The Flavor of the Ruta de los 3 Reyes
This is a route with a lot of flavor, where each stop offers a wide variety of options to eat like royalty. And although each of the stages has very diverse proposals, the truth is that the cuisine of the Ruta de los 3 Reyes shares three basic elements. The first, a great variety of high-quality and traditional gastronomic products, which are both the result and explain the way of life of the people who work them. The second, a recipe book that frequently finds its origin in medieval cuisine and in Arab and Mediterranean influences. And the third, a long tradition in the elaboration of sweets with recipes typical of each locality and associated with the calendar of festivities.
Below, you will find the most outstanding bites if you visit…
Alcañiz
Anyone who visits Alcañiz cannot miss its three star products with Denomination of Origin: olive oil from Bajo Aragón, Teruel ham, and Calanda Peach. The personality of this town is marked, in part, by its orchard, and that also translates into its gastronomy with proposals such as chirigol or pepper cakes nuanced with tuna or ham. Among the most outstanding proposals of the Alcañiz recipe book, we find spoon dishes ideal to combat the low temperatures of the winter season, such as lamb a la pastora, beans with partridge, cod rice with potatoes, or olleta. And to finish? Well, a good sweet, frequently, to celebrate a date marked on the calendar. Tortas del alma, mantecados and roscones, tortadas, walnut cake, and Easter cakes are some of the best known, along with the tetas de Santa Águeda.
Morella
The gastronomy of Morella is characterized by having known how to preserve from generation to generation the secrets of good mountain cuisine, that which knows how to take advantage of the products that grow and live in it. In this sense, it finds its maximum exponent in meat, offering a raw material of great quality. Veal, lamb, pork, wild boar, quail, or partridge are the main ingredient of countless recipes that propose to taste them grilled, baked, or stewed with legumes, vegetables, mushrooms, and aromatic herbs. The elaboration of sausages is also an ancient tradition here, with cecina as the main exponent and with Bollo de Morella as the most unique proposal. Other autochthonous recipes are those of Morella croquettes, Morella soup, masoveras pots, or fried food. Although, without a doubt, the ingredient that defines the gastronomic proposal of the town is the black truffle, the protagonist of many dishes in its restaurant offer and of gastronomic days that are held annually during the winter months. Honey and cheeses complement a proposal that finds in flaó its most traditional dessert.
Tortosa
Tortosa is a city that is located at a strategic point between the sea and the mountains, and its gastronomy is a good example of this. Its Mediterranean character and proximity to the coast, to which it is united by the Ebro River, is reflected in a recipe book marked by fish and seafood, highlighting among them the abadejo (as cod is called in Tortosa), oysters, mussels, prawns, and red tuna. On the other hand, the mountain character can be seen with other traditional proposals such as baldanas, sausages made with rice, the taste for artichokes, and the importance of citrus fruits, clementines, and peaches. And how could it be otherwise, its proximity to the Ebro Delta makes rice dishes a must. On the other hand, it should be noted that Tortosa is part of two designations of origin: the PDO of Bajo Ebro – Montsià oil and the DO Terra Alta wine. In addition, those with a sweet tooth will enjoy its wide variety of local sweets, which include the traditional pastissets de cabello de ángel, the menjar blanc, les garrofetes del papa, the cóc, and the Sopa de la reina cake, among others.
