Tapas and canapés competition, an opportunity to enjoy gastronomy in Benidorm

One of the biggest attractions in the Costa Blanca and Benidorm is their gastronomy. Due to the big amount of people from different parts of the world and the different cultures that meet in the city, Benidorm has a wide and delicious gastronomy worth knowing and tasting.

As we can find different ethnic groups living in the city, you can take advance on it through you holidays in Benidorm and have a gastronomic route round the English, Indian, Chinese, Italian ... restaurants. Also in the restaurants of hotels in Benidorm you can find a wide selection of dishes from different cultural origins.

Although the Benidorm own gastronomy and the Mediterranean cuisine are the ones that get normally more followers.

Typical Benidorm dishes

Like many other coast towns, Benidorm is famous due to its rice and fish dishes, quite typical in the Mediterranean cuisine. Two of the tastiest ones are the 'arroz caldoso' (soggy rice) and the 'arroz a banda', which is one of the most typical dishes of the Alicante gastronomy, to prepare it you make a fish broth with the called 'morralla' (small and cheap fishes) and you cook the rice with it. Coming to Benidorm is the perfect excuse to enjoy a good rice dish.

Another Benidorm typical dish is the 'coca farcida', made with flour and oil dough and normally filled in with tomatoes, tuna and peas. The filling can vary depending on the people’s preferences, but is always a tasty and attractive appetizer.

The Benidorm typical sweets and desserts are mainly related with the Christmas time or special dates, as it happens with the Jijona or Alicante turron, although you can have them all year round. In one hand, you have the 'Bollos de San Blas', a dessert made with almonds and with lemon, that is why you can call them 'Bollos de limón' (Lemon sweet bun) also. On the other hand, you can find, mainly in Christmas time, the sweet potato cakes.

Different tapas and canapés, a luxury for your mouth in Benidorm

The gastronomy is a very attractive aspect for tourists and visitors into Benidorm, so taking into consideration the importance it has for the tourism in Benidorm, a Tapas and Canapés competition has being
organize every year. Visitors and residents can enjoy the gastronomy in a different way, but not forgetting the traditional part of it.

The Benidorm Tapas and Canapés competition is celebrating its fourth edition from the 31st of March until the 6th of April. During this week, 27 Benidorm different businesses will offer very high quality tapas for 2€.

Every costumer will be able to vote for his favorite tapa in between the ones he has tried and, at the end of the week, 3 prices will be given: avant-garde tapa or canapé, traditional tapa or canapé and the special price from the public.

You can use this phone number: 626357507 to vote for your favorite tapa or canapé using Whatsapp or Telegram if you prefer it. Another option to vote is to go into the 'Concejalía de Turismo de Benidorm' Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/turismobenidorm.

Hotel Don Pancho
Charming Hotel in Benidorm
http://www.hoteldonpancho.es

Enjoy traditional food in Benidorm

Benidorm is known for its multiculturalism. Different nationalities share its streets, but it still keeps its traditional gastronomy.


Benidorm is a modern and cosmopolitan town. Considering that it is the tourism capital in the eastern coast of Spain, it is not strange that you can find a wide variety of cultures and nationalities that you can enjoy in your holidays in Benidorm.

Thanks to this city's open-minded relationship with other cultures, we can find nearly all national or international kind of food in any of Benidorm hotel or restaurant. Considering this you can either enjoy an excellent Asturian stew, a nice Japanese sushi or the typical English breakfast with bacon and eggs.

But, what could you eat in Benidorm before it became a touristic town?

Benidorm traditional gastronomy
Benidorm is placed in a privilege area considering both its geographic and its 'geogastronomic' location. The Mediterranean littoral is the cradle for the well known Mediterranean gastronomy.

As you can find in many of the towns and cities bathed by the Mediterranean waters, the traditional gastronomy is a healthy mixture of vegetables and meat or fish from the area. As many other different localities, Benidorm has its 'typical dishes' that were its gastronomic base when this town was only a small fishermen village; and what did they eat at the time?

Benidorm typical dishes
You can find different places to enjoy this town's typical old dishes. In between the most well known dishes we can point out these ones:

Rice with red mullets and pumpkin
Made with rice, fish and vegetables, this is one Benidorm typical dish.
This tasteful stew is made with the fish called red mullet, pumpkin and green beans. As we can find in many different rice dishes from this area, it is prepared with lightly fried garlic and some spices that will give this dish a special touch.

Rice with beans and turnips
Known as well as 'Arròs amb fesols i naps'. This succulent rice is made with soggy rice, meat broth and vegetables and it is perfect for a cold winter day. In this case the rice is prepared with pork pieces (ossobuco, feet and backbone) and 'blanquets', a typical sausage from the area. We mix everything up with white beans, turnips and cardoons.

Rice with white anchovies and spinaches
It is a typical kind of rice, not only from Benidorm; you can find it in nearly all of La Marina regions. The rice with white anchovies and spinaches is dry rice, as the one in paella. Its main ingredients are spinaches, white anchovies and delicious lightly fried ñora peppers, garlic and parsley.

Filled 'coca' and 'coca a la calda'
They are typical Roman recipes. Salty 'cocas' are one of the delicious traditional dishes you can taste in Benidorm. Their dough is similar to the one you prepare for bread, with round shape if they are for one person or with square shape if it is a family one. You can fill this salty dough with different food and that will create the different types of cocas, for example: tomatoes, roasted pepper, tuna and eggs filling or sausages and black puddings filling are the more typical ones in Benidorm.

Saint Blas bun
They are perfect for the sweet-tooth. This Saint Blas bun is one of the typical sweets form the Benidorm gastronomy. These buns have Arabic origin and they are prepared with almonds and cinnamon. They are traditionally made during the winter months, mainly in Saint Blas festivity.

There are loads of restaurants in Benidorm where you can try these typical dishes. Once you know their names, you just have to look for them and enjoy!

What about you? Have you tried any of these delicious dishes during your holidays in Benidorm?