Seafood on the Camino

The north of Spain has a lot of seafood, even in the towns in the mountainous interior -- except maybe in Leon where meat is king -- and they have a lot of local names for them, so I decided to create a glossary, with photos so I'll remember.  There's a post on The 12 Essential Galician Seafood Catches by a Texan living in Santiago which should help.

Vieiras or Zamburiñas
These are scallops which are the symbol of the Camino de Santiago so we should try to find them someplace, although I know we can get them at home without any problem aside from money.  Our good friend José Andrés has a PBS Made in Spain episode on Galicia in which he begins with a recipe for zamburiñas a la gallega which are served on the shell.  Our Texan in Santiago says vieiras are larger than zamburiñas.

Pulpo con cachelos (Pulpo á Feira / Pulpo a la Gallega)
This is boiled octopus with boiled potatoes and it's hard to get a simpler dish than that.  Our Texan in Santiago recommends the Bodegón Os Concheiros as his favorite pulperia.

Too bad they don't serve it with red peppers and a salad to give it some color.  They need more chefs like my high school art teacher, Mr. Brothers, who once asked me:  "Doesn't your mother choose her dinner menu by what looks good on the plate?"  As if that was the obvious way to come up with a well-rounded meal.

Percebes
These are goose-neck barnacles that Rick Steves had to pay $16/pound for in the Santiago market.  He could have gone out to the Asturian seashore and picked his own like José Andrés did in this Made in Spain episodes on PBS which I urge you to watch because there is no chef more entertaining that José.  Or you can follow this gastronomic driving tour of the Costa da Morte, which sounds lovely.  The restaurant that they recommend eating at in Santiago de Compostela is La Bodeguilla de San Roque which seems to serve more meat than fish.  Autalia also offers a Ruta gastronomica en coche por el norte de Galicia de Coruña a Ribadeo (the northern coast) and another western coast route: Ruta gastronómica en coche por As Rias Baixas de Muros a Baiona (south of the Costa da Morte), in case we ever find ourselves in Santiago with a car.

Nécoras
These are velvet crabs which are the favorite of our Texan in Santiago.  He says if you can try just one of the 12 seafoods, try these.  He also mentions the larger spider crab, centollo, but they are more expensive.

Gamba / Camarón
These are shrimp and the Texan says they tend to be tiny and a lot of work to shell.

Cigala
These are scampi or langostinas or jumbo shrimp with garden shears for hands.

Razor Clams

Almejas / Ameixas (in Gallego)
These are clams with concentric ridges.

Berberechos
These are cockles, like clams with radial ridges.

Navajas / Navallas
And these are razor clams.

Mejillones / Mexillóns
These are mussels and are very affordable, according to the Texan.

Now you'll notice this seafood is almost all shellfish without a real fish in sight.  I guess we'll have to wait till another post for those.  In the meantime, I'm going to read the Texan's post on "What to Eat in Galicia: 10 Dishes to Try" in which he says:

"I’m gonna go out on a limb here and argue that the region of Galicia in the northwest part of Spain churns out the best food in the entire country. Give me some Galician food any day over expensive Basque pintxos, snobby Catalan cuisine, or the famine food of the central meseta."

Stay tuned!!