Andrew Valente
Andrew Valente has been a journalist since he left school at 18 in Glasgow where he was on the Scottish edition of the old Daily Herald. He came to Mallorca to work as a freelance correspondent for the London dailies and Sundays, using that as a stepping stone to a job in Fleet Street. But he got involved in the Bulletin and stayed on…and on…and on…and now Fleet Street doesn’t exist. He still reads the London dailies and Sundays.
Tumbet: a laid-back dish for the summer
Tumbet is usually eaten as a starter nowadays, but at the height of summer when it is really hot, it makes a nice mains for lunch.
Try a spritzer when the heat is too high
Few drinks are as easy to make as a spritzer: fill a tall glass with ice cubes, add white wine to taste, and top up with soda water. And that’s it.
The Restaurant Review: Black pudding that was the finest ever
If you want a pukka morcilla de arroz from Burgos, Doña Perfecta is the place to go!
When the heat gets too high try sorbets
Some Mallorcans like to take their granizados through a straw before eating it with a spoon in the final stages.
Hotel breakfast kept me on go for 24 hours
These breakfasts are good fun and that they cater for just about every kind of breakfast you may want.
Eat Peruvian when the heatwave is on in Palma
The traditional dishes have names that don’t mean anything to most of us, but each one comes with a little description of the ingredients.
Lobster with pasta alla Caporale style
In Spanish there is a special word for the lobster with claws and it is ‘bogavante.’
Sky Bar: Sometimes just about everything goes wrong
Desserts were both awarded immediate 10s.
Cold liquids time comes round again
Any dish that keeps us away from the cooker always has loads of appeal for those who do the cooking.
Besiki Sushi: This yakitori was truly hunky dory
The yakitori chicken at Besiki Sushi was like a master cook’s lesson on how this dish should be done.
A sobrasada that comes from Sicily
This Sicilian version of sobrasada is called nduja, it comes from Spilinga in the province of Calabria and it is made exactly like sobrasada.
Toque: even the freebie was a 10
“It has been at least five years since my last visit to Toque and I noticed some marvellous changes.”
A ‘newcomer’ to the world of citric fruits
Grapefruit was recognised as a species in 1830.
Bad weather hits apricot crop again
Mallorca has several well known varieties of apricots and they appear at different times during the season.
No menú paella was ever as good as this
The rice was tongue-burning hot, it was beautifully al dente and it was scrummily juicy and bursting with taste.
The pros and cons of liking spicy food
There’s a chemical in hot peppers that activates nerves on the tongue.
Siduri in Palma: a mise en place for the table
This week our Bulletin Restaurant Critic visited one of Palma's most bistro-ike places.
Mallorcan requesón for delicious cakes and tarts
The beauty of locally made cheesecake is that the main ingredient will always be requesón.
Can Nofre: When nostalgia is served on a plate
For those who are fond of Mallorcan cooking, a visit to Can Nofre is always a huge delight. Find out what was the verdict in this week's restaurant review.
- Traveller registration system: If Mallorca's demands are not met, the Spanish Government will be taken to court
- Uncertainty surrounds EU Entry/Exit System implementation
- Fresh move to scrap new tourist registration scheme in Spain
- Living in Palma Airport - Safe and warm
- The Balearics become 'Nomadland': Homelessness swallows the working class