Ca'n March

When the best ingredient is history

Can March's cuisine does not need fancy adjectives, because its great value is to make you look forward to eating a dish that your grandmother could have cooked in the morning over a slow fire - but served on a Duralex plate.

Author: Aina Coll

Photographer: Jaume Oliver

Between the dishes of the so-called fusion cuisine and the gastronomic trends that come and go like fashion waves - now it's Japanese cuisine, then it's the taco craze, then it's Italian pasta for lunch and dinner - there are still restaurants, thank God, that profess their unconditional love for traditional cuisine and seasonal products. This is undoubtedly the case of Can March in Manacor.

In a crossing of Avinguda del Tren, at number 7 Carrer de València, the flavors of a project that began in 1925, the Fonda Ca'n March, are prepared. Converted into the current concept back in 2000, the restaurant combines since then quality products, recognizable recipes and a touch of creativity with a clear reference: Mallorcan cuisine.

As we sat down at our table at noon on a weekday, we delved into the various options on the menu - which includes whole-wheat xeixa cocas and huevos rotos camperos (broken eggs) among the appetizers, and fish from the fish market, Can Company suckling pig and roast lamb terrine among the entrees - and the daily menu - market cuisine with a vegetarian option.

With a tasty bread of xeixa flour with oil and salt that we receive as a welcome treat and a glass of Pere Seda white wine already on our table, we opt for the daily menu, a proposal that, like the sober and elegant dining room that welcomes us, reaffirms that here the temporality marks the times and orders the flavors.

We start with a salad with feta cheese -something fresh and light to begin with- and some chickpeas with cod and spinach, which give way to two second courses: a meatball stew with bacon and potatoes and pork ribs with orange sauce, asparagus, pomegranate and a touch, as unexpected as differential, of fried banana.

For dessert, a cream cheese with carob powder and pomegranate seeds - smooth in flavor, consistent in texture - and a lemon pie in a glass, perfectly balanced between acidity and sweetness.

Every single dish is very, very, good. It is not an elaborate or eloquent statement, it is true, but Can March's cuisine does not need fancy adjectives because its great value is to make you get excited when you eat a dish that your grandmother could have slowly cooked in the morning -and served on a Duralex plate-. To make you enjoy it and you enjoy it so you want more.

Can March's gastronomic offer embraces and comforts. It makes you feel good. It is everything you recognize and like, a little more elevated, but without pretensions. A tribute to the seasonal product that the chef Miquel Gelabert cooks with care and a lot of common sense while a very welcoming team serves it in the dining room making you feel at home. And the truth, in these times, who needs more?