Hi lovelies!
This past week I've been in Cala Llonga, Ibiza and one of the things I was most excited for was the food.
It's got the be in the top 3 best parts of a holiday hasn't it? All the food? No cooking, no washing up, no weekly shop; and if you go All Inclusive, even better, as much food as you can eat too!
I always worry a teensy bit when I travel as I am a vegetarian. (If you know me, you'll know I used to be vegan, but I hated feeling restricted when going out with friends, and feeling guilty when I fancied some milk chocolate. So although I always choose the vegan option when it's available, I don't follow veganism strictly anymore - and that's ok!) So, I always hope there's plenty options for me to choose from. Luckily, vegetarianism and veganism is much more popular today, than ever before, so most places will cater for us, so I was actually really happy with my meals, and thought I'd share my faves with all of you, in case any fellow herbivores are travelling to Ibiza.
I'll start with my hotel - The Globales Monte Mar, Cala Llonga
I love this hotel and visited in 2019 for a week to celebrate our 1st wedding aniversary, and enjoyed it so much that we booked it as soon as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted and invited my family to join us. Although I remember the food being brilliant last time, a lot can change in 3 years.
Breakfast was pretty great for continental style food, plenty of meats and cheeses and a huge selection of breads and pastries. and there was also plenty of fruits and cereals with plant milks available too!
But if a hot breakfast is more your cup of tea, with a full English being your go to holiday-hangover cure... you might be a little less pleased. Not that the selection was bad, but my family were disappointed to find that the sausage and bacon wasn't English. But I hadn't expected it to be in all honesty, it would probably be too costly to provide this for a buffet style restaurant.
I had my fill of toast with jam, scrambled eggs and my favourite, hash browns with beans. Bizzarely, some mornings they had churros, but I'm not opposed to dessert for breakfast.
Lunch was my favourite meal of the day because I would have a HUGE plate of salad, with some type of carbs, pasta, bread rolls or fries and the choice was amazing! Loads of leafy greens, cucumber, carrot, onion, sweetcorn, beetroot, cabbage, fennel, olives, quinoa, cous cous, bulgar wheat, pulses and alllll the dressings.
Danny and I went to Madison's bar for lunch on Saturday, and we had pan con tomate, tomato toast in English. This is a typical Spanish dish that would often be eaten for breakfast, and is super simple to make but super tasty too. Scroll to the bottom of this page for a recipe to try this yourself
The evening meals are something that I either love with a capital L or would rather skip in exchange for a fancy cocktail. It depends on how hot it is, I don't do well in heat and lucky us, visited Spain during a heatwave. So unless there's air-con, I get too hot to enjoy a proper meal.
My husband really enjoys fish, and was adventurous enough to try something new from the grill everyday. My parents and sister eat meat and seemed to eat well too, with curries, paella and chicken dishes to choose from. I however, drifted towards the pasta dishes that I could pair with some more salad, or when available, I would have grilled aubergine or pumpkin gratin with potatoes. Something which I'd never had before, but highly recomment giving a try when pumpkins are in season in the U.K
On our anniversary, I booked us a table at the Hard Rock Cafe. They were sweet enough to reserve our table on the platform in front of the Hard Rock sign and decorated it with balloons for us.
The menu was small but varied and there was lots of options that could be made veggie or vegan. I went with a Hard Rock classic, The Moving Mountains burger, with fries, slaw and chipotle dip. Accompanied by an incredible bourbon cocktail of course.
On the Sunday, we fancied another meal out and decided to visit Flipper's, a tourist favourite and literally 1 minute from the beautiful beach cove. They have a HUGE menu, lots of veggie options and the portions are massive! Decently priced too might I add. I shared some crusty bread & aoli to start and then stuffed my face with the best vegetable nachos of my life. Half an ice cold cider to wash it down too, for less than 10 Euro.
Now, let's talk snacks. The hotel bar had a typical snack bar menu, burgers, hot dogs, chips, pizza, but that's not what I want on holiday... of course you know what I'm getting at... Lays! Walkers in the U.K but somehow they taste better in the sun with an exotic foreign name on the packet. Top tier snacking is sitting on your balcony, covered in aftersun while your hair air-dries, with a family size pack of lays and an ice cold Fanta, or shop brought prosecco if you're feelin' fancy. Heaven!
So if you're planning on a trip to The White Island and are more vegetable-y inclined, fear not, you'll have plenty to eat, and drink! You can see a snippet of my travels on my tiktok & don't forget to continue scrolling to see the tomato toast recipe.
Speak soon,
Zoe x
Pan con tomate - Tomato Toast
Serves 2
Ingredients
4 slices of wheat bread, or 1 baguette sliced in half length-ways
2 salad tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil, to taste
salt, to taste - I use 1/4 tsp
How to
Chop the tomatoes in half and then using a grater, grate the tomatoes into a bowl, collecting the pulp and then discarding the skin. Add salt to the pulp and mix it to combine.
Toast your bread or baguette
While it's toasting, peel your garlic clove and slice it in half. When the bread is toasted, rub the garlic all over the warm bread then discard the remaining garlic.
Spoon the tomato mixture onto your toast
Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and enjoy!
If you want to prepare your tomato mix beforehand, the mixture will last in the fridge for 3 days in a sealed container.
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