Mallorca, Spain
In search of the best paella in the world
I once climbed down a mountain in Mallorca, Spain, to try what the New York Times claimed was the best paella in the world. And though I came for the paella, I left with a memory of a lifetime.
Okay, maybe not the best paella in the world, but at least on the island of Mallorca.
Earlier, in New York, planning a trip for family and friends, my brother and I booked a table for a group at Sa Foradada in the coastal village of Deia.
The Times failed to mention that getting to the restaurant was not exactly a walk in the park.
We arrived in time for our lunch reservation at the address we had in hand — a restaurant on the side of the road. Only it turned out to be the wrong restaurant. The folks there seemed surprised that we had come by car and told us to climb over a closed gate nearby and walk to Sa Foradada. Their surprise should have raised alarm bells, but we were hungry and determined. How far could it be? How hard could it be?
My mother, the original FOMO, climbed the closed gate.
After what seemed like forever, we had to decide whether to continue. We concluded that we had walked so much, there was no turning back. Sa Foradada? More like So Far I Die Die.
Follow the road, they said.
What started as a paved road soon turned to gravel.
Gravel gave way to dirt.
The views were astounding. Olive groves covered the mountainside.
I was not dressed for hiking down a mountain.
We were finally so close we could smell the paella.
After an interminable hour and a half, dusty and famished, we reached our goal. “Food trip” and “working up an appetite” had never felt more literal.
What we hadn’t known was that most customers access the restaurant from the water, by boat.
Emilio Fernandez, 79, opened Sa Foradada five decades ago and named it after the peninsula on which it sits. Now he runs the restaurant together with his daughter Lidia. It’s simple and rustic, but its paellas are chock full of squid, shrimp, sea bream and mussels freshly caught from the waters below, served in pans of different sizes blackened by firewood.
Paella is a dish meant for sharing with family and friends. On this day we shared more than that.
Once a well kept secret among sailors, the restaurant is now on the map of travelers searching for a great meal in beautiful surroundings. Recently I even found Sa Foradada lunch tours one can purchase online.
Was the paella the best I’d ever had?
It was.
A swim after lunch
Thank you to Michael Girman for the superb photos and being the best traveling companion; and to Frankie Drogin for her friendship, editing, and sharing the love of travel.