FOOD & WINE IN MALLORCA

Mallorcan cuisine, based on pork, fish and vegetables with generous use of garlic and olive oil, is hearty peasant fare steeped in tradition and rooted in local ingredients.

Not long ago every village would celebrate the matanca, the winter slaughter of pigs, with songs and dancing and the making of hams and sausages for the coming year. Sausages come in several varieties - sobrasada (raw minced pork with hot red pepper) and botifarro (cured pork with blood), as well as spicy chorizo from Spain. And no bar would be complete without its jamon serrano, a whole cured ham displayed on an attractive slicing-board.

The vi or vino de la casa will invariably be Mallorcan, but most bottled wine is imported from Spain. The best red wines come from La Rioja - wine labelled crianza is aged in oak for at least a year, reserva for two, gran reserva for three. Penedes red and white wines from Catalunya are good value; Cava, Spanish sparkling wine, is from the same area. But don't disparage Mallorcan wines - the best stand comparison with anything at the same cost from mainland Spain.