Lobster and Its Traditional Cuisine (I)

Bep Al·lès/Ciutadella - Since 2018, Menorcan lobster has had its own quality label, a brand that distinguishes it from foreign lobsters and especially from frozen ones. This is a guarantee for the restaurants that serve it, and also a guarantee of survival for the maritime sector, for Menorcan fishermen whose season is concentrated between the months of April and August, when the catch of this prized crustacean is allowed, subject to limitations and size regulations. It is the main ingredient in the flagship dish of Menorca’s tourist gastronomy, lobster stew, which now competes with or is complemented by another lobster dish that has become fashionable: lobster with fried potatoes and broken eggs, which we see gaining more demand and popularity every day.

Lobster with fried potatoes and broken eggs is a recent dish, born in the now-remembered Jágaro restaurant in the port of Maó a few decades ago, and it has become one of the star dishes of lobster cuisine in Menorca, as well as a strong attraction for restaurants that know how to prepare it well, using lobster, eggs, and potatoes from the island. But I must confess that, although it is a delicious dish, I am more in favor of reviving the island’s traditional recipe book with regard to lobster and other products from the sea and the land that are in danger of disappearing, as has happened with many other dishes.

It is sad and at the same time worrying—not only with regard to lobster—to see how the cuisine of the fishermen from the ports of Ciutadella, Fornells, Cales Fonts, and Maó is gradually being lost, because we continue to make the same mistake as in the 1960s and 1970s, when, with the arrival of the first tourists, we believed that everything coming from outside was better, and that we had to offer our visitors international cuisine, what is now called globalized cuisine. It is also a subject that deserves deep reflection and more than one open debate, as I have proposed on other occasions among business associations, producers, and public administrations, in order to establish a roadmap or a declaration like those promoted by Fra Roger, defining where we want to go and what we want to offer to the new generations of Menorcans, as well as to visitors.

Returning to lobster cuisine and its traditional recipe book, I believe that nowadays—though I hope I am wrong—there is not a single restaurant on the island that cooks panadera-style lobster, which used to be one of the most common dishes when cooking for the family and when there was only one lobster or just a few available. Likewise, that rice dish cooked in the tià with lobster and rabbit has also been lost, where the white meat of the land animal absorbed the taste and flavor of the queen of shellfish, paired with red peppers first roasted in the oven or over embers, and then slowly confited, giving this rice dish its ideal finishing touch.