Destination restaurants, remote and often overpriced high-end restaurants run by celebrity chefs, attract limousines full of gourmets and their followers.

Then there is Safradada.

It is said to have the best paella in Mallorca, Spain’s largest island. My wife and I decided to try it on a recent trip.

But this rustic little restaurant is next to a wind-blown rocky promontory, which extends to the west of the Mediterranean Sea. This place is very remote and you can only reach it by sea or on foot.

We tried to book a water taxi from Port de Sóller, about 5 miles from the coast. It should send us to a secluded bay where we can climb steep stone steps to the restaurant. But the captain thought the sea was too rough, and he cancelled it when we tried again three days later.

So we went in on foot. We were told that we had to go over a metal gate on a small road in Son Marroig, the former Austrian Grand Duke’s manor, to find the unmarked trail. From there, we meandered down the mountain road for almost an hour, passing through knotty terraces of olive trees and dense pine trees, and then reached a narrow rock spout flanked by turbulent waves.

We finally reached a hut that looked like a cliff. Directly below it, a chain with a red stop sign blocked the way. A woman in black appeared. "Do you have an appointment?" she asked happily.

We did it, we got a table along the railing, overlooking the turquoise sea. The sun dappled through the reed roof. The jagged cliffs across the bay are pierced by a natural hole, like longan. This is the reason for the local Catalan dialect, which gives this wall-hole restaurant its name.

We ordered a can of sangria with cava and Spanish sparkling wine, and settled in for an extraordinary three-hour lunch.

We came to Mallorca to visit friends in an elegant beach house in Portopetro on the southeast coast. In the second fall of the pandemic, the quiet fishing village seemed to be a perfect bolt hole. Health agencies in Mallorca and other Balearic Islands claim that more than 80% of the eligible population has been vaccinated against the coronavirus. Spain has very strict restrictions on foreign tourists, and we hardly go in.

"I can't go," my wife announced after trying to check in online the day before we flew to Madrid. "They won't accept my name."

The problem is that her U.S. passport says her maiden name, and her vaccination record shows her maiden name. Because they do not match, Spain's online health portal will not issue her the QR code required to board the flight or enter the country.

The increasingly crazy calls and e-mails to health institutions and government offices are of no avail. Then the Spanish consulate sent an unsigned email suggesting that we try our luck at the airport.

At the Iberia counter, a very patient ticket agent spent more than an hour reviewing our files, consulting her supervisor and adjusting the app until the QR code magically appeared on my wife's mobile phone.

After landing in Palma, Mallorca’s largest city, we had to show the QR code at four checkpoints. Every restaurant, shop and other indoor place we entered during our two-week stay required masks. I rarely see anyone breaking the rules.

Mallorca is most famous for being the playground of the super-rich, and reports from the local English website Majorca Daily News did not disappoint. The headlines announced that Prince Albert of Monaco and "the world's most avant-garde superyacht" have arrived.

However, most German and British tourists flock here. They are the latest in a long list of foreign invaders: the Phoenicians arrived around the 8th century BC, followed by the Roman legions, plundering the Vandals, Moors, Ottoman Turks and others.

With so much history and 1,400 square miles of land, there are many things to see.

Barbary pirates built coastal watchtowers in the 17th century, and these watchtowers are still located on either side of several ports. We walked past Pont Romà, an arched stone bridge in Pollença. The Romans built it around 2000 years ago and it is still in use today.

In Palma, we admired the huge Santa Maria Cathedral, which was built in the 13th century and is one of the tallest Gothic buildings in Europe. This honey-colored cathedral was built for 400 years (and rebuilt after the earthquake in 1851) and was built on a Moorish mosque, which itself is located on Roman fortifications.

Today, La Seu, famous for its cathedral, stands above Palma’s old town, full of handicraft shops, tapas bars, historic palaces and sunny squares. After wandering on the cobblestone streets one morning, we hid in the large indoor food market Mercat de l'Olivar and found high table seats in Ostras, one of the stalls along the wall.

Soon, we ate piles of grilled razor clams, clams, octopus with potatoes, shrimps, etc. The bill for the three people, including a bottle of cava, is $98.

People can visit Mallorca in fashion, just to visit the ancient windmills, terraced vineyards (Pliny the Elder wrote a lot of articles about wine in the first century, he is a big fan of Mallorca’s terroir), countless Fairs and festivals, and even many lighthouses, including a lighthouse in Portopi, which was built seven centuries ago and is still in use today.

