Es Cranc Pelut Restaurant

When you arrive in Fornells (Menorca) you have the sensation that life has been stopped: the houses, the central plaza, the Paleochristian church all seemingly carry on as they would’ve been able to in the year 50 or 60. Fornells receives us like a friend we haven’t seen in a long time.

If you have the luck of dropping by with a group of islanders or locals, you’ll realize that the customs, the way of socializing and its idiosyncrasies are typical not only of the little towns — the authenticity, simplicity and sincerity that characterizes it are because the people don’t need anything more — it’s that to be surrounded by the sea and exposed throughout the centuries to pirates and privateers has defined the character, and the islanders know it.

If you go deep into the interior, pastures of sheep, goats, cows will remind you of the connection between food and nature, and in their restaurants you’ll be able to try typical Menorcan cheeses and the fish and seafood brought every day by the sailors in the town.

We had the luck of getting to know the native products thanks to Emilio Samblas García, the chef of Es Cranc Pelut, and Oriol Riera, fisherman of Fornells. They’ve been friends, if not all their lives, for a good part of it. Oriol provides Emilio with lobsters and other gems from the Mediterranean Sea. Emilio provides whoever wants to enter his restaurant with elaborate thoughts and different preparations of dishes already known by the locals.

He regaled us with such preparations as the tortilla of baby cuttlefish in their ink, with a touch of green pepper, perfect to share; the salmon marinated in tartar sauce, fresh and clean in flavor; the octopus with paprika mayonnaise around the edges and a bed of yucca; and as a final plate and ideal climax of the whole much-appreciated feast: lobster fried in virgin olive oil atop a bed of potatoes and eggs fried with garlic. This final plate, over the top in product and in flavors, turned out to be the exemplar of a native brunch, a feast that left behind the classic definition of Mediterranean and pulled us to the more Dionysian side of Latin culture. After these delicacies, we recommend resting in the shade with the breeze of the sea.