A2 · Elementary
7 min
food and cuisinehistorytravelpublic health
The Canary Islands: Food, History, and the Edge of the World
Las Islas Canarias: Comida, Historia y el Fin del Mundo
A cruise ship carrying a hantavirus outbreak needed a port, and Spain opened the doors of the Canary Islands. Fletcher and Octavio use that moment to explore one of Spain's most fascinating and least-known culinary traditions.
Un barco de crucero con un brote de hantavirus necesitaba un puerto, y España abrió las puertas de las Islas Canarias. Fletcher y Octavio usan ese momento para explorar una de las cocinas más fascinantes y desconocidas de España.
7 essential A2-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| papas arrugadas | wrinkled potatoes | Las papas arrugadas son una comida típica de las Islas Canarias. |
| sal | salt | El cocinero pone mucha sal en el agua. |
| harina | flour | El gofio es una harina de cereales tostados. |
| recibir | to receive | Las Canarias reciben muchos turistas cada año. |
| salsa | sauce | El mojo es una salsa con ajo y pimientos. |
| pescado | fish (as food) | El pescado a la plancha es muy rico. |
| antiguo | old, ancient | El gofio es un alimento muy antiguo. |
The Canary Islands are technically Spain, sitting about a hundred kilometers off the coast of Morocco, and they landed in the news this week because a cruise ship with a hantavirus outbreak needed somewhere to dock.
Which is a grim reason to visit the Canaries, granted.
But it reminded me that I have never actually been there, and Octavio, you have strong opinions about this.
Las Canarias son especiales, Fletcher.
The Canary Islands are special, Fletcher.
No son como Madrid o Barcelona.
They're not like Madrid or Barcelona.
Right, and geographically that makes total sense.
You're closer to Senegal than you are to Valencia.
Sí, exacto.
Yes, exactly.
África está muy cerca.
Africa is very close.
La cultura es diferente.
The culture is different.
La comida también.
The food too.
And that's what I want to dig into today, because the food of the Canary Islands is genuinely one of those cuisines that almost nobody outside Spain can name a single dish from.
El plato más famoso se llama papas arrugadas.
The most famous dish is called papas arrugadas.
Son papas pequeñas con mucha sal.
They are small potatoes with a lot of salt.
Wrinkled potatoes.
Which sounds, honestly, like a Wednesday night when the pantry is almost empty.
But from what I've read, the technique is extraordinary.
No, no.
No, no.
El sabor es muy intenso.
The flavor is very intense.
El agua del mar da mucho sabor a la papa.
The seawater gives a lot of flavor to the potato.
Traditionally cooked in actual seawater, which is one of those ideas that's so simple you wonder why it isn't everywhere.
Y después, el mojo.
And then, the mojo.
El mojo es una salsa muy importante en las Canarias.
Mojo is a very important sauce in the Canary Islands.
Mojo.
Now, I've heard this word in a completely different context, mostly from American musicians.
What are we talking about here?
Hay dos tipos.
There are two types.
El mojo rojo es con pimientos rojos y ajo.
Red mojo is made with red peppers and garlic.
El mojo verde es con cilantro.
Green mojo is made with coriander.
Garlic, pepper, olive oil, vinegar.
That's a lineage you can trace back through the whole Mediterranean and into North Africa without blinking.
Sí, y la palabra mojo viene de una palabra portuguesa.
Yes, and the word mojo comes from a Portuguese word.
Los portugueses llegaron primero a las islas.
The Portuguese arrived at the islands first.
Which tells you something important right there.
The Canaries were a crossroads long before Spain showed up.
Guanche people, Portuguese explorers, then Castilian conquest in the 1400s.
Los guanches son los primeros habitantes de las islas.
The Guanche people are the first inhabitants of the islands.
Ellos comían una cosa muy especial: el gofio.
They ate something very special: gofio.
Gofio.
Tell me about this.
El gofio es harina de cereales tostados.
Gofio is flour made from roasted grains.
Es muy antiguo.
It is very old.
Los canarios comen gofio todavía hoy.
Canarians still eat gofio today.
Roasted grain flour, ground from wheat or barley or corn, that predates the Spanish conquest by centuries.
And it never disappeared.
That is genuinely rare.
Exacto.
Exactly.
La gente usa el gofio en el desayuno, en sopas, en postres.
