What to bring from the Canary: traditional Tenerife souvenirs

What is typical for Tenerife? A question you ask yourself when you are looking for a souvenir from your holiday in Tenerife. As in any other holiday destination, Tenerife has special specialities and traditional uniqueness that you can bring home as a souvenir. We have some suggestions for you:

Traditional crafts and folklore

Traditional handicrafts are still very important in Tenerife today. These include mainly pottery such as bowls, plates, carafes and drinking vessels, but also basketry. The "cestería" are still spliced and interwoven by hand from rushes, straw and the fibres of the palm leaves.

You can buy original Tinerfeño handicrafts with guarantee and manufacturer's name in the shops of the national Artenerife chain. You can find them in La Orotava, Santa Cruz, Puerto de la Cruz, Playa de las Américas and Los Cristiano.

Canarian folklore, which can be admired in popular fiestas and romerias, has a long tradition. In "calado", or hemstitch embroidery, threads are drawn into a fabric stretched over wood using a complicated stitching and sewing technique and then joined together. In elaborate handwork, beautiful, unique tablecloths are created - which consequently have their price. You can also bring folkloristic clothes from your holiday in Tenerife as a souvenir. Stroll through the popular holiday resorts on Tenerife and the large weekly markets.

Flowers

Strelitzias are one of the landmarks of Tenerife, because the exotic flowers are grown on the Canary Island. The same applies to the poinsettias that are popular during the Christmas season.

At the Mercado de Flores in Puerto de la Cruz, rural women sell these and many other flowers from weekdays until around noon, which are a nice souvenir of your Tenerife holiday - if you survive the journey home.

Culinary specialities

Canarian delicacies are easier to transport than flowers. Here, Tenerife has a lot to offer to spoil the palate of those at home - goat cheese, traditional Canarian pastries such as "rosquetes", "truchas" and "merengues" or the delicious dessert "bienmesabe"“.

A wonderful gift are also island wines, which you can buy in bodegas, wine shops and good supermarkets. Look out for the grape varieties listán blanco, listán negra and negramoll when you buy and you will bring home one of the best wines of the Canary Islands. But typical liqueurs made from palm juice or bananas are also a popular souvenir that just won't last.

Last but not least, Canarian cigars and cigarillos are a popular souvenir from Tenerife. The "Puro", which are still rolled by hand by about 4000 people in Tenerife, are often smoked after dinner.

The cigars can be bought in many tobacconist's in Santa Cruz or La Laguna. Ask for "Puros canarios hecho a mano" and take home a souvenir for yourself or other gourmets.

Tenerife culinary and local products - Food dishes and Wine

Local restaurants in Tenerife offer mainly meat and fish dishes, which are very heartily prepared. But before the main course is served, it is common to have bread with butter, aioli or mojo. Mojo is a traditional Canarian herb sauce.

Among the most typical specialities of the Canary Islands are the charcoal-grilled chops of rabbit or goat. On the coast, more fish, squid or prawns are usually eaten grilled, breaded or fried with garlic oil. A traditional dish is morcilla, a sweet black pudding made with almonds, cinnamon and sultanas, among other things, which is grilled, fried or flambéed.

Pots and pans are also popular in Tenerife - for example the Ropa Vieja Canaria. It consists of chickpeas, potatoes, plucked meat and various vegetables. As befits a traditional, local dish, each cook cooks his Ropa Vieja differently. As a result, the stews are as varied as the island where they are prepared and may taste very different in the north than in the south.

ABC of traditional specialities of Tenerife

• baifito en adobo - roasted goat meat, previously pickled, salad is eaten
• bienmesabe - translated "it tastes good to me" is a popular dessert made from honey, almonds, egg yolk and lemon
• caldo de pescado - a thin fish soup with potatoes and herbs
• carajacas - chopped, pickled liver from calf, pork or chicken liver
• carne de cabra - goat meat is eaten a lot in the Canary Islands, roasted, grilled as cutlet on charcoal or as stew
• champiñones empanados - breaded and fried mushrooms
• cherne al cilantro - Canarian gilthead seabream is fried and served in coriander sauce
• conejo en salmorejo - roasted rabbit in a marinade of laurel, garlic and wine
• croquetas - are breaded like croquettes, but are filled with different ingredients such as meat or fish
• gofio escaldado - a soup made from gofio (roasted cornmeal) and fish stock
• mojo rojo - the typical Canarian, creamy liquid dip is made from red peppers, oil, garlic, vinegar and salt and is served with many meat dishes and papas arrugadas
• mojo verde - like mojo rojo, a creamy liquid dip made from green parsley and lots of parsley, which goes better with fish dishes
• morcilla - a sweet blood sausage made with almonds, cinnamon and sultanas, among other things, and grilled, fried or flambéed
• papas arrugadas - the well-known Canarian potatoes are boiled in brine and finally eaten with their wrinkled (Spanish "arrugado") skin
• pella - a bread-like mass made of gofio, water and salt, which is eaten sliced into sancocho canario
• potaje canario - a hearty soup made from chickpeas, potatoes, corn and other seasonal vegetables
• potaje de berros - a mild stew with bacon, pumpkin, potatoes, corn, yams and cress, gofio is stirred into the stew
• rancho canario - a popular stew of the Canary Islands made from chickpeas, potatoes, pork, pasta, onions, garlic and chorizo
• ropa vieja - the traditional thick stew is made from chickpeas, potatoes, plucked meat and various vegetables
• sancocho canario - salted and boiled fish to be eaten with vegetables, mojo and pella

Vegetarian food in Tenerife?

The traditional specialities of Tenerife make it clear that vegetarians tend to be short-changed in typical restaurants. However, vegetarian dishes are on the menu, especially among the starters. For example, grilled goat cheese is on the menu everywhere in Tenerife. Goat cheese is usually served with mojo, but sometimes with honey or jam, and has a very mild taste.

Other well-known vegetarian dishes are Papas Arrugadas and Champiñones Empanados. Papas Arrugadas are potatoes that are boiled with their skin in a lot of sea salt and eaten with mojo. Champiñones Empanados are breaded mushrooms that are fried. Croquetas are also breaded, but should not be confused with croquettes, as they are filled with various ingredients such as meat or fish.

Wines from Tenerife

To accompany your meal you should enjoy one of the wines grown in Tenerife. The Tacaronte-Acentejo and Valle de la Orotava wine regions produce very good red wines - La Isleta, La Palmera, Viña Norte, Eras de Marques and Gran Theyda.

White wines such as Cueva del Rey also come from Tenerife, but are not to everyone's taste and are therefore less popular.

If you are sitting in a bodega in the evening and order "Vino de la Casa" (house wine), do not forget to ask if it is an island wine. It is common to sell cheaper mainland wines, as Tenerife can hardly cover its own demand for home-grown wines.