Day 12 and the depressing thought of returning home soon begins to kick in. I have loved Spain and specifically Mallorca since I was a wee boy and every time without fail, I suffer from a wee doubt of melancholy just before we have to head home to bonnie, but cold and wet Scotland. After a balcony brekky where we went all British and had bacon rolls and Ensaimadas for brunch we hit the beach with the boys with a plan to head C’an Andreu in the square in the evening as recommended on here. Preferring to eat a bit later than most British people we took our seats around 9ish and decided to try the evening Menu Del Dia, priced at a very reasonable 18 euros per person. The menu del dia included 2 plates of chiperones (deep fried baby squid) as the kids like it too as a starter, one oven baked baby goat very much like a lamb shank, although my wife reckoned it was goat and a sirloin steak with pepper sauce, all served with as much bread, butter and the best alioli we tasted this year and decent bottle of Rioja and water. The lads stuck to a thick pork loin and chips and fish fingers for the wee man. The MDD dessert was a decent hunk of Chocolate Cake which the lads wolfed down on my behalf and coffees for the adults. The full meal, which included two Fanta Naranjas, another half litre of Fizzy water and a small beer, came to amazing 52 euros! Now I have read some comments about service and speed of meals arriving. I can see there are still some small issues with getting the staff’s attention but I never felt annoyed by any delay, and found the food and service to be first class. I really hope this local venture makes I through to next year, we will certainly be back.
Day 13 and our last dinner in Puerto Pollensa. The lads played with their friends all day, eating lunch with them, so she who must be obeyed and I pottered round the shops for a couple of hours and bought a couple of bocadillos to keep us going. We hadn’t really decided where to go for the ‘Last Supper’. We had looked at the menu of La Fortalesa, where we really like rabbit, but the boys didn’t really fancy anything, we popped back round to the square to see if the excellent C’an Andreu changed its menu daily, it doesn’t, we couldn’t head back to
El Posito as Friday Nights at Toni’s are mad and we wanted a nice relaxing last night. So the choice was between going somewhere ‘new’ or revisiting a old or new favourite. Was it to be Brisa Marina or O Lume? We literally flipped a coin and Brisa marina and its delicious fish came up trumps. We popped in and booked a table for 9 O’clock, heading for a pre dinner drink at the wee bar facing the Eroski Centro which I like to pop into but never note the name off! So what did we have? Well the oldest lad really enjoyed the paper thin pork loins they serve as part of the menu del dia and he is a great lover of pescaditos (whitebait) so his choice was easy. A menu del dia of pescaditos, pork loin and chips, ice cream for pud and two fanta naranjas. The younger lad also loved the way they serve the pork loin, so plumped for the same. That was easy! We had thoroughly enjoyed the fish the previous week of the Moros and Cristianos, so decided to go a la carte. We shared a delicious portion of Calamarines, which are larger than chiperones but smaller than a squid. This deep fired delicacy was served on a platter so big we assumed they had given us two starters on the one platter, we were wrong; this cephalod mountain was only €8.10!! Eaten with alioli, for me this is Mediterranean food at its simple best. For mains madam ordered the Monkfish Kebab (Brocheta Rape) and I tried the Sepia and Gambas, aka Grilled Cuttlefish and Giant Salted Whole Prawns. I don’t have to tell you, the food was delicious and portions more than generous. Avoiding coffee and desert which we had decided to have at Bar Cultural in a last visit to the square, where the boys had arranged to meet their pals, we washed down our meal with a couple of small beers, a litre of Vichy Catalan Fizzy Water, two Fanta Naranjas and a decent bottle of house white. Total bill, an excellent €69.65. Brisa Marina, you are now on my list!
The Final Day. We had to leave the
apartment at Lunchtime but were not flying home until midnight. After a hearty final brekky on the balcony we loaded up the Fiat Doblo and left PP for another year. We had arranged to meet our Mallorcan friends for an early dinner but had five or six hours to kill, so decided to go on one of our favourite journeys, the road from Pollensa to Soller via Lluc and Gorg Blau. I love Lluc, its one of those little places that even the most atheistic person finds tranquil in. They also do a mean ‘Coca’ a Mallorquin/ Catalan type of sweet bread bun made with potato. Sadly the ravenous ‘pelegrinos’ had got to the wee baker in the retreat before me and the solitary coca sitting in the glass case did not look tempting. On to our old stomping ground of Soller, after many photo stops as with the low clouds (the first we had seen for two weeks) the light was amazing, making Gorg Blau, Gorg Grey and its sister reservoir a brilliant ‘Hibs’Green. We tootled down into Soller to look up old pals and pop into the Platja D’en Repic Spar that has been feeding me, my friends and family the same Bocadillos for over 20 years. Simple crusty rolls, dressed with local olive oil, squashed tomato and layered with Jamon Serrano and more tomato, a delicious snack that they still mange to sell at a crazy price of 2 to 3 euros. We ate and drunk on the wee pier in the Port then jumped into the car to drive down to Palma to meet Baltasar, Maria and Maria Del Mar in our annual visit to C’an pep in the wee village of Genoa, one the hills to the west of Palma. Serving Mallorquin delicacies, and famous for its fantastic rabbit dishes, C’an Pep is so popular seating literally hundreds both inside on the fantastic roof terrace. They have it well sussed, with lots of efficient waiting staff doing to servings, the Cena Ingles (English Dinner time of 7ish) and the Cena Local, which starts around 9.30, 10 and ends way after midnight. It is full both servings and often large queues form to get in if you get you times wrong. As we had a car to return and plane to catch, a Cena Ingles on the roof was called for. We ordered quickly as time was against us, with a shared starter of Calamari al la Romana to nibble on, followed by Lomo Con Col for me (Pork Loin, Cabbage, Pine Nuts and Raisins in a light sauce), Baby whole Rabbit for the ladies, Rabbit with Onions for Baltasar, Roast Suckling Pig for my oldest boy, which was a slab of meat and crackling our Mallorcan friends could not believe junior finished by licking his plate clean! The youngest lad has his own favourite big bowl of mussels and Maria Del Mar, daintily picked her way through a big plate of pork chops and chips! We shared a bottle of Masia Batle 2005 for one final time, with a quick dessert of ice cream for the kids and ladies and coffees for the men, with water and Fanta for the kids, the bill was 120 euro. What a wonderful way to finish another fantastic
stay on the island.
Then sadly, we headed home.