Restaurants in Cuenca

Cuenca's cuisine owes as much to the mountains east of the city as to the plains of La Mancha on the west. Wild game and foraged mushrooms figure prominently, and virtually every eatery offers two Cuenca specialties: morteruelo (a pate of rabbit, partridge, ham, pork liver, pine nuts, clove, and caraway), and ajoarriero on bread or toast as a starter, and one serving makes a fine appetizer for two people. Since this is sheep country, lamb appears on most menus. If you're adventurous, try the zarajos, or grilled lamb intestines (pictured above), sometimes translated on the English menu as "lamb tripe." Chewy and richly flavored, they're usually served coiled like a ball of yarn around a grapevine shoot.