Gran Canaria is often overshadowed by Tenerife next door, but its food culture is arguably richer — shaped by the port city of Las Palmas, which has been a crossroads of Atlantic trade routes for five centuries. The island grows its own coffee (the only coffee grown commercially in Europe), produces some of Spain’s most distinctive cheeses — queso de flor, made with cardoon-flower rennet — and has a fishing tradition that brings in some of the best Atlantic seafood you can eat anywhere in Spain: cherne, sama, vieja, octopus.
Las Palmas is the eating capital. The Mercado del Puerto, a wrought-iron structure designed by Gustave Eiffel’s workshop, is the city’s best seafood hub — a dozen stalls and bars where you can eat the catch of the day grilled to order. Deliciosa Marta in Triana does creative Canarian cooking; Los Guayres in Mogán holds a Michelin star for its seafood tasting menu. Across the island, guachinches-style eateries serve slow-cooked goat, papas arrugadas, and local wines from Bandama’s volcanic slopes. Breakfast is a bocadillo de tortilla or pan con aceite at any port-side bar, with a barraquito — the Canary Islands’ signature layered coffee-and-condensed-milk drink.