Good holidays cannot go without one of the main pleasures, which is gastronomy. In Canet you will find bars, terraces, beach huts and more than 30 restaurants to invite you to try the wealth of the products of our lands, matched with the best wines and sparkling wines of the region. The perfect time to see Canet and the Maresme through the senses, enjoy your meal!
Vegetable growing is one of the most deep-rooted traditions of the region, so throughout the year we will find cabbages, cauliflowers, artichokes, peas, beans and green beans in the colder months, but when the heat arrives in the spring and summer months, the true features of our vegetable gardens are the strawberries and tomatoes.
One of the star products are the Maresme strawberries. Although different varieties are now grown to guarantee availability throughout the year, it is in the spring months that the Maresme strawberry reaches the peak of its quality. Trying the strawberries picked fresh and at the peak of their ripening without having suffered in transport is a pleasure that allows us to enjoy one of the most deep-rooted tastes and aromas of our region. The product is 100% proximity. One of the most typical varieties is the “pájaro”, which is characterised by its intense red colour, its sweetness and it is very even shape, although its production is limited. Strawberry growing in the Maresme has shaped the scenery of the hillsides of many towns of the Alt Maresme and has allowed a large number of families to live off this crop for many years. There are initiatives from the region’s food craftsmen to bring the Maresme strawberries into their prepared products. The Strawberry Gastronomic Meetings of the Maresme and the Festival of the Strawberry, which is held on the first Sunday of May, are an excellent opportunity to taste and enjoy this exquisite fruit and to bring it into our habitual diet, at least during the spring. There are other strawberries, but they are not from the Maresme!
The ‘pometa’ and ‘Montserrat’ tomato varieties. The region produces a large number of tomato varieties. Some of the best-liked for eating in salads are the pometa and Montserrat varieties. The pometa is a variety of tomatoes for salads without the slightest touch of acidity, one of the gastronomic jewels of the Maresme vegetable garden. The Montserrat is characterised by being quite empty on the inside, with little pulp and pinkish in colour. The sweet and refreshing taste without the slightest acidity makes this one of the varieties best loved for eating fresh.
The traditional vine growing, born out of the territory’s relationship with its Roman past, have given rise to the Alella denomination of origin, especially for the quality of the white wines, and still today small local producers, wine craftsman, care for their vines and produce wine for their own consumption.
The sea, the Mediterranean, so close and so rich, gives us an enormous variety of high-quality fish and shellfish of great flavour: squid, cuttlefish, Norway lobster, prawns, red shrimp, mussels, clams, hake, sole, gilthead, etc…
This blend of sea and mountains allows us to produce a top-quality gastronomic offer. The traditional Catalan and Mediterranean cuisine is dominated by fish in broth and stews with the products of the land. From the typical saucepan rice or fish or mixed paella, to the typical and traditional cargols amb ceba (snails with onion), which enjoy their festival every 11 September, Catalonia’s national day. The Moixons Llepafils gastronomic entity is responsible for organising the snail cooking contest and the popular tasting that follows.
Bakeries and cake shops offer a large selection of sweets strongly related to the traditional and popular festivals, some of great tradition and others newly created and warmly welcomed. In Canet we have the Vitrall dolç, a sweet created by the Canet Cake makers Association in tribute to the town’s significant modernist heritage. But depending on the season, we find from the Cakes of St. John and St Peter, to the wafers and nougats of Christmastime, the Epiphany Ring, the empty and cream filled dough balls for Lent, cake of St George, etc… Every festival has its own sweet!
All of these products are part of our town’s rich gastronomic offer and can be bought in its trades and cooperatives or tried in its restaurants.
Maresme Gastronomic Guide, from the land to the table and from the sea to the table. The Guide shows us our land’s main products: the peas from Llavaneras, the Maresme strawberry, the cherry d’en Roca, the pometa and Montserrat tomatoes, wild mushrooms, ganxet beans, Alella denomination of origin wines, organic products, squid from Arenys, cuttlefish, Norway lobster, prawns from Arenys, clams and whitebait. With suggestions of leisure activities around these gastronomic products, festivals, fairs and routes that help you to get to know the territory through its scenery and gastronomic culture.
The Consell Comarcal del Maresme and Barcelona Provincial Council have for years worked on the Productes de la Terra – Products of the Land - project, which includes a series of actions to help you get to know the quality craft food products made in the Maresme. The different gastronomic meetings which are held are intended to bring together the producers, the restaurant owners and the people to enhance the value of the quality products we have in our lands.
