La Poblana

La Poblana is a Mexican taqueria in Sa Pobla, and the house makes no secret of wanting to be exactly that: "Authentic Mexican Taqueria & Takeaway" is what it says on its own website, and that is the whole programme. The address is Carrer Senyor Rafel in the middle of the old centre, a street you would walk straight past without a hint. The menu is short. A handful of entries, no more, each described precisely enough that you know beforehand what is coming to the table. In an area where the kitchens otherwise cook Mallorcan or Italian, that alone is unusual — a taqueria in the island's interior that commits to a few dishes instead of the usual Tex-Mex spread of nachos and fajitas. What is made in-house the menu names explicitly: the chipotle mayonnaise for the salmon toast, the totopos as artisan. Guacamole appears not only alongside other dishes but as an entry of its own, in two sizes. What comes to the table at La Poblana Three taco variants carry the menu. For the Prawns a la Talla, prawns are tossed in a sauce of achiote, orange juice and dried chillies — the house states expressly that this sauce is not hot at all. With them come guacamole and a sauce of onions pickled in habanero. The Cochinita Pibil is the Yucatecan side of the house: pork, marinated for a full day and then cooked for many hours at low temperature in the oven. It is served with a sauce of red onions, likewise pickled in habanero. The third taco is the meat-free one, and it is no afterthought. Mushrooms are cooked with orange, spices and almond milk, then tossed with almonds from the surrounding area, a little more orange and extra virgin olive oil. Alongside come a morita chilli sauce, chopped onion and coriander. Before those sit two cold dishes. The Marinated Salmon Toast brings salmon — marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, fresh ginger and agave honey — onto grilled blue corn tostadas, with guacamole and the chipotle mayonnaise mentioned above. The ceviche follows whichever fish the season brings, is marinated in lime and served in the traditional way, with guacamole and totopos. Guests also mention the Costra de Suadero regularly, which brings beef onto the board. A name that points in two directions In Mexico, "poblana" means: from Puebla. The city counts as one of the country's culinary capitals, standing for mole and for chiles en nogada. In Sa Pobla, "La Poblana" at the same time simply means: the woman from here. Both readings are intended, and the house says so itself. Its own profile carries the line "De México a Sa Pobla" — from Mexico to Sa Pobla — and under the same roof the business trades as La Poblana by Nómadas Cuisine. The double meaning is not a label for the menu but a fairly precise description of what happens here: Mexican cooking, with almonds from the surrounding area in the mushroom taco. Sa Pobla as a location Sa Pobla lies in the island's interior, north-east of Inca and on the edge of the S'Albufera wetlands. The town lives from agriculture and is known across Mallorca above all for its potatoes; its centre is made of narrow streets in which places to eat sit tucked away rather than lined up along a promenade. For a Mexican taqueria that is an unusual address. La Poblana is not somewhere you drift into on the way to the beach — you drive there because you know it is there. Which is why booking a table in advance is the better idea. And anyone who would rather eat at home orders by phone beforehand and collects: takeaway is no side business here, it is written into the venue's own subtitle.