Get On Your Boots

"Busy, isn't it."
I said so, and so did many others. "Busy, isn't it". "Yep, it is." "Isn't it busy?" "Yea, you're right it is." So, busy it was, and it was the weekly gathering of the tribes of Albion and the Britannic islands at the Jolly Roger's jolly car-boot sale that has no car boots. Here, this Saturday just past, were those emerging from winter hibernation, the beginning of the return, the starting all over again. While the Brit bars may all serve a certain social intercourse, may all have elements of Queen Vic and Rovers, the in-winter piratical flea market is a fulcrum, a compendium of perfidious Albion of the past few weeks, a treachery of gossipry. Crawling out from behind the duvet of a Mallorcan deep winter, blinking into the sun of coming season and hungry for news of who has done what, what's happened to so-and-so and where has such-and-such got to. Yet here also is commerce of a low-level - clothes and cushions all seemingly the colour purple, a yellow toaster, kids' shoes still with an overlooked 24,99 sticker but being sold for three euros. Only a handful of Saturdays remain to convert a pitch into 50 or so euros of sales of old books, mirrors and ageing kitchen equipment and to transform a 1,50-euro coffee into a body of tittle-tattle. For once everyone is back at work, this all stops. No-one sees anyone. They work, eat and sleep. Until next winter.


I imagine you have barely been able to contain your interest and excitement in the seven wonders of the world of the island which I promised to reveal today. These, remember, come from a combined survey of readers of "The Diario" and "Mallorca Zeitung", and at number one - the greatest wonder of the world of the island of Mallorca is ... Palma cathedral. A not unsurprising result, I would say. If you have not been to Palma cathedral, then you really should go; it is pretty damn impressive, it must be said. As to the rest of these wonders, these are - the Tramuntana mountains, the caves at Drac, Bellver castle, the beach at Es Trenc and the Cabrera nature park. Which makes six. Six that may attract some dissent and discussion but could all be said to be deserving of their place. Which is more than can be said for the seventh. As I mentioned yesterday, it is something you eat, and it is - the ensaimada.

How can this lump of lard and sugar be considered a wonder of anything? It is a non-wonder of the culinary world so can hardly qualify as a wonder of Mallorca. If we investigate closely, I suspect that there was probably some internet campaign by the ensaimada bakers of Mallorca or by some radical, fundamental ensaimadaists to ensure that this singularly unremarkable pile of sweet fat was elevated to a top-seven position. At least it wasn't, as "Mallorca Zeitung" pointed out, voted number one, and rightly so.


And on food, do you know who Marc Fosh is? He is in fact a top-rated chef, and also rightly so. Furthermore, he does a thing for "The Bulletin". Recipes and the like, local dishes, pretty useful stuff, but possibly a bit repetitious; in fact definitely so. Yesterday's edition had a centre spread devoted mainly to three recipes - for "fabada asturiana", "cocido madrileño" and "potaje of salt cod, chick peas and spinach". Really, all of it is very good, very appetising and pretty healthy, especially the potaje. But I had one of those senses of déjà vu again. What could it be, I thought? Then it clicked. In the boot of the car is a copy of "The Bulletin" dating from 21 December 2008. It is there for the sole purpose of being something upon which the butane bloke can put a bottle of gas, if it so happens that I need to collect one from the butane collection point, which sometimes I do. If it's raining and the bottle is wet, it can leave a sort of rust mark. So, it is a good idea to have something like an old newspaper in your boot to prevent this from happening. The point is that the copy from December has been staring up at me for the last almost two months every time I have opened the boot and it has for these last almost two months revealed a centre spread by Marc Fosh devoted mainly to three recipes - for "fabada asturiana", "cocido madrileño" and "potaje of salt cod, chick peas and spinach". Really, all of it is very good, very appetising and pretty healthy, especially the potaje. Déjà vu: same recipes, same explanations and more or less the same introduction. Anyway, obviously these are dishes you should be trying, and I would say that you should all head off to where Mr. Fosh may well be cooking up these dishes, which is somewhere called Foshfood in Palma - http://www.foshfood.com.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Dylan wrote it, The Band did a great version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0WMBYQL14U. Today's title - bang up to date for once; who?

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