of the obligatory ones in Ourense with a recent reform", he continues. **
Bustabad also talks about what is one of the hot spots of contemporary gastronomy in Galicia: the area near the Santiago de Compostela food market.
"With the recently opened ** Lume, by chef Lucía Freitas ** and the place that will open in February Pepe Solla in the old premises of La Radio together with classics such as Abastos 2.0”.
Anna Mayer, gastronomic promoter and responsible for the programming of cooking courses in the Santiago market confirms the potential of the area, to which she adds “ Ship 5 , within the market itself, in which there are shops specializing in pancakes, oysters, octopus…”.
And she takes the opportunity to link her with the boom of gastronomic markets that is marking this new year in the city: "in recent weeks the ** Boanerges Market ** has added eleven new premises and a gastronomic tavern run by the star Yayo Daporta and complements the Mercado La Galiciana, inaugurated at the end of last summer”.
Precisely ** La Galiciana is the bet of Borja Portals,** the person behind the restaurant ** A Curtiría ** and one of the city's best-known hotel businessmen: "it is a market that combines a industrial design with recognizable traditional Galician items and a very street gastronomic offer".
Paul Portabales He writes about restaurants for La Voz de Galicia and is the first to mention some of the names that from A Coruña are adding ballots to become the openings of the year.
Ivan Dominguez he hopes to be able to open his big bet before the end of January, I swim. It is his first project of his own and occupies the ground floor of the legendary Coral restaurant in the Marina of A Coruña”, says Portabales.
Domínguez's project also received comments from many of those interviewed, such as George Canosa, the hospitality entrepreneur behind the Black Concept Group, who also points out ** Terreo **, “in the old location of Árbore da Veira (which was moved in summer to Monte de San Pedro), Enrique Vázquez offers a casual cuisine with a very careful product and special attention to rice dishes”.
We return to Portabales, who points out that “ Carlos perez , for his part, leaves in 2019 the Hokuto Japanese tavern that he turned into an oriental temple in a neighborhood of the city and opens in the center with Õvera”.
And he ends with a third recommendation from Coruña: “ Pracer is the name chosen by Moncho Bargo and Javi Freijeiro for their long-awaited joint premiere at Zalaeta neighborhood ”.
Precisely the Bargo-Freijeiro combo, hardened in a thousand battles in the kitchens of the city, is one of those that stands out Martina Vincent , gastronomic journalist in La Alacena Roja, the gastronomic magazine of reference for the sector in Galicia: “ a different staging by the hand of this pair of perfectly balanced friends enters the 'madness' of Moncho and the 'moderation' of Javi”.
But Martina is not limited to the cities and offers us one of the most interesting openings of rural Galicia. “Far from the madding crowd, the ** Balieiros ** restaurant opens its doors just 500 meters from the Corrubedo lighthouse.
Lara del Rio and Suso Crespo (both trained at the Solla restaurant, where Suso was head chef for 7 years) are the soul mater of this project with a significant space for quality seafood and fish”.
Martina's partner in La Alacena Roja, the journalist Alberto F. Traversa joins the commitment to the Compostela market district and the restaurant I swim, in A Coruña, but it provides some more names that should be taken into account.
“In Vigo things also move. To the good rhythm of the Malasangre march is added the Morrofino Tavern , another place that, with only a couple of months filming, is already making people talk”.
Although if we talk about Vigo, the voice of Martha Valcarce , the person behind the essential gastronomic news website in the city, I eat Vigo. Marta proposes a plan for one of the neighborhoods that are beginning to emerge as a trend for the coming seasons: Churruca.
"I propose you a dinner in bye da , my favorite discovery of the year. Ruth Mesonero and Miguel Rodriguez They have managed to break the mold with their Asian proposal. Street cuisine with knowledge and foundation”, Marta tells Traveler.es
“To continue without leaving Churruca, we go to the Vitter Cocktail Bar , a place with a cosmopolitan air and a team that makes you feel the good vibes from the moment you walk through the door”.
For my part, I do not want to fail to point out some other names, such as that of Julio Mato, chef at the Eco Hotel Nós (Silleda, Pontevedra), the recently opened ** A Viaxe, in Santiago,** which has already won the prize in the local tapas contest.
A Barcia's bar, in Ferrol; ** Merenzao , in the Ribeira Sacra,** which has gained ground with its change of location; the increasingly consolidated cuisine of ** Sábrego , in Ribadavia,** with a wine service to match; Gerson Church in front of Adega As Caldas...
Are you still lacking reasons to come and discover another face of Galician gastronomy?