Food and beverages on Corsica

The cuisine Corse really isn't bad at all, although I've got all my knowledge from my travel guide (due to miserliness). Corsean food is typically spicy. In restaurants, complete menues are being served that are more expensive than a meal in a german restaurant but also more diversified. Sometimes the wine is included in the price, but service is always "non compris" and a tip of about 10% is expected. Especially at the coasts you'll find lots of seafood, but also italian meals like pizza and all kinds of pasta.

If you don't want to spend much money, buy food in supermarkets and cook for yourself. Here are some hints what to buy if you want to live the Corsean way.

Charcuterie Corse - sausages and similar products

Sausage (saucisse and saucisson) and ham are often served for starters (hors d'oeuvres). There are three kinds of ham: Lonzu is made of fillet of pork, Coppa is made of marbled pork neck, and Prizuttu is raw, soft as butter and very good for sandwiches (sometimes called "casse-croûte"). Figatelli are dark sausages made of pork liver; they can be fried or eaten raw with bread. Salsiccia is another kind of (spicy) sausage.

If you (in my opinion) have an aptitude for sadism, you might want to try Pâté de Merle. It's blackbird pie, spiced with myrthe. Production is nowadays prohibited, but stocks may be sold out. And I bet this stuff is still being produced.

Fish and crustaceans

Seafood is quite expensive on Corsica; more and more seafood is being imported to Corsica. Real Corsean Lobsters (arigosta) are rarely sold; you might get some at Bonifacio or round Cap Corse. Sea-urchins (Oursins) are being served raw (!) or baked in omelets. Oysters and other mussels come from the etangs (pools with connection to the sea) of the eastern coast. On markets and in poisonneries (fish-shops) you'll find daurade (gold bream), a tasty fish with thick, easy to remove fishbones, and rouget (red barbel) that is often served grilled. Loup (perch) is regarded as delicacy, and it is quite expensive. The St. Pierre-fish is being cooked, and sole is also available. There are two sorts of fish soups: the soupe de poisson with grated cheese and toasted bread, and aziminu (boillabaisse). If you like it, try "friture du golfe", finger long fishs fried in oil.

If you are away from the coasts, look for brook trout (truite).

Meat

We've never bought meat (or fish); I'm just quoting from the travel guide.

Gigot d'Agneau: lamb haunch or lamb chop or roasted lamb. Cabri: young goat, said to taste a bit boring, better: ragout. Sanglier: wild boar, available in Autumn, after hunting season starts. Roasted or ragout, even "Terrine de Sanglier" (wild boar soup). Marcassin is young wild boar. Lapin: rabbit, served in the interior. Stufatu: meat dish made from beef and lamb with noodles and cheese, rather rare. Tripes: well, not everybody's thing, but regarded as delicacy.

Cheese

There's a great variety of cheese made of ewe's milk (brebis) and goat's milk (chèvre). Most Corsean cheese are quite piquant, and they cover a large diversity of flavours. Don't be afraid to test the smell of the cheese before you buy it: the older, the more odorous and darker.

On Corsica there lives a fly that puts its eggs into some sorts of cheese. At some time the cheese is full of thin threadworms that jump away if you bite in the cheese. Well, maybe you won't bite in such a cheese, but many Corse like such cheese, because the excrements of the threadworms give it a certain flavour (don't ask me, I've never tried it). You won't be able to find such things in a supermarket, of course.

Brocciu is something special: a cottage cheese, spicy and creamy. Not to be confused with Brousse, which is made from milk powder. Real brocciu is only available from October to June.

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Lots of kinds of fruit are available for decent prices. Fine thing if the heat becomes oppressive.

The French eat lots of white bread, available as double loaf (hard crust, nothing inside, not recommendable), as baguette (thin bar of bread, good on the way), as flûtes (thicker than baguette, our favourite, also called restaurant) and as panier (kind of flûtes with pointed ends). Wholemeal bread and toast is available in supermarkets. If you can afford it, take croissants or pains au chocolat.

Honey (miel) is a popular souvenir; there are many kinds of honey available that differ in their taste. While the dark chestnut honey has a very strong, almost bitter taste, honey from the Cargèse is spicy, and honey from the Balagne is mild.

Gâteaux Corse (Corsean cookies) is a good snack for every occasion. Every baker has his own recipe.

You'll find more things to try in your travel guide if you should decide to have a closer look at Corsica.

Wine

Wine is, as in France, a natural part of every meal. There's a whole lot of Corsean wines, but French and Italian wines are also available. Wine tends to be expensive.

Our favorite is Muscat, a white wine with almost liqueur-like taste and 15% alcohol. Very mellow and characteristic, and quite cheap.

Other beverages

You'll find everything that you know from anywhere else in Europe. Cola and lemonade of one of the two big american companies (the one with the beautiful C) are available nearly everywhere, but the pricing is often unfriendly. Better take french beverages, several limos (our favourite: Orangina, especially the not-so-sweet "light" variant), or mineral water. Carbonated water (eau gazeuse) is often salty.

If you are in remote areas in a restaurant, you'll probably find that Pastis is the cheapest offer. It's a 45% anise spirits that's drunk diluted with water (1:5) and served with ice.

Beer is a matter apart. You'll find Kronenbourg nearly everywhere, and you'll find it to be as tasty as sauerkraut juice.

If you're hiking the mountains you'll find sources nearly everywhere. We drank from everything that did not look mouldy, and it really did not do us any bad. However, I've received a report by Torben Kloss <klost000@goofy.zdv.Uni-Mainz.de> that some of the sources in the southern part of the island now have been curbed and redirected with black hoses, whose ends are ideally suited as breeding places for bacteria. He recommends using chemical desinfectants like Micropur in these places.