Mallorca, Sweet Mallorca

So, to backtrack a couple of weeks, we got into Puerto Rico on Thursday afternoon, checked into our art boutique hotel in Old San Juan and immediately went out exploring. Old San Juan is marvelous, it reminded me so much of New Orleans with its narrow, cobbled streets, balconies and wrought iron. I didn't plan this, but we were conveniently located one scant block from La Bombonera, a place I had on my must-visit list of locations. La Bombonera is part of local lore. It's a cafe/restaurant that has been open since 1902 and still uses the same, archaic coffee maker, with its silver spigots and various tanks that produce a fine, smooth coffee, con leche of course. Who knew Puerto Rico had such fine coffee? I had seen some show on the Food Network about the place and they were featuring their mallorca, a sort of sweet bread, topped with powdered sugar. Now, one can purchase the mallorcas as is and I'm sure they are lovely. But people in the know ask for them "tostada," or toasted, which means they are split down the middle, lathered with butter and warmed on the grill, rendering a soft, doughy delight, lightly browned and dripping with butter. The combination of this treasure with that fantastic coffee reminded me a lot of cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde, and that got me thinking that beignets would be so much better if, after their swim in the deep-fryer, they received a similar butter-grill treatment.
My dad and I ate these every morning while in Old San Juan. And actually, after that visit to La Bombonera, we found another place (even closer!) that had an equally marvelous product, at a place appropriately named Cafeteria Mallorca.
Interestingly, the mallorca is so named because this type of pastry is indigenous to the island of Mallorca, off the coast of Spain, although there it is called the ensaimada. Saim is the Arabic word for pork lard, which I imagine played an integral role in the first recipes. No wonder they're so damn good!