11.00 PM August 22, Ciutadella, Menorca
Note: see the relevant photos at the end of these notes
We had plenty of exercise today as we walked the narrow, cobbled streets of Ciutadella. Several buildings around the main plazas, originally 19th C palaces, are quite magnificent stone structures, but unfortunately any photo is spoiled by the ground-floor tourist shops with their outside stands full of junk.
We found the small but quaint market place, with a good fresh fish market in the middle and butcher stalls (with excellent meat judged by Greg) along the Plaça de la Llibertat. There were three fruit and vegetable stalls nearby and I fully appreciated how lucky we are in Mallorca because I would only buy produce at one of those stalls. Very little of the produce would have been grown in Menorca, another major difference with Mallorca. Menorca is famous for its cheeses so there were a couple of excellent cheese stalls with local produce.
It was not easy to find somewhere for lunch that served just simple rolls and coffee as most cafés and restaurants have cooked tapas and main courses, mostly of fish, but we finally discovered a very good bakery in Ses Voltes(Josep M Quadrado) Maó. They had good rolls plus a huge range of very elaborate cakes and kept adding more to their display, so the locals must buy this produce to take home. We kept to the simple but yummy almond cake that we are used to buying in Mallorca.
For dinner we returned to the port area, to the locally famous Café Balear, which has its own fleet of fishing boats. The restaurant was booked out for days ahead indoors but they don't take reservations for the terrace area along the canal so we arrived before 8.00 hoping to get a table. There was already a queue but fortunately tables for two were more quickly available. We noticed that groups of four or more did not get seated until 40 minutes after us. For entree we loved the fresh clams cooked in garlic and oil and then had the restaurant specialty, spiny lobster stew. It was firstly presented in a large shallow earthenware pot and then served individually in large bowls, with crusty bread on the side. Absolutely rich and delicious and worth the effort to pull the lobster flesh from the shell, although this type of lobster has practically no meat in the legs and a little in the one claw. We were each given a second serve from the pot, so had no hope of eating all of the liquid part of the soup. The local Biniferdat rosé was perfect again and the desserts of lemon sorbet and strawberry ice cream were perfect cleansers for the end of the meal. By the time we left the restaurant we were staggered by the length of the line of people waiting for a table, but at no stage had the waiters tried to make us hurry through our meal.