Later in the afternoon, we drove to one of the most famous monasteries in Mallorca, the San Salvador Sanctuary. It was built on a mountain during the Black Death pandemic in the 14th century, when most of the European population was wiped out. At that time, the monks believed that about 1,500 feet of cool air could stop the plague from spreading. It doesn't. But the scenery is breathtaking.

The beach is a major attraction of Mallorca, but be forewarned: in many places, this means spreading towels on stones or rock slabs instead of sand. But Moorish-style manors, horseshoe arches and keyhole windows, often sit next to boxy white Bauhaus-style villas on coastal cliffs, so the discomfort may be worth it.

We spent most of the second week hiking on rugged trails and visiting medieval villages hidden under the rugged cliffs and jagged ridges of Mount Tramontana in northwest Mallorca.​​​ UNESCO has listed these mountains as world heritage sites, such as Yellowstone National Park.

Tramuntana is famous for its roads that dare to drive. So, early one morning, we jumped on the rented Audi and headed to the village of Zacalobra, which is the end of the only winding road in Europe.

"Bond. James Bond," I announced as we bypassed the first dizzying turn. Then another. there's still one. We avoided cyclists, oncoming cars and strange goats on the wild and winding road for more than an hour. Then, to my surprise, a small red Fiat passed by me, buzzed by, and disappeared at a blind turn. I realized that I was driving too slowly and obstructing traffic. My ego quickly became discouraged.

At the bottom, we parked the car and walked to Bar Playa La Calobra, which is one of several seaside cafes in this small settlement. We found a table on the balcony and ordered restorative cortados and apple cakes. When the tiny sound system played the theme of "Mission: Impossible", my ears cheered up. I feel much better.

A nearby path leads to two dimly lit tunnels that pass through solid rocks and lead to a small pebble beach. Families and couples bask in the sun on blankets or swim in the coves that once sheltered smugglers and pirates. Instead, we picked up our day backpacks and started hiking to the deep canyon called Torrent de Pareis.

The canyon suffers from dangerous flash floods when it rains, but fortunately the sky is clear. The steep limestone walls were carved into twisted cracks and grottoes by wind and water, and when we climbed up the boulders, they were hundreds of feet high. Swallows go in and out in the shadows.

About 90 minutes later, we met three college-age hikers who were climbing down. We asked how far the top is. One person said, about four hours. The second said, 2200 feet high.

"You need ropes," the third person added helpfully.

We have no ropes. Or four hours. We were ready for the picnic we had brought—thin paper-thin slices of salty Iberian ham on fresh brown bread—and then turned back.

This allowed me to go to Safradada for lunch.

Our table-one of 25 tables on two terraces-provides a clear view of the open-air kitchen. We watched as the chefs set up a forge-like grill over a burning wood fire, and fiddled with simmering paella and other dishes on a blackened pan.

This is a reminder of the humble origins of this dish. As early as the early 1800s, farm workers near Valencia used shallow pots to cook short-grain rice (the Moors first cultivated this grain in Spain) on wood fires, and then added whatever ingredients they could find as a sumptuous meal Lunch.

Today, paella-the word comes from the Latin patella or small pot-is arguably the most famous culinary outlet in Spain. However, the exact ingredients, and how they should be cooked, have caused heated debate.

The Valencians insist that they need calcium-rich water to flavor short rice. Fans in Barcelona further north are coveting socarrat, the crunchy dry crust that forms on the rice after all the water has evaporated.

Some lovers need mussels, clams, squid and shrimp. Others prefer chicken, rabbit, pork and snails, citing the peasant roots of paella. Peas or no peas? As we all know, spicy sausage and crayfish are added to it.

They all sound great to me.

Therefore, after tasting the grilled red shrimp and salad as an appetizer, we decided to choose a mixed paella: saffron-flavored rice, seafood, vegetables and meat, sofito or flavor made with garlic, onions, tomatoes and peppers The base material is cooked.

After about 45 minutes, the waiter brought a steaming pot to our table and spooned the golden mixture onto our plate. In some parts of Spain, this is another no-no. It is said that paella must be eaten directly from the pan.

This dish is rich in flavour and smoky, unlike any paella I have eaten before. The salty breeze from the sea only adds to the taste. We ended up eating freshly baked coconut carrot cake to enhance our two-mile uphill hike.

