Urban Es Mercadal, where food goes out to the street

Itziar Lecea/Es Mercadal - This is not the first “street food” adventure that Galician Juan Carlos García has embarked on. However, it is the first time he has done so, fulfilling a childhood dream: to put sweet and savory on the same level in a gastronomic proposal. We walk through the door of the new Urban, in the middle of Es Mercadal, to discover the street gastronomy of half the world without leaving home.

FROM TAPES TO STREETFOOD

Juan Carlos García now considers himself a full-fledged Menorcan. “We are Galician, but we have been on the island for 26 years.” From his hands have emerged the businesses of The Tapas, and La fábrica de Farry, where he explores the sweet through ice cream and desserts, which he offers to other establishments as a service. Now, Urban is reopening. “I launched the Urban concept in 2018, I transferred the business, but I kept the idea and the name. And in November of last year, I took it back. In addition, the opportunity arose to merge sweet and savory, having the La fábrica del Farry location next door.”

Garcia confesses that since he was a child, he has had the illusion of opening a gastronomic business where only sweet things are eaten. “My parents, who know the sector because they have always worked in it, told me that I was like a lamp. But, little by little, I have been shaping the idea, until turning it into a very precise and respectful balance between sweet and savory, where my two passions are together, but not mixed. This is what the new Urban gives me, with the current location, where you can taste sweet and savory with equal prominence, making a good pairing.”

THE IDEA OF COOKING IN THE STREET

“The idea - that of Urban - has always been in my pocket”, says Garcia. “I really like to travel, and I am always trying to get into the squares, in the kitchens, investigate what is being done, see the cuisine of each place. More than going to see monuments! In short, see the gastronomic culture. I always carry a small notebook with me where I write down everything I see. It was from this notebook that the idea, which is in my pocket, arose of reinterpreting the street food dishes or street cuisine, which I have been discovering. But taking them to a place where the customer can be offered the mixture of these dishes with the notes that characterize Menorcan gastronomy, with the ingredients that we have here.”

However, despite having previous experience, Garcia assures that the new Urban has one more twist than the first business he set up with the same concept. “The travel notebook has been filling up and this is noticeable. Now I have incorporated flavors and aromas from Turkey, or Thailand, for example. I love the Asian part. Latin America is also very present, where they have very integrated street food, the concept of eating with your hands. They give us a great example of how you can eat well on the street. I don't stop evolving in the world of gastronomy, because I'm in love with it, so Urban will also evolve.”

CONSTANT EVOLUTION AS A HOUSE BRAND

What will certainly evolve are the dishes that we can eat in March to those that will be released during July, for example. “We change our menu a lot. In fact, we are incapable of putting out the same menu from one season to the next. The dishes need movement, and that will also be seen at Urban. In fact, I don’t have a physical menu yet because we are modifying, structuring, experimenting every day. Summer will come, when we will have to stop creating to serve everyone who comes. For now, we are in the transient madness of winter, which helps us to be different and evolve.”

Even so, Garcia confesses that there are some dishes that have already been thought of for the summer. This is the case of the Menorcan gyozas. “Mixing the idea and concept of an Asian breaded dish with the need to eat something typical of the island, I think it can be surprising. In fact, I already started making them at The Tapas and they really liked them, although the preparation is a little different. We fry them there, at Urban they go through the oven because we don’t have a fryer.”

Another characteristic of Urban: you won't find fried food anywhere, as you can see at The Tapas. “We have many possibilities to do street food without having to go through the deep fryer. It's a very valid way of cooking, more linked to the concept of tapas that we know. That's why I wanted to differentiate Urban by avoiding the deep fryer.”

But, if I had to define Urban's food well, Garcia is clear that it is differentiated by the flavor. “I really like playing with the salty, the sweet, the spicy. I consider it Urban's trademark. What I have always liked most, and that is what I try to do at Urban, from street food, is how they produce spectacular dishes in a very precarious way. They produce pure flavor on a cardboard plate.”

The presentation, which plays a lot with the setting of the place, helps to differentiate itself from other gastronomic proposals. “Presenting a dish, in an original or creative way, is also part of my job”, says Garcia. “Not only with the utensils, such as plates or cutlery. Also in the way of presenting the food, of being able to bring it closer to the diner. That is why I am cooking, in part, at the bar, interacting waiters, chefs and diners on the same level. You have to be able to see how a wok is made, for example. After all, the final idea is to be able to finish dishes on the street, doing honor to the philosophy of street cooking.”