Food and drink

Small fried corn flatbreads, brought to the table topped with picadillo —seasoned minced pork— and a fried egg, or with cheese. A starter, eaten with your hands.

Asturias's national dish. A stew of fabes (large white beans) with compango —chorizo, black pudding, pork shoulder and sometimes bacon. Served in an earthenware pot and eaten with a spoon. Even better the day after.

A one-pot stew of cabbage, potato and fabes with compango. Not a fabada with greens in it: this is the everyday dish of inland Asturias, and what you order coming down off the mountain.

Two breaded beef fillets sandwiching ham and cheese. Fried whole and sliced at the table. Portions are huge — usually for two.

Thin-sliced beef cooked on a volcanic stone served at the table on its own burner. Each diner cooks their piece to their taste. Best ordered to share.

Monkfish, Cantabrian-style. Often braised in cider or prepared marinera, with clams and prawns. A fine, expensive fish — a celebration dish.

Hake loins braised with natural cider, onion and a little flour. A short, gentle sauce: the dish that best explains what cider is for in the kitchen.

Asturias makes more kinds of cheese than any other region in Europe: over forty, from cow, sheep and goat. Cabrales is the famous one —blue, strong, matured in a cave—; Gamonéu is smoked before it goes into the cave; Afuega'l Pitu is soft enough to spread. Order a board, or buy them at the market.

Thin rolled crepes: the sweet of Antroxu, the Asturian carnival, though they are eaten year-round. Dusted with sugar, sometimes served with cream or chocolate.

Rice cooked slowly in milk with cinnamon and lemon, and here finished with a burnt sugar crust. It is the dessert of the Desarme, and of half the set lunches in Asturias.

Fried pastries filled with ground walnut, sugar and anise, rolled in sugar. With frixuelos, the sweet of Antroxu — and on sale in bakeries all year round.

The Spanish take on cheesecake: creamier and lighter than the American one, barely set and almost liquid in the middle. On nearly every dessert menu.

Asturias's drink: fermented apple juice, no added gas. Served escanciada in small culines and drunk in one go. Best with food, not on its own.

Spain's national aperitif: dry or sweet vermouth with soda and ice. Taken at midday in any chigre or bar before lunch, with olives or anchovies.