Costa brava Travel guide

Nature, climate and history seem to be rivals in the creation of a strangely attractive environment, hard to grasp, buy captivating. Against the blue, green and navy blue of the sea, there is the exuberant contrast of the vegetation, which reaches down to the very edge of the sea or sometimes climbs the steep cliffs, while on other occasions it comes close to the beaches, casting a green light on the fine golden sands which stand out form the ochre-coloured surroundings further inland. The main role of the scenery is supported by an annual mean temperature of 16º C. with moderate rainfall and 2,500 hours of sunshine a year illuminating the traces of history and art which point to a remarkable past and are only the visible shapes of a reality with a hidden heartbeat that needs discovering.

There is yet another element which shapes the character of the inhabitants as well as of the land. i.e., the winds: Tramontana, blowing from behind the mountains, Garbi out of the southwest, Levante from the east, Mediodia from the south. They contribute to quite an extent to keeping the hot summers cooler and to forming the Emporda way of life, which is said to be generous and suspicious, tolerant and ironic at the same time, and forceful and perhaps fatalistic as well.

All along the Costa Brava there is a varied selection of supplementary tourist establishments which offer everything from traditional spectacles such as bullfighting to the most sophisticated ones, including discotheques, night clubs, discotheques-cum-pub, cinemas, art galleries and other cultural features.

he Catalan cuisine is no doubt one of the most outstanding in Spain. It is said that in El Emporda a great percentage of the cooking marvels of Catalonia are found. Since it cannot be otherwise, the cuisine is based on a mixture of the land and the sea, of the sweet and the salty. By the way, the invention of ali-oli is ascribed to the monks of Sant Pere de Rodes as are many fish dishes which they seasoned with every imaginable combination based on garlic, of which the documents of Sant Feliu de Guixols about the Order of St Benedict are proof.

We can distinguish two areas of the Emporda cuisine: the one inland, where meat abounds, especially fowl and pork, and the coastal area, which is mainly based on a great variety of fish.

Since it is a typical Mediterranean cuisine, the use of olive oil is common. It is an old cuisine which is already mentioned in the medieval codices. Among the fish dishes, the best known and tastiest are no doubt el suquet de peix and sepia. Other excellent dishes include la mariscada with shellfish, el arroz negro, a rice dish, las anchoas al estilo de las Medas, which is an anchovy dish, and lobster with chicken.

La escudella carn d´olla (a meat stew), manos de cerdo estofadas (stewed pigs trotters), meat with stuffed pears and apples, chicken with pine nuts, butifarra and black plums, butifarra (a Catalan sausage) al estilo del Emporda, rabbit with snails and all kinds of sausages are also very tasty and typical for the area.

The desserts are also very varied: los buñuelos, which are made at Easter and las cocas de San Juan are also famous, the truffle-filled brazos de gitano, nata y crema, el bisbalenc made with almonds, mel i mato, crema Catalana and los carquinyolis. All along the coast, el cremat, i.e., coffee with burnt rum, is a well liked drink. With a meal, the wines of El Emporda are justly famous: officially categorised (*Denominacion de Origen) as Emporda-Costa Brava, there are whites and sparkling wines from Peralada, roses from Espolla and red wines from Campmany.