It is of paramount importance that I introduce to this beautiful restaurant along the beach front of Las Palmas, her name is Oliva. It is the first and last place you should find yourself dining in GC and here are a few scrum-didly-dumtious snaps to explain why…
Octopus
Canarian peppers covered in sea salt
Spicy sausage floating in sizzling oil
Little fishies in batter, lemon to drizzle
Accompanied by a healthy bottle of red, salut to the feast you are about to enjoy!
Each week Katie and I purchase a Spanish item we either don’t understand or find looks a bit interesting. Here’s the beginning of our culinary appetite in Gran Canaria, what we found and what it all tastes like…
Tinned Octopus ****
This was to be our starter, we chewed into the pinky-grey rubber
This wasn’t so much a question of taste as total excitement that you could buy the stuff in a tin, like baked beans. It was sort of exotic and looked rather weird with tentacles. This was to be our starter, we chewed into the pinky-grey rubber and if nothing else the smell made us wince. Its a sad 4/10 and was left in the fridge for another 3 days until the spotty legs made its way to the bin.
Papaya ****
Pa-pay-ah!
Fresh fruit that has a cool name: Pa-pay-ah! For some reason we let it sit for a week and only ate it when it began to look bruised. In the end it smelt of bad feet and tasted the same, as Katie noted, ‘Oh yeah, I think I remember, this isn’t actually that nice.’
It had a bright orange appearance, kind of like butternut squash, and so for that reason it gained a few more points.We meet you in the middle at 5/10.
Tarta de Queso *****
We found this in the cheese section, hence ‘queso’ (cheese), and was as big as a protractor. But the name also says ‘tarta’ (cake), which you wouldn’t find in the cheese aisle, but a desert section. Hugely confusing and to this day we’re unsure if this is a desert or cheese and cracker deal. For me it missed flavour and felt grainy; there weren’t even shortbread crumbs at the bottom. Katie loved it and managed the whole thing – whatever it was, this savoury desert got 5/10 from me and 10/10 from Katie.
‘Oh yeah, I think I remember, this isn’t actually that nice.’
Patisserie *********
After 2 ½ hours of shopping we decided to treat ourselves to some goodies. They looked like those pan-o-chocolate pastries; only there’s so much more going on. They were gooey with raisins and were the size of pencil cases. Truly wonderful and much enjoyed: 10 out of 10. Good for breakfast, lunch, dinner or pudding – every hour of every day you will appreciate this culinary delight.
