It’s not unusual for travelers from Mallorca, Menorca or Ibiza to land in Barcelona (just a one-hour flight away) with an ensaimada in hand. The delicious, sugar-dusted spiral of dough is one of the Balearic Islands’ typical pastries and a sweet reminder of one of Spain’s most touristed and celebrated destinations for summer trips or weekend getaways. Toward the end of the summer holiday season, there’s a special place we Barcelonans can visit in our own fair city to make those sun-soaked, beach-bound days last just a little longer.
Located in Sant Antoni, Idò D.O. Balear (the name references the islands’ protected designation of origin) offers all the tantalizing flavors and culinary charms of the typical homey meals on those islands. It’s a place where you can drink a refreshing glass of Palo (an herbaceous liqueur mixed with cold soda or cava and served as an apéritif) and nibble on a variat (a platter of mini tapas) with local cheeses, olives or almonds and a bit of Russian salad and capers.
The shop was created by graphic designer Pema Maymó, journalist Antonia Arrom and architect Lourdes Juan, who designed the interior. The partners wanted to recapture the flavors of their childhoods, which were spent in Mallorca, and to bring them to Barcelona, where they have all been living for many years.
Idò D.O. Balear is a combination shop and restaurant, with a few tables outside and a space inside for kids. The neat, attractively arranged shelves are stocked with gourmet artisanal and commercial items, whether packaged, bottled, cooked, fresh, to take away or to enjoy in the shop, for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
While the ensaimadas, pastries and panades (little turnovers) come from the traditional Mallorcan bakery Can Pomar, Idò D.O. Balear also makes many specialties in-house using traditional Balearic recipes. One of the best known and most fundamental dishes of the islands is the pa amb oli of brown or “tanned” (whole grain) bread with sa tomàtiga de ramallet, or tomatoes which are strung together and hung up to prolong their preservation, and rubbed all over with olive oil. Other special dishes include the arròs brut (“dirty rice”), a very thick, spiced rice soup made from a sofrito of onion and those same tomatoes and game such as partridge or rabbit; meatballs in almond sauce; frit de marisc (“fried seafood”), composed of cuttlefish, prawns, mussels, potatoes and other vegetables; and the humble sopas seques d’estiu (“summer dry soups”), which are made from thin slices of brown bread with a vegetable, meat or fish broth.
The shop also sells everything from dry-cured sausages to liqueurs to coffee – to even sugar for that coffee, and of course, everything here comes from the islands. Among the better-known products are Mallorcan sobrassada, a cured and spiced sausage that has a creamy texture, and the lovely ensaimada, but the islands also produce patés and marmalades, olives and olive oil, wonderful capers (including the large ones known as taperots), almonds and other nuts with paprika or honey, dried tomatoes and aromatic sea fennel (samphire), called fonnol marí in Balearic Catalan. It grows not in the sea, but among the rocks on the shore, and it’s used in preparing lentil and rice dishes, as well as salads and pa amb oli.
If you prefer just to taste a little bit here and there, try the aforementioned variats or the tastos (tastes). The latter combine crunchy rusks with cheese and marmalades or cured pork sausages like sobrassadas or butifarróns (a boiled and spiced blood sausage), the camaiot (a rustic pork sausage encased in pigskin) or carnixulla (“meat and bacon”), which is similar to Catalan fuet, a hard, thin and long cured sausage that is well spiced and studded with bacon fat. Don’t miss the gató d’ametlla, an almond cake made with a little bit of Balearic rum Amazonas, or the slush Pomada, a very typical drink from Menorca, made with the local gin Xoriguer and lemon juice – they’re the most authentic flavors of the traditional parties that take place in every little village on the islands.
These flavors will make some miss home. For the rest of us, they’ll make us miss our vacations.
Editor’s Note: We are sorry to report that Idò D.O. Balear is closed.
Published on September 03, 2014
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