Ibizan cooking is peasant food from an island that was poor until the 1960s, which means salt fish, pork, potatoes and whatever the boats brought in. It is heavier than most people expect from the Mediterranean and it is almost never what the beach clubs are serving. We have set the dishes out by course so you can recognise them on a menu.
The kitchens that still cook this way are the village restaurants inland and the fishermen's places on the coast, and most of them are at their best out of season.
Bullit de peix
The island's signature dish, and the one to eat once if you eat nothing else. It is a fish stew of rockfish and potatoes built on garlic, tomato, green pepper and saffron, and it arrives in two courses.
First the fish and potatoes with allioli. Then the rice, cooked in the broth the fish came out of and brought to the table separately. Ordering it is a commitment: it takes time to make, most kitchens want a day's notice, and it defeats two people.
Sofrit pages
The winter counterpart, and the dish a family cooks at home. Lamb and chicken with potatoes and local cured meats including sobrasada, seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, saffron and paprika. That spicing sits closer to North Africa than to Spain.
It is a cold-weather dish and you will find it on more menus in January than in July.
Ensalada payesa
Peasant salad, and the thing to order at lunch. Peppers, tomato and onion with boiled potato and egg, olives and dried salt cod, under dry bread broken over the top. The bread is there to soak up the oil. Every kitchen makes it slightly differently and every one of them thinks theirs is correct.
Frita de polp
Octopus fried with potato, pepper and onion. Less famous than the fish stew and easier to order, since it turns up as a starter rather than as an event.
Flao
The island's cheesecake, made with fresh sheep or goat cheese and flavoured with mint, in a thin pastry case and dusted with icing sugar. The mint is what makes it Ibizan and it is the thing people either love or put down after one forkful.
Traditionally it is Easter food. It is now on menus all year.
Greixonera
A pudding built from yesterday's ensaimadas, soaked in egg, cinnamon and lemon and baked like a custard. It exists because nothing was thrown away, and it is the most homely thing on any Ibizan menu.
Hierbas ibicencas
The green aniseed liqueur that arrives with the bill, macerated with island herbs and drunk cold. It is made commercially and it is also made at home, and the homemade version is usually stronger than it tastes.
Where to eat it
The inland villages are the answer rather than the coast. San Lorenzo, Santa Gertrudis, San Mateo and the San Juan road hold most of the kitchens that still cook this way, and Camí de Balàfia is one of them.
On the coast, the fishermen's restaurants are the ones for the fish stew. Ask when you book, because the good ones make it to order.
Quick answers
What is the national dish of Ibiza? Bullit de peix, the fish stew served in two courses.
Do I need to order the fish stew in advance? Usually a day ahead, and always for a group.
What is flao? A mint-flavoured cheesecake made with fresh sheep or goat cheese.
Is Ibizan food spicy? Not hot, but sofrit pages carries cinnamon, cloves and paprika.
Where do locals eat? The village restaurants inland rather than the beach.
What is hierbas? A herb and aniseed liqueur, served cold after a meal.