Postcard from Oviedo

Before you travel to Oviedo, forget everything you thought you knew about Spain. Those ‘sun, sea and sangria’ clichés? Leave them at home. We arrived on a wet late-autumn day. As our plane came in to land, low grey clouds hugged the baize-green hillsides in a cool embrace, and we could practically feel the tingling smack of drizzle on our faces.

From our open hotel window, I heard the unmistakable wail of bagpipes. I wasn’t having auditory hallucinations. Oviedo is the capital of Asturias, part of that stretch of ‘green Spain’ that runs along the Cantabrian coast from the Basque Country to the border with northern Portugal. This region has Celtic roots that date back centuries, and they have the music to prove it. The gaita Asturiana (Asturian bagpipe) was recently declared an Asset of Cultural Interest and we’d arrived right in the middle of a festival celebrating traditional Asturian music – bagpipes, drums, dancing, traditional dress and all.

The food culture is deep-rooted too. This is pork and beans country, and the region’s best-known dishes are hearty, calorie-packed one-pots that show just how satisfying that combo can be. Fabada asturiana, a bone-warming, pimentón-scented stew of chorizo, morcilla, cured pork or pork belly and the region’s most esteemed white bean, which absorbs so much liquid that it more than doubles in size, turning gloriously silky-textured. Its cousin, pote asturiano, is a soup-meets-stew affair of potatoes, chorizo, morcilla, kale, pork belly or bacon and – yep – lots of beans. People here have been waving the #eatmorebeans flag way before it became trendy.

The city’s main food market, Mercado El Fontán, is the place to go ogle the myriad manifestations of pork butchery, marvel at the range of beans and familiarise yourself with the region’s cheeses, the most famed of which is the mighty Cabrales. Made (as many cheeses on this region are) from a mix of cow, sheep and goat milk, this crumbly, semi-hard blue is aged in natural caves in the Picos de Europa and has a marked tang and savour that will leave your palate tingling. It’s best described as ‘muy fuerte’.

With all this talk about beans, pork and cheese, you might think sweets don’t get a look-in. Not the case. Baked confections are part of the fabric of life in Oviedo. As in Portugal, Sicily and southern Spain, there is a tradition of conventual sweets – sweets baked by nuns in convents or monasteries.

At the San Pelayo monastery, a Benedictine order since the 10th century, you can buy sweets directly from the nuns who make them. We missed out on those (bad timing on our part) but managed to satisfy our sweet cravings at two brilliant confiterías – Rialto, which opened in 1926, and Camilo de Blas, founded in 1914. Tables at the former are decked out in pink starched tablecloths, while the latter is all white Carrara marble and gilt. The range of sweets at both places is mind-blowing, a sugar-lover’s dream of cream, nuts, meringue and pastry in all shapes and sizes.

Both serve a confection called a carbayone (Camilo de Blas claims to have invented it), a speciality of Oviedo, with a puff pastry base, an almond-paste filling and a topping rich with egg yolk; addictively good. There are countless places to get a sugar rush too, including Panadería Santumedé, where the anise-scented waft of baking is as intoxicating as the range of bread, pastries and savouries on display.

Given the strength of the food culture here, it’s no surprise that the region is home to renowned chefs, of whom José Andrés is the best known internationally. Born near Oviedo (and now based in the US), the chef, restaurateur and humanitarian is founder of World Central Kitchen, which has done so much brilliant work in Gaza and elsewhere.

Sibling chefs Esther and Nacho Manzano, of the acclaimed Casa Marcial restaurant in the Asturian hamlet of La Salgar, bring their sparkle dust to Oviedo too – they run a pair of restaurants in the city: the Michelin-starred NM de Nacho Manzano and the diffusion-range Gloria. The latter takes Asturian ingredients and flavours to great heights in a casual setting. For high-end dining, friends have also recommended Casa Fermín and Cocina Cabal. 

For an old-school pintxos and sidra vibe (and a solid fabada asturiana – that’s it pictured above, second pic), Casa Ramón, right near El Fontán market, is a good bet.

To drink, it has to be sidra (cider). Yes, there’s beer and wine here, but Oviedo is Asturias’s cider capital, so you’d miss out on a great tradition and go home with a serious (and deserved) sense of FOMO. The hillsides around Oviedo are dotted with apple orchards, and it’s not hyperbole to say that the craft of making and serving artisanal cider is an art form. It has its own rituals, from the way it’s poured (from great height) to the way it’s drunk (in small, freshly poured measures). This excellent blog post from Ciderayalga will tell you a lot more about the subject than I ever could.

Calle Gascona (known as cider boulevard) is lined with sidrerías where you can watch professional escadores (pourers) do their stuff while enjoying a few pintxos. To see how it’s done, head to Tierra Astur and see the skills at work while you try some well rendered, proudly served classic local dishes.

And don’t miss…

Bacalao Salt cod is not quite as big a deal in Asturias as it is in Portugal, but a regular on menus and at markets.

Tortos de maíz Maize, a product of the Columbian exchange, arrived in Asturias in the early 16th century and soon became a staple. Inexpensive, easy to make and endlessly adaptable, tortos – fried cornmeal flatbreads – are everyday fare that can go highbrow or low. They’re a speciality at Tierra Astur.

Cachopo Imagine a sandwich without bread, in which thin slices of beef or veal enclose fillings such as Cabrales cheese or ham. Then imagine it’s breaded and fried until it’s golden, crunchy and oozing. There are countless versions of the cachopo in Oviedo and chefs vie with one another to make ‘the best’. You be the judge…