Majorca (Spain)

Majorcan cuisine presents itself as both rustic and hearty, being party to various Mediterranean influences. As on the Spanish mainland, tapas suffice as appetisers or a small snack between mealtimes.
Typical main courses include sopas, stews with meat, cabbage, vegetable and bread on the bottom of the plate: delicious tasts rabbit in a thyme marinade and a rice stew with blood sausage, meat and vegetables. The intestines of mutton or pork flavoured with garlic and fennel are at the very least worthy of a try. Tumbet is a popular vegetable stew-like dish: potatoes, aubergine, peppers, courgette, onions and garlic are being cut into slices, fried in olive oil, placed in a clay dish with fresh herbs and saffron and then being baked in the oven. It is most delicious when accompanied by chicken meat or fish fillets.
Those with a sweet tooth will find the delicious almond cake a rather tempting options or alternatively ensaimadas: yeast dough pieces baked in lard and then floured with icing sugar, sometimes filled with custard or pumpkin jam.
It was the Romans who first brought wine to the island. During the 19th century however, a phylloxera infestation wiped out practically all the vines. Nowadays, wine is once more cultivated on Majorca and should definitely be sampled at least once: grapes for full-bodied red and rosé wines (rosados) grow in the area around Binissalem whilst it is primarily white wine that is produced in the south close to Felanitx.