Although bars and cafés can be found scattered throughout the entire city, there are specific areas where the gourmet can try out exclusive restaurants with painstakingly-devised international menus, as well as other restaurants specialising in the cuisine of specific countries, such as France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Morocco, Turkey, China and India.
But the first priority is obviously to sample the local gastronomic delights, and particularly the single most outstanding ingredient, rice. The base par excellence of Alicante cuisine, rice is cooked in a thousand different ways; hardly an exaggeration, since there are hundreds of rice varieties.
And if to the rice is added the fish and seafood of the Mediterranean, not to mention the fruits and vegetables that come fresh from the local market gardens, then exquisite menus are the order of the day - based on salads, fish with rice dishes, grilled prawns, squid, grilled red mullet, garlic, oil and parsley.
Nor should we exclude the salazones (salted fish) such as mojama (salted tuna), hueva (roe), bonito, marrajo (shark), herring and cod that complement the fresh salads based on locally produced tomatoes, lettuce, onions and carrots and the pulses from which delicious stews are made. It can all be washed down with wines having the ALICANTE denomination of origin label, which are exported to many different countries and are award winners in places as far apart as the United States or France. We refer to the full-bodied reds, the fruity whites, the gentle rosés, and the sweet muscatels as the essential accompaniment to any meal. And for dessert, choose from among the immense variety of seasonal fruits, whether citrus, pomegranates, dates, medlars, cherries, melons, watermelons. Alternatively, try our ice-creams or turrones (almond and honey nougats), which we suggest you accompany with a glass of fondillón, Alicante's secular, mellow dessert wine. The visitor can find first-class restaurants in various parts of the city and the beaches, but to save you the trouble of deciding where to begin, why not start in the area of the Explanada de España and the port?
Another more informal but no less memorable way of sampling the local cuisine, is to go for tapas. This way you can sample a multitude of genuinely local little dishes. And you shouldn't forget the montaditos (delicacies 'mounted' on bite-sized pieces of bread), which were invented in this city to subsequently become popular in other parts of Spain. Many mesones, taverns and bars all over the city offer tapas, although if you don't know the city we recommend the area around the Town Hall and between this and the Plaza de Montañeta.
