Andorran cooking is Catalan mountain food: built on what survives a long winter at altitude — potatoes, cabbage, cured pork, game and cheese. It is heavy, unfashionable and very good after a day outdoors.
The dishes that matter
Trinxat is the national dish and the one to try first. Potato and winter cabbage are boiled, crushed together and fried in pork fat until a crust forms, then served with cansalada — cured belly bacon — and often black pudding. The cabbage is best after the first frosts, which is why it belongs to winter.
Escudella is the great Catalan and Andorran stew: a broth with pasta shells, then meats, sausage and a large boiled meatball called the pilota. It is traditionally the Christmas dish, served as two courses from one pot. Botifarra, the local sausage, comes grilled with white beans; cargols a la llauna are snails baked in a tin with garlic and served with aioli.
For game, look for civet de senglar (wild boar stew) and, on more ambitious menus, isard — the Pyrenean chamois. From the rivers, trout. In autumn, wild mushrooms appear on every board in the country, particularly rovellons.
Cheese, honey and coca
Small producers make tupí, a strong fermented cheese preserved in earthenware with spirit, and a range of cow and goat cheeses from the summer pastures. Mountain honey is a genuine local product rather than a souvenir. For dessert, coca — a flat sweet bread — and in season, cream with fresh berries.
Wine at altitude
Andorra has a small but real wine industry, with vineyards planted between 1,000 and 1,600 metres — among the highest in Europe. Production is tiny and rarely leaves the country, which makes it worth ordering when you see it on a list.
Where to eat
Avoid the strips aimed at day-trippers around the main shopping avenue. The better cooking is in the villages: Ordino, Canillo, La Massana and the hamlets above them, where bordes — converted stone barns — have been turned into restaurants with wood-fired grills. Many mountain restaurants close in the shoulder seasons of May and November, when much of the country takes its holidays.
When people eat
Meal times follow Spanish rather than northern European habits. Lunch runs from about one to half past three and is the substantial meal of the day; dinner rarely starts before half past eight. Many restaurants serve a fixed-price menu del dia at lunch — three courses with wine included — which is by a wide margin the best value you will find, and what most people working in the valley actually eat.