Carabineros red dry rice
Summer points to them, the balearic islands . This year they are being more seductive than ever for the Spanish and they do not stop giving us hotels, plans and leisure to enjoy them. Y gastronomy in abundance One of the most notorious openings this month has been the Fandango Formentera restaurant, located on the corner between the promenade and the beach of It's Pujols.
"This town was a pioneer in welcoming visitors to the island and right now it is in full transformation. With Fandango we want to join that change and contribute with a place that mixes gastronomy, wine and a lot of flow", explains one of its founders, Richi Arambarri, CEO of the Riojan wine company Vintage and the same one that seven years ago united culinary pleasure with wine in the restaurant Wine Fandango.
And what is a man from Rioja doing riding a fandanguero beach bar on the beach? "16 years ago I landed on a sailboat in Formentera and swore that I would return. In all these years the island has welcomed me and has not stopped giving me friendship, adventure, fun and love", confesses Arambarri who, together with Francis Larre –founding partner of the Talentum Group sports marketing and communication agency– and Nacho Diaz –architect and partner in Destudio Arquitectura–, have come together to give life to a concept that has been able to find its authenticity in the area based on music, embers and rice . And, of course, the came . "This bet is more daring because it is not our land of origin (as with Wine Fandango), but at the same time it is a way of having a greater link with Formentera."
Francisco and Richi studied together in Barcelona and it was while sailing around the island that the three struck up a friendship together with Nacho. "Since then we have sailed together every year for Ibiza and Formentera ", adds Arambarri. "A couple of years ago the idea of Fandango came up in a restaurant in Midjorn and that same day the three of them bought a boat to force themselves to spend more time together.
"Today that dream is a reality and that boat is the restaurant's boat", the one who borrows his name from typical folk dance from the Balearic Islands, with a mix of local roots with foreign influences. "It seemed to us that precisely this miscegenation between the local and the influences of the traveler is what has created the essence of Formentera. That image of the peasants and the hippies illustrates the mixture between the wild nature of the island and its open and jovial character" .
The main purpose of opening a place like this, which can be reached either by walking along the Es Pujols pedestrian promenade or by taking the boatman offered by the restaurant, is to highlight a more careful gastronomy , promoting local products from the 83 km² of the island that become its pantry and that are more than worth enshrining as law on the plate: salt, oils, cheeses, sobrassada and sausage; as well as the aromatic herbs, the figs, the farmers' orchard and, of course, the local fish, roots of dishes that find their differentiating point in the embers.
study has been responsible for an interior design advised by Lazaro Rosa-Violan , in which natural fibers such as jute, wicker or linen greet each other from the table with old Majorcan shutters, a nod to the culture and traditions of the island with pieces designed by the studio Moruba and some tablecloths from which a peasant woman and a hippie teach us the language of the fan.
"This instrument, historically widely used by Formentera women, It is an important element of the restaurant, a symbol of those airs of Formentera that are going to flood his philosophy and his day to day", they tell us.
The chef Luis Arrufat he is the one who was from the beginning behind the creative process that mimics local influences with Valencia and northern Spain , places where their owners have work and sentimental ties.
"For me the two pillars of the letter are the rice and grilled fish . I personally love the red rice from carabinieri for its intense flavor and the local fish grilled cap roig for its texture and flavor", Arambarri details of a menu that includes fried and crunchy little fish with lemon all i oli; octopus from the island with roasted onion slices; sticky rice of squid and sobrassada with a spicy touch and mint or the paella with grilled vegetables in two textures.
Obviously, the star dish and emblem of the island could not be missing: the bullit de fish , a lobster with eggs and potatoes. The success of the summer in the Balearic tables that dominate Instagram and that create high doses of FOMO (fear of missing out), the same ones that we will feel if we do not set foot again soon in the land of Fandango.
