FORMENTERA - PLATJA DE MIGJORN - RESTAURANTE PELAYO

RESTAURANTE PELAYO

This is the place to go for a Sunday lunch with friends and family. It is a rustic, unpretentious beachside bar and restaurant built in the true soul of Formentera. Good food is in a pretty location on the beach, filled with almost only local people and a chilled, easy ambience.

They serve delicious fish, octopus, and other seafood, but on Sunday, everyone goes for the Paella, which has an insane quantity of seafood!

Turn off at the Tortuga restaurant (Carretera La Mola, Km 6.5) and head towards the coast of Platja Migjorn, where you will find yourself on a dirt road overlooking wheat fields once brought to the island by the Romans. Stone walls divide the fields that the Moors built in the 9th century. Everywhere is history

Some unprofessional signs point the way past curves and turns; you will spy them out of the corner of your eye because they remain obscure and haphazardly placed. You will drive on dirt roads, some of the worst on the island.

You will eventually see the sign saying Pelayo with an arrow; carry on, and you will find a Robin Hood-like encampment nestled in a glen. Ramshackle buildings haphazardly placed of corrugated tin are thrown in a pickup straw fashion, and cars are parked wherever there is space.

One shed houses a considerable fire being stoked furiously. On top of the fire, you will see a large pan filled with golden Paella bursting with shrimp, mussels, and other seafood and meats. You have arrived!

A roar lets it be known that the Paella is ready, and servers quickly spring into action, scooping out mounds of the ambrosia into heaped piles on plates. Settle down to enjoy your meal and the rest of the day.

Paella is an ancient dish that originated from two cultures, the Romans and the Arabs. From the Sanskrit comes the word Pa, which means utensil or pitcher, and this formed the word Paella, which came to mean the pan that the meal was cooked in. Not until much later in the 18th century did the word come to mean the actual dish. The Romans brought irrigation and utensils, and the Arabs brought rice. Rice grew around Valencia on the Spanish mainland, and the typical dish became what is now known as Paella.

Then, it was primarily snails, rabbits, and rice from the local lands. Later, it morphed to include seafood because Valencia was coastal, and mixed meat and seafood combinations emerged. Spices were an essential addition to Paella, and with its golden hue, saffron was the crowning effect, making the dish flavourful and aesthetically pleasing. Garlic is a must, along with smoked paprika, green beans, and sometimes red peppers as a garnish.

Because there was a lack of dry, slow-burning wood in Spain, green lumber had to be used, which would give off a very hot heat; thus, this developed the art of frying. For this, a large pan could be anywhere from the size of a record album to several feet in diameter. A flat pan, suitable for being over a fire, was created and would always measure from the knuckle of the thumb in depth to keep the rice in maximum contact with the bottom of the pan.

The only way to experience Paella is to cook it over an outdoor fire, preferably with wood from olive, orange, or pine trees, which gives it an aromatic flavour. Paella cooked indoors on a stove doesn't compare.

Apologies to any Valencianos (Valencians) regarding the recipe, as it is often argued over and disputed.