Peix de Roca, Costa Brava Rock Fish Festival

Less processed meat and sausages, more fresh fish and seafood—sounds like a great lifestyle change! It is so easy to adopt at least temporarily while you're visiting the Mediterranean coast. And if your vacation happens to take place in the Costa Brava in May, you have even more choices when it comes to fish: in addition to the "regular" varieties of dorada, sea bass, hake and turbot, you may sample a whole host of different fish and seafood varieties during the gastronomic campaign Peix de Roca (Rock Fish) in Begur.

Technically, "rockfish" is not a scientific classification, but that's the way the locals distinguish the fish that prefer the rocky, dark crevices of underwater rocks and canyons to the cheery existence of the sandy seabed fish. Rockfish is bonier, with bigger heads and firmer, more flavourful flesh. Chefs value those qualities, as they give them a lot of culinary freedom — soups, stock, paella, rice dishes mix with rockfish very well.

Tasting rockfish dishes in the Costa Brava is certainly possible outside of the month of May too, but traditionally May is the rockfish cooking highlight, during which many local restaurants offer special prix fixe menus. Red sea bream, grouper, flounder and many more are the guests of honour in soups and paella, in carpaccio and tartare, in salads and pastries.

The Rock Fish Gastronomic Campaign in the Costa Brava is focused on food but there are many other activities on offer for in-between restaurant visits: a marine fair, a cooking contest, an evening of thematic movie screenings, a public library reading of fishermen's short stories, a radio special, and, last but not least, Begur Sotaigua, the festival of diving and snorkelling.