People use gofio for breakfast, in soups, in desserts.
Es parte de la identidad canaria.
It is part of Canarian identity.
I spent time in the Andes back in, must have been 2001, reporting on something entirely unrelated, and the quinoa farmers there had this same relationship with their grain.
Not just food, but proof of survival.
Sí, es igual.
Yes, it is the same.
El gofio sobrevivió la conquista.
Gofio survived the conquest.
Es importante.
That matters.
Now here's a thing that I did not fully appreciate until I started looking into this.
The Canary Islands were the last port of call for ships heading to the Americas.
Columbus stopped there.
Every major transatlantic expedition stopped there.
Sí, y por eso la comida canaria tiene influencias de América también.
Yes, and that's why Canarian food also has influences from the Americas.
El maíz llegó de América a las Canarias muy pronto.
Corn arrived from the Americas to the Canaries very early.
So you have this extraordinary layering: indigenous Guanche ingredients, Portuguese influence, Castilian occupation, African proximity, and then the Americas feeding back through.
The plate becomes a map.
Me gusta esa idea.
I like that idea.
La comida es historia.
Food is history.
Puedes leer la historia en un plato.
You can read history in a plate.
The fish must be extraordinary there as well.
You're in the Atlantic, the waters are cold coming down from the north.
El pescado es muy importante.
Fish is very important.
El viejo es el pescado más tradicional de las Canarias.
The viejo is the most traditional fish of the Canary Islands.
Es un pescado del Atlántico.
It is an Atlantic fish.
The parrotfish, essentially.
Bright colors, feeds on coral.
Not something you see on a menu in Chicago.
No, claro que no.
No, of course not.
En Chicago comen cosas diferentes.
In Chicago they eat different things.
Pero el viejo a la plancha con mojo es una cosa perfecta.
But grilled viejo with mojo is a perfect thing.
The cruise ship situation this week is genuinely strange when you think about it in this context.
Three passengers evacuated for hantavirus, 145 people still on board, and the question of where to go.
Spain said yes, come to the Canaries.
Las Canarias reciben muchos turistas.
The Canary Islands receive many tourists.
Hay hospitales buenos allí.
There are good hospitals there.
Es lógico.
It makes sense.
Fourteen million tourists a year pass through those islands.
The infrastructure exists.
And yet there were local residents worried this week, drawing the obvious comparison to COVID.
Es normal tener miedo.
It is normal to be afraid.
Pero el hantavirus no es como el COVID.
But hantavirus is not like COVID.
No pasa de persona a persona fácilmente.
It does not pass easily from person to person.
That's the key distinction.
Hantavirus comes from rodents, not from other people.
The cruise ship angle is unusual because ships normally dock with a sick passenger and don't become a cluster.
Sí, es muy raro.
Yes, it is very rare.
Los expertos estudian este caso ahora.
Experts are studying this case now.
But stepping back to the bigger picture, what strikes me is that the Canary Islands are doing something that they've done for six centuries, which is absorbing whatever the world brings to their shore.
Sí.
Yes.
Las Canarias siempre reciben personas, barcos, culturas.
The Canary Islands always receive people, ships, cultures.
Eso explica la comida también.
That also explains the food.
You used the word 'reciben' just now, as in 'they receive.' Which connects to a question I keep running into: when do you use 'recibir' versus 'aceptar' in Spanish?
Buena pregunta.
Good question.
'Recibir' es para personas o cosas.
'Recibir' is for people or things.
'Aceptar' es para ideas o decisiones.
'Aceptar' is for ideas or decisions.
So the islands receive ships, you'd say 'reciben barcos.' But if a government formally accepts a peace proposal, that's 'aceptar.'
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y también: 'acepto tu invitación' es correcto.
And also: 'I accept your invitation' is correct.
'Recibo tu invitación' también es correcto, pero con diferente sentido.
'I receive your invitation' is also correct, but with a different meaning.
One is the physical act, the other is the decision.
English has the same split, actually.
You can receive a letter, but you accept an offer.
The distinction just isn't always obvious when you're translating on the fly.
Sí, es igual en inglés.
Yes, it is the same in English.
Muy bien, Fletcher.
Very good, Fletcher.
No es un error de embarazado.
That's not a pregnant-man mistake.
One of these days I'm going to live that down.
One of these days.