Walking along the promenade in Playa Honda there are some fabulous places to dine in, one that is always busy is the Bar Restaurant La Dorada D’ Mesana.

We were looking for somewhere for lunch, wanting to dine somewhere different we walked passed Emmax and Erik IT in the direction towards the airport, my lunch companion had a fancy for fresh fish and it was Mesana that called out to us on this occasion.

The restaurant is in a great position with a choice of tables on the terrace, we sat in the shade facing the beach with a view of the airport runway in the distance. There was a blackboard full of specials as well as a menu offering a great choice of fresh meat and fish dishes. My friend ordered the fresh fish of the day, once I spotted the cochino negro frito on the board I just had to order the local speciality of black pig. We asked for a glass of dry white wine and was served Teiga from Bodegas Mozaga, we hadn’t tried this Malvasía Seco before, fermented in barrels the wine was rich in colour with a woody note and subtle sweetness.

We hadn’t ordered a starter or bread so were surprised when a tapa was placed in front of us, questioning what the dish was, we were told morena which is moray eel. I’ve tried this local delicacy before served  read more »

Poonam from the Chirag Indian Curry House situated in the old harbour of Puerto del Carmen contacted us this week with a special offer for Facebook members.

This Indian restaurant can be found on Calle Roque Nublo which is the road that leads to the old harbour area, Chirag is on the left hand side. Even though they are located on the ground floor the dining area has picture windows overlooking the harbour. Many of you may already know Poonam, the lady from the Yash Supermarket in Centro Comercial Marítimo, this shop  has been supplying all of our favourite Indian food and spices in Lanzarote for years.

The special offer is a discount of  read more »

Benn and Zoë from Cantina Teguise are choosing their new wine selection for 2012 and they need some help. So they have organised the first Cantina Wine Awards at the Secret Garden.

On the evening of Friday 27th of January at 18:00 hours this free event will start, tasting over 100 different wines generously offered by their suppliers. At 21:30 Talulah and Jake will be playing some live music while the scoring is tallied and the winner wines will be announced at 23:00.

Both old and new customers are  read more »

I overheard the following conversation recently in a bar in Playa Blanca.

English tourist: Black coffee, please.

Spanish waitress: Americano, si, senora.

English tourist: No, a black coffee with a little milk.

Spanish waitress: Si. Café con leche.

English tourist: No, black coffee.

Spanish waitress: Expresso?

English tourist: No, it’s too strong. I’ll have a tea.

What this showed me was how everyone likes coffee around the world but we drink it so differently and refer to it by lots of different names. At the next table, two British women had ordered black coffee with hot milk, which arrived later in a jug.

What do you do to get the coffee you want in the UK? People used to ask for ground coffee, real coffee or a cafetiere of coffee to make sure they got the real deal and not instant. Big coffee chains like Caffe Nero, Costa and Starbucks seem to have put an end to that and we had to learn a new language to order. “I’d like a regular skinny decaff cappuccino,” we shout!

In Lanzarote, I order  read more »

Wines from Lanzarote are now available for sale in New York thanks to importer José Pastor as mentioned in the New York Times article "Grapes Born of Volcano and Sea" by Eric Asimov.

Eighteen different wines were tasted from the Canary Islands including 6 whites, 1 sparkling, 1 rosé, 9 reds and 1 sweet .

The panel’s favourite wine was the Rosado 2010 from Los Bermejos! ”This rosado is  read more »

Jonnie was one half of the hair dressing duo Grant & Jim at Elijah Blue in La Villa de Teguise.

Grant, now known as Jonnie has followed his passion for food and opened Jonniebakes which is situated on the top road by the Pirate Museum in the old capital, whilst Jim has retained the premises at Elijah Blue Hair & Home which as the name suggests now has a section of items for the home as well as the hairdressing salon. These guys remain best buddies in fact on the day we popped in Jonnie was taking his food hygiene exam and Jim looked right at home behind the counter.

Jonnie has a wonderful range of freshly home baked goodies on offer each day to tempt you, savoury items include Cornish pasties, sausage rolls, quiches, soup, croissants and a variety of bread for sale. There’s plenty of delicious cakes too including bakewell tart, lemon cake, red velvet cake, apple pie, scones…….need I say more.

We sat down at the only empty table  read more »

Canary Islands Tourism have published a selection of local recipes which we thought we’d share with you. The first recipe is Queso de Almendras which is almond cheese and often found for sale on stalls at the Saturday morning craft market in Haría.

Ingredients:

500g  read more »

Bodegas Stratvs have organised two special evenings at their Restaurante El Aljibe del Obispo with Adolfo Assor.

The a la carte dinner “Velada Poética” will be held on Wednesday 11th at 8.30pm & Saturday 14th January at 9pm, Chile born artist Adolfo will recite a selection of poems in principal from Pablo Neruda.

Adolfo Assor was born in 1945 in Valdivia, Chile, he showed a passion for theatre from an early age and was twice named the best actor in  read more »