The cuisine of the Balearic Islands

Typical eating habits and tasty dishes

As a rule, most restaurants offer a daily menu, the menu del dia. This consists of a starter (primer plato), the main course (segundo plato) and a dessert (postre). This menu is usually cheaper than the à la carte selection.

Typical dishes
Paella comes first, is always freshly prepared, which tastes delicious, but often involves a certain waiting time. Rice, fish, chicken, vegetables and several seafood are finely mixed and prepared with rice cooked in oil. If you have an appetite for cooked rabbit meat with lots of garlic, order Conejo al Ajillo.

You haven't been to the Balearic Islands if you haven't at least tasted zarzuela de pescado, a hearty treat of assorted fish - fried or boiled - in wine, served with hot sauce and spices. Gambas al la plancha (grilled prawns) also taste delicious. It is also worth trying the mussels, cooked in water or in wine sauce. Menorcans usually use the inexpensive and delicious mejillones (mussels) or almejas (clams). In addition to the numerous Calderas de Pescado (fish soups), the Sopa Mallorquina with its strong ingredients, such as cabbage, is particularly recommended. The tumbet is a very tasty and refreshing vegetable dish. Tomatoes, aubergines, finely chopped potato slices and various vegetables are fried individually and later baked in layers in a clay pot and served.

In many bars you will find an abundance of small delicacies for the hunger in between, which are ready on plates and bowls and make the connoisseur's mouth water. There are bocadillos (baguettes), fried fish, tortillas (omelettes) and a variety of tapas, eg small fish, mussel and shrimp dishes, cheese, sausage and ham, plus olives, various salads and almonds.

For dessert we recommend an ensaimada – a snail of dough baked in lard, dusted with icing sugar or doused with cream – delicious.

Coffee is served last. If you order café, the waiter will bring you a tiny cup of strong espresso. The cortado is an espresso with milk, a carajillo espresso with a dash of cognac. If you want your coffee to be the same as at home, then order a café largo, which is called café largo con leche with milk.

Menorca and the mayonnaise
Egg yolk, oil and some seasoning ingredients - the recipe for mayonnaise is well known, but the origin of this popular sauce is largely unknown. A visit to Menorca provides enlightenment. The island's capital Mahón - at least that's what they say in Menorca - gave the sauce its name.

The story is told in very different ways:

On the one hand, it is said that the Salsa Mahónesa was first prepared at a banquet in the middle of the 18th century during the French occupation.

Another version tells of a French marshal named Richellieu, who, while walking in the vicinity of Mahón, embarrassed the innkeeper by a surprise visit to an inn. He could only offer the high guest a portion of cold roast, which he knew how to prepare particularly tasty. The marshal was so enthusiastic about the sauce that the innkeeper served with this meat that he took the recipe to France and spread it there quickly.

According to legend, the Salsa Mahónesa that they brought with them turned into mayonnaise over time.

The restaurant vocabulary