Food Wine and Friends the Best of Mallorca this Christmas

Even if we don´t win a fat share of el Gordo this Christmas, we should count our blessings and celebrate the best of a resurgent Mallorca, advises abc guru, Adrienne Cullen.

We´ve survived, more or less! Now the best seasonal antidote to the apocalyptic year we’ve all had is a good old no-holds-barred, eggnog-and-carols traditional Christmas. It’s time to chill out, count our blessings – and celebrate the best of Mallorca.

If it sounds as if I’m about to abandon my usual hard-bitten, return-on-investment-driven, no-nonsense ways, then yes, that’s exactly what I’m planning to do, at least between now and el Dia de Reyes – January 6, to those of you just passing through –when a few luxury prezzies should set me up nicely for 2010.

In fact, I’m planning to give Christmas and the New Year over entirely to dewy-eyed sentiment: black-and-white movies, Bing Crosbie CDs, boxes of chocolates with heart-melting cocker spaniel puppies on the lid – and large quantities of the aforementioned spine-straightening eggnog made strictly according to my late grandmother’s recipe, combining liberal quantities of brandy and bourbon.

There’ll be no “Bah, humbug!” moments in my house this Christmas – of that I now give fair warning! It’s going to be unbroken seasonal cheer all the way …

However, because economic meltdown is a great leveller, there will be one important change to the seasonal agenda: I will, I now announce, be joining the tens of millions of hopeful Spaniards gathering around their TVs and radios on the morning of December 22 to hear the winners of the El Gordo lottery draw.

Some 80 of my closest friends – including Michael and Catherine – have already been invited to join me. At the gates they’ll be required by the security staff to present the tickets for their décimos or participaciones to demonstrate that they’re fully behind the spirit of the occasion.

Yes, of course, there may be others in the island who could be described as more deserving of a Christmas windfall. But hey, in these recessionary times we could all do with our share of this year’s €2,320 million payout. And there’s every chance the meagre €1,000 I spent on tickets the other day will perform better than the nest-egg I had tucked away in Lehman Brothers on the fateful day of its bankruptcy, September 15, 2008.

It goes without saying that any winners amongst our number will be required to leave a sum equivalent to 10 percent of their earnings at the gates as they leave – which seems only fair, seeing as the innovative idea of taking part in this seasonal piece of cultural pageantry was entirely mine and mine alone.

But even if don’t win a share of El Gordo, those of us lucky enough to live here on Mallorca still have a fine assortment of blessings to count as the year winds down. To enumerate the best of Mallorca would take a list the length of a telephone directory, so here I’ll stick to my own personal Mallorca 2009 – Why I Love It top five:

• The unspoiled environment: I know it sounds a bit politically correct – mawkish even – but this is the finest place in the world to live, and at the end of such a tumultuous year, we should appreciate that even more. New York, London, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam are all great fun for weekend breaks, but would you rather live in any of them? No, I didn’t think so.

• The sophisticated culture: The Spanish are an optimistic people and Mallorca embodies all that’s friendliest, most colourful and most outward-looking about Spain. The history, the architecture, the art and the music are riches that money – even El Gordo – can’t buy. After a lifetime here, you’ll still be scratching the surface. And what a magnificent surface it is.

• The flair for fashion: One of the most exciting things about Mallorca is the sense that fashion matters. It’s not just about staying ahead of the latest styles, it’s about a willingness to change and a sense of fun – two of the most important qualities when you’re choosing a place to call home. And it’s not simply to do with what we wear; it’s about every single aspect of our lives.

• The sumptuous cuisine: Mediterranean cuisine is without doubt the finest in the world, and at Christmas on Mallorca you get to experience the best of the best when families gather for the main meal on Christmas Eve, la nochebuena. Sample all the local seasonal specialities, el turrón (whether it’s duro or blando), las figuras de mazapán and los polvorones. Some are more interesting than others, but they’re all part of the experience. Buen provecho!

• The international mix: Yes, you’re on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean. But do you feel isolated? Not at all. On the contrary, you always have a sense that you’re in the one place in the world that matters. And you’re absolutely right. Mallorca is a magnet for world’s glitterati because they feel comfortable here. When they’re here, they don’t want to leave. And when they leave, they can’t wait to get back. Now that’s got to mean something!

All of the above are good news at a time when we can do with all the good news we can get. I should add a sixth piece of good news, which is that my grandmother’s eggnog is every bit as delicious as I remember it when she conjured it up herself, knocking back litres of the stuff well into her eighties and beyond.

You will, no doubt, write in your scores demanding to know the key ingredients, which I can now reveal are: eggs, milk, cream, sugar, nutmeg, bourbon and brandy … and more bourbon and a drop more brandy. What’s missing, of course, is know-how. When you figure that out, you can add it your own … best of Mallorca!