This is a gift from the gods
“My greatest happiness is remembering a happy childhood: five months of summer vacations on the beaches of Caleta and Famara , with its eight kilometers of clean, fine sand framed by cliffs over four hundred meters high, which are reflected on the beach as if in a mirror. That image has been engraved in my soul as something of extraordinary beauty that I will never forget in all my life.
We do not promise you five months of summer, splashes and return to childhood, as it had Cesar Manrique , the artist who not only left a fascinating legacy in Lanzarote but also protected it from urban debacles; but here you will have the same view , the one with the impressive Famara cliff and the Atlantic, while you eat a chapeau fish and get your lungs drunk on the sea breeze.
The place is none other than the restaurant The risk , without a doubt, one of the most essential tables on the island, located in one of the white and light blue houses on Famara beach , natural paradise and surfer par excellence, without which, understanding this island (in itself, difficult to understand) becomes almost impossible.
The wind sometimes tightens and makes it complicated, but if you can contain yourself, the ideal is to eat at one of the tables on the terrace and, of course, do it instead of looking at the clock (for something we have an hour ahead) looking at the Atlantic and the island of Graciosa (and the entire Chinijo archipelago).
Put in situation, the banquet can begin chinchineando with a malvasía (or a diego) from the land, that pairs luxuriously with the views and enlivens the wait, foreshadowing what will be an unmistakably Canarian food but with a modern touch and some creativity marked, mainly, by the vagaries of the sea.
Among the starters, in El Risco there is an unmissable must with unconditional faithful: fried moray eel chips (one of the most characteristic fish of the Canary Islands that is cut into strips, floured, pan-fried and served with parsley and slices of fried sweet potatoes), which can go to the center together with an assortment of Canarian cheeses or something more exotic like tataki on parsnip purée or one of the salads of the day.
Then comes the serious stuff: the main dishes, (almost) always with the island's fish (jack mackerel, grouper, Canarian hake...) as the main attraction: Pickled amberjack loin tempered with its vegetables; octopus old clothes , baked hake neck from La Graciosa, with its stock, garlic and malvasia, or simply the fish of the day grilled to the perfect point.
There is also meat, but outside of topics, and always with an island accent, like the boneless kid cooked at low temperature for hours, very typical of Lanzarote, or the original rack of rabbit stuffed with Iberian pork and pickled vegetables.
But, if something in El Risco makes the undersigned's legs tremble, that is the rice dishes: the seafood paella, the black paella with baby squid and seaweed cream, octopus and prawn from La Santa and, above all of them, the honeyed carabineros and mussels: pure sea by the spoonful.
The move cannot be left halfway, and it must end with a bite, because here its original dessert menu, It is not a stuffing section, but the gourmand way of continuing to approach the Canarian recipe book.
In addition to expendable classics like the chocolate coulant, there are some as original as the mole eggs, gofio foam and smells of mint; the creamy papaya with goat yogurt or the sweet potato custard and biscuit jam, which deserve at least one “one for all and all for one”. From coffee: Illy. Digestive: a walk on the beach.
El Risco still has one more surprise. And it is that in addition to the words of Manrique (which continue to resonate throughout the island like an eternal echo), here is preserved a mural that the artist painted in the 80s dedicated to the fishermen of Famara.
Those who continue to bring the freshest fish here to make possible banquets like the one we just had.
Address: Calle Montaña Clara, 30, Urb. Famara, Lanzarote See map
Schedule: Open from Monday to Sunday, from 12 to 22 h.
Half price: €35-50