Any time of the year is ideal to visit Asturias, but fall has a special charm to it, with lovely weather and scenery that mutates its colors through the entire range of greens and ochers. The days invite you to have a quiet walk and from CoolRooms Palacio de Luces there´s a wonderful range of trails, to the interior or near the sea, such as the one that leads you to beautiful lighthouse of Lastres, which is a ‘must visit’, and why not, the best place to have a picnic in front of the cliffs.
Along with enjoying nature, the gastronomy is always another great alternative to go to the principality. And with the change of the season, it opens up a range of delicious possibilities to taste the best of this land and sea. For example, in September the ‘fabes’ get collected, a crucial ingredient for one of the most typical dishes of Asturian gastronomy and one of the most recognized worldwide.
Beans first arrived in Spain from the Americas, around the XVI century and they found in Asturias the perfect planting ground to obtain excellent harvests. Let’s not forget that Asturias is the land of ‘Indianos’ and that their gastronomy was clearly influenced by the products and dishes they found overseas. By the way, don’t miss a visit to the houses of some of those adventurers that had to face uncertain journeys searching for fortune.
The ‘fabes’ get collected at the end of the summer and even though you’ll find them fresh, very fine, tradition says to dry them to be able to store theme throughout the winter months. The first references to fabada as a dish, can be found in the XVIII century and it already mentions the combination in a stew of those characteristic beans and multiple diverse pieces of pork, like pancetta, Spanish black pudding or chorizo. A simple elaboration but as with all simple dishes it requires the sensitivity of who which cooks it, great produce and specially lots of patience to leave it simmer for hours.
The restaurant Tella from Palacio de Luces is a gastronomical reference in the east of Asturias and there you can taste the best dishes of Asturian gastronomy, under a prism of modernity and influence, precisely the ingredients the ‘indianos’ brought here. And certainly, in season, you cannot miss a good fabada, ideal to recover from our day of sightseeing.
