Mallorca

Holidays by Destination Europe Spain Mallorca Eating 

Local food tends to the heavier Mediterranean style with serious stews and soups, pulses, and spiced meats, plus seafood dishes though bakeries sometime sell traditional empanadas (pies) with say tuna or meat and pea fillings, plus vegetable pasties, some with raisin and pinenuts. Bar snacks often involve chips and sandwiches plus pizza. Mallorcan pizza is on a pastry style base with a lot of tomato plus often onion and perhaps some greenery. Local cheeses can also be good for picnics.

Tapas can be a good option with children, given the smaller portions, but are not common in resorts for foreigners. La Boveda opposite Sa Boteria in the old town of Palma is recommended, or for bocadillos - traditional Mallorcan peasant sandwiches are with tomato and olives, available in Palma from Sa Ilimona in Calle Sa Juan or less authentic versions are available in resorts.

Meals in the main resorts offer international fare plus blander versions of Spanish dishes like paella.

Most bread shops also sell sweet pastries, or there are specialist outlets which should cater to the sweetest small child's tooth. Ensaimada is a local pastry spiral, sometimes plain or filled with cream, custard or candied fruits. In the centre of Palma for example there are also a number of elegant old-style sweet shops with glowing piles of candied fruits, various almond-based sweets, chocolate and more. Gato is an almond cake traditionally eaten with an almond ice cream. Outside Palma, coca de patata are sweet potato cakes found in Valdemossa, best at the C'an Molina bakery.

If visiting Palma a recommended place to have hot chocolate is C'an Joan de S'aigo which has two branches, the more attractive one with a fountain being in Calle Sang (there's another in Calle Baron de Santa Maria del Sepulcro)

If self-catering supermarkets and hypermarkets in or near resorts stock items like English sausages.

A local soft drink which might appeal is horchata, a milky concoction of crushed tigernuts.