Gastronomy and Landes cuisine: in front of the gourmets!

Are you a gourmet? Do you like to enjoy local specialities in restaurants or markets? Here are our gourmet suggestions for savouring the Landes in a day during your next camping holiday.

AT BREAKFAST

At breakfast, to accompany your coffee (or hot chocolate), your toast and your pastries, try the kiwi of the Adour! A good kiwi from the Landes should have a light brown, slightly hairy skin, but not too wrinkled. This small Landes fruit is renowned for its green, tasty and sweet flesh, as well as for its high vitamin C content. You are ready for your surfing lesson!

AT LUNCH

At noon, put down your bike and walk into a hostel or restaurant. Each one offers its own recipe for Landes salad, THE typical Landes dish! All the products of our land are to be found on the plate: foie gras from Chalosse duck, Bayonne ham, duck breast, gizzards, white asparagus, corn, pine nuts...

In Biscarrosse, Messanges or Seignosse, let yourself be tempted by a delicious fish grilled a la plancha, chipirons fried with sweet chilli, or a seafood parillada. And if you are passing near Hossegor, in the south of the Landes, stop to eat oysters in the huts which border the marine lake. The flat oyster, called the "Gravette", is the historic oyster of the region.

No time to go to a restaurant? Opt for a Landes picnic, savoury or sweet and sour. Bring a few slices of farm ham, foie gras toast, dried duck breast, goat's or ewe's cheese, with a good loaf of farmhouse bread.

AT THE TASTE

When it's time for a snack, there's nothing better than a good brioche flavoured with orange blossom water (pastis landais) or a small slice of apple crumble (tourtière landaise). You can find them in all the good bakeries and pastry shops in the Landes. Perfect on the way back from the beach or after a bike ride! In Dax, you should try the famous madeleines with almond flavour, while in Capbreton, the Basque cake with morello cherry or cream is the recipe.

AT DINNER

In the evening, share a tapas aperitif on the terrace. On the menu, Serrano ham, dried lomo, Basque pâté, rillettes, stuffed piquillos, sheep's cheese and other gastronomic specialities for which the South West is famous... Perfect for eating on the go and varying the pleasures!

Hungry like a wolf? In the Landes, there is no shortage of good restaurants, from Michelin starred restaurants to Gault & Millau toques and small bistros with the "Tables & Auberges de France" label. On the menu: red mullet mesclun, Adour salmon, smoked eel with foie gras shavings, duck and free-range chicken from Saint Sever, grilled Chalosse beef fillet with shallot fondue... All accompanied by a glass of local wine (Tursan, Vin des Sables, Coteaux de Chalosse) or a touch of Armagnac to finish the meal in style. And don't forget to leave a little room for dessert!