Made from shortcrust pastry, shaped like a crescent moon, and filled with cream. That's the flaona, one of our Garrotxa desserts that, unlike the chicharrones cake or the aniseed roscón, has largely fallen into oblivion in recent decades. But now Lluís Riera, who has been preparing it every Friday at Cacau Pastisseria for the past 18 years, has set out to revive it. And he's doing it in style. "On the first Sunday of March, we will celebrate the first Aplec de la Flaona (Flaona Gathering). We will meet in the Plaça Major of Olot at 9 a.m. wearing barretinas (traditional Catalan caps), sashes, and seven-striped espadrilles. We will climb to the top of the Sant Francesc volcano accompanied by folk and traditional music. And at the top, we will eat flaones and drink a sip of ratafia.

The title of this piece isn't misleading at all. I called a Mallorcan friend of ours, the writer Sebastià Alzamora, and asked him where he would take me to eat if I were in Mallorca and felt like eating Mallorcan frita, arroz sucio, or roast porcella. And he didn't hesitate for a moment to make me a succulent list to dip bread in. So we're making it public in case you visit Mallorca, go often, or, even better, are Mallorcan.

Unaffected by culinary trends, the rise of creative avant-garde cuisine, the sophistication and foreign influences that have dominated the world of gastronomy in recent decades, the Can Guix restaurant in Olot has always remained faithful to its way of cooking. As if stuck in the past, nothing has changed in the last 45 years at this humble restaurant located in the heart of the capital of La Garrotxa, a few meters from the municipal market, where diners can enjoy a generous plate of capipota for just 4.50 euros, beans with torn butifarra for 4 euros, meatballs, rice in a casserole, or even noodles or stewed lentils for 3.50 euros. These were "previous" prices for a cuisine that, "unfortunately, is no longer found in almost any restaurant today," says Can Guix's owner and cook, Mercè Colomer. "We've never done anything to learn new culinary techniques, to modernize, or to adapt to trends because the people who come here want what we've done since day one: traditional Catalan dishes made the way we've always been, without innovation or sophistication," explains Mercè. "As long as I'm here, we won't do anything to change. If we changed, it wouldn't be Can Guix anymore," she concludes.

When the water is piping hot, add three handfuls of thyme (called timonetes in Pallars). On a plate, add the thinly sliced bread, a raw egg, oil, salt, and pepper. After the plant has been boiling for three minutes, add the water, cover, and let it sit for a while before serving. This is the traditional recipe for timonetes soup from Pallars. It seems to hold no secrets.