After paying the $126 bill, I found manager and chef Lidia Fernández Morell. As she garnished five plates of paella, flipped the grilled dorado and stirred two large pots of seafood soup, we chatted under the hanging garlic and chili ropes while putting the pine branches into the fire.

She told me that her parents, Emilio and Magdalena Fernández, started cooking paella on the cliff in the 1970s, and despite the desolate site, they continued to operate steadily.

Now, she and her sister manage 10 employees and serve lunch six days a week from April to October. (Due to the pandemic, it will be closed for most of 2020 and will only open in late July this year.) It is recommended to book two weeks in advance during the summer, and hiking tours are often refused.

I said that I am very happy that her paella has no socarrat skin on the bottom because I think the taste is very bitter. "We can do it, but people here don't like it," the chef agreed.

I asked, is it the best paella in Mallorca? "That's what people say," the chef said with a shrug. "I have no idea."

I do not have either. But it doesn't matter. The experience is noble.

011-34-616-08-74-99

You can only reach this small restaurant by the cliff by hiking along rocky trails or renting a boat from Port de Sóller. Either way, it is worth it. Chef Lidia Fernández Morell cooks world-class paella over wood fire; fresh fish and other local delicacies are also served. Lunch only, reservation is highly recommended. Paella is about $26 per person.

Plaça de l'Olivar, 2, Palma

011-34-637-70-54-72

In the depths of Mercat de l'Olivar, this is a huge indoor food market, and this busy seafood stall is a hidden gem. Sit at the high table, order a glass of cava or champagne, and then enjoy the morning shrimp, octopus, clams, oysters, razor clams, etc. There are no reservations, and there is often a queue. It's worth the wait. Lunch only. Snack-sized portions start from about $10.

Calle Mirador de Lladoners, Local 6, Valldemossa

011-34-630-97-87-00

Grab a small table on the balcony upstairs and admire the view of the red-tiled roofs and the spires of the medieval town, hidden in the rugged Serra de Tramuntana mountains. The snacks are as good as the scenery. We used garlic, octopus gallons, meatballs and spicy potatoes into the shrimp. Serves lunch and dinner. Snacks are about $9 per serving; a full menu is also available.

011-34-971-16-71-47

Locals are very loyal to this rustic restaurant in the southeast of Mallorca, with pictures of customers returning year after year on the walls. Most diners head to the 40 seats in the back garden, where the tables sit under the tree-lined grape arbor. People inside can see the chef roasting rabbits, ducks, entrecôte beef, etc. on the wood fire. Or try the magic suckling pig. Dinner only. Main dishes start at about $15.

Plaça de la Seu, s/n, Parma

011-34-971-71-31-33

This huge Gothic cathedral is called La Seu by the locals, and its ornate spires and buttresses still dominate the old town of Palma. It is worthwhile to visit the 61 stained glass windows, which are filled with colored beams of light. Including a small museum. A regular ticket to visit the cathedral and audio guide is about 9 dollars, and for people over 65 it is about 8 dollars. Admission is free for believers.

Frederic Chopin and George Sand Museum

Real Cartuja de Valldemossa Plaza Cartuja 9, Valldemossa

011-34-971-61-20-91

In the winter of 1838, the famous Polish composer and his French lover (a novelist known by a male pseudonym) spent the winter in this former Kardous Monastery in Valldemossa. When he stopped complaining about rain and food, Chopin created his works. 28 local piano preludes. His own Pleyel column was seized by customs, then dragged across the mountain by a donkey, and finally arrived shortly before he left Mallorca. It is now on display along with letters, drawings and other memorabilia. Tickets are about US$6 for adults and US$3 for children under 10 years old.

Getting here is more than half the fun. The eight-mile mountain road has countless hairpin bends, carved into pine forests and steep cliffs, with magnificent views. Bikers from all over the world come to try it. At the bottom is a small seaside village with paid parking. A sidewalk will take you through two dimly lit tunnels and then to a beautiful beach sandwiched between two cliffs. Bring your own towels and all other items. There is no lifeguard. Challenging hiking trails behind the beach lead to the Torrent de Pareis gorge.

Drive along winding mountain roads and back all the way to the lonely lighthouse of Cap de Formentor on the northern tip of Majorca. This may also be the end of the world. The road about 12 miles from Pollensa Port is winding and winding, usually with jagged cliffs on one side and turbulent waves in the distance below, but the scenery is spectacular. There is a small cafe on the lighthouse. free.

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