Terragust

Mother nature provides

The recipe book we are about to taste is anchored in the foundations of the island, we know what we are coming to because Terragust's credentials have spread like a discreet rumor.

Author: Joan Ramis Boscana

The night is already hovering over the roads when in Mallorca, at the end of September, the clock is almost eight o'clock in the evening. That's what happens to us as we drive to Terragust, a place whose location we find out about just a few days before booking by e-mail. Gripped to the steering wheel, we are assaulted by the feeling that we are heading to a clandestine place, hidden in the middle of back roads between Petra and Manacor. On both sides of the road, some dry stone walls delimit the short space in which our car fits, which after a long time of zigzagging reaches an area where we can intuit, in the darkness, some nurseries in the middle of the field. We park and perceive a bower illuminated by light bulbs that combine with a starry sky.  

Maties Adrover is a farming partner of a company that allocates its resources to grow fruits and vegetables in a sustainable way. He is the one who welcomes us next to a van where Biel Cornet, the chef of the project, will cook dishes made from local produce: seventy-five percent of the menu is grown in Terracor's domains; the rest of the ingredients are offered by producers who work with local produce, with Mallorcan designation of origin. The recipe book we are about to taste is anchored in the foundations of the island, we know what we are coming to because Terragust's credentials have spread like a discreet rumor. Like the whisper of the wind through the treetops. What we did not expect, however, is that the beauty of the place is so rapturous.

We take a seat among the foliage of some vines, where a row of wooden tables seems to stretch until the end of the night. We are in the middle of nature, in the middle of some cultivated land where we can hear the crickets chirping. A light hooked to a heather structure hangs over our heads. We immediately realize that this will not be just any dinner; this will be a real experience. An experience marinated with a first glass of white wine that already awakens our palate, a dry wine that leaves us knocked out and that is tasted as a reward for having traveled the long way from Palma. We savor the second sip and an appetizer brand of the house, composed of sausages of Ca'n Company, bread of flour of xeixa and cheeses of Sa Teulera hyperbolizes our identity. All sprinkled with a few squirts of organic oil and rubbed with tomatoes that we then chop to nibble their fleshiness.

After having swallowed a caramelized onion coca topped with a slice of fig, they slide on our table a hummus like we had never tasted before. Among the cream we discover some of the ingredients offered by this fertile land: pumpkin, eggplant and pomegranate seeds that explode in our mouth. There is no lack of yogurt in a smooth combination that has the texture of the Mediterranean. In short: a delicacy. This is the foretaste of a low-temperature codfish that is served with a red wine that contradicts tradition to show us that yes: the white of the fish can be harmonized with the darker color of the grape. A dish accompanied with potatoes and sautéed vegetables that make us jump out of our chairs. All seasonal, wrapped in the wild smell of the countryside in a summer that is coming to an end.

Throughout the dinner we were given courteous attention, without pretension or pretensions. A hospitality topped off by a panacota with almond streak and berries. Some diners begin to leave with a satisfied look on their faces, dragging their feet on the ground before returning home and disappearing into the darkness. We decide to look at the stars to savor some herbes dolces. We try to digest the miracle we have just experienced.