Fornells, lobster and a clay pot.

A stew from the north coast

Caldereta de llagosta is the lobster stew of Menorca's north coast, and Fornells is where it is most closely tied to place. The llagosta is the spiny lobster, a long-antennaed, clawless creature that lives in rocky ground and among seagrass. In the pot it meets tomato, onion, garlic, parsley and olive oil, and the result is dark, savoury and served with bread rather than ceremony. It is a dish for a table, not a plate.

The stew is a treat for two plain reasons. The first is the animal: spiny lobster grows slowly and is landed in modest numbers. The second is time. A caldereta is cooked to order in a heavy earthenware pot, and it rewards a long lunch rather than a quick one. Ordering it is a decision to sit down properly, with company, and to let the afternoon go by at the table.

Caldereta belongs to the whole north coast, not to one village. It appears on menus from Maó to Ciutadella, and it is cooked at home for family occasions. But the version most people picture involves a table near the water in Fornells, a pot in the middle and a morning that turns into an afternoon. The dish travels well; the setting is harder to repeat.

The bay gave the village its work long before it gave anyone a view.

What goes into the pot

Every kitchen has its own hand with the recipe, but the outline is stable. Onion, tomato and garlic are cooked down slowly in olive oil until the mixture is dark and sweet, and fish stock loosens it into a broth. The lobster, cut into pieces with the shell on, goes in near the end, so that it is just cooked. Parsley finishes it. Some cooks thicken the base with a little bread or ground almond; most do not bother.

The pot matters as much as the list. A cassola de fang, the wide earthenware dish used across the island, holds heat evenly and comes to the table with the lid still on. Under the lobster lie slices of dry bread, which soak up the broth and are the point of the whole exercise. Some kitchens add rice instead, or serve both. Either way, the dish is a broth with a lobster in it, not a lobster with a sauce.

• The lobsterSpiny lobster, cut with the shell on, so the broth takes its sweetness.
• The sofregitOnion, tomato and garlic cooked slowly in olive oil, the base of most Menorcan stews.
• The potA wide earthenware cassola, which holds heat and goes straight to the table.
• The breadDry slices laid in the bottom to take the broth, not a side dish but part of it.

Fornells, a fishing village

Fornells sits at the mouth of a long inlet on Menorca's north coast, inside the municipality of Es Mercadal. The bay is shallow, sheltered and almost closed at its entrance, which is why boats have used it for centuries and why the village has a working side as well as a summer one. White houses run around the water, the fishing boats moor at the inner end, and the road follows the shore out towards the bay's mouth.

Above the entrance to the bay stands the Torre de Fornells, a stout round watchtower built during the last period of British rule, when this coast needed watching. It is the village's landmark and a short climb from the harbour. Beyond it the land turns bare and the coast runs out to Cap de Cavalleria, the northern tip of the island, with its lighthouse and its wind, which is felt here first.

The catch and the grounds

Spiny lobster is not trawled. It is taken in traps set on rocky and mixed ground, in the crevices where the animal lives, often at the edges of the posidonia meadows that keep Menorca's water clear. Fishermen on the north coast have worked these grounds for generations, in small boats and in weather that decides the day. The catch is modest, the season is regulated, and the size of what may be landed is fixed.

Menorca has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1993, and the designation covers the sea as well as the land. Clean water, seagrass and rocky reef are the reason a lobster fishery exists here at all. The rules on season, catch and minimum size are set by the Balearic fisheries authority and applied with the Consell Insular de Menorca; the current terms are worth checking if a meal is the point of the trip.

Lobster is a matter of trust between boat and kitchen. The catch is landed in the morning, sold, and cooked the same day where possible; a caldereta made from lobster that has waited is a different dish. This is why the good versions are found near the water rather than inland, and why the harbour below the village is part of the reason the stew tastes as it does.

How to eat it

Caldereta arrives in its pot, usually for two people or more, and it is eaten with a spoon, a fork for the shell and a great deal of bread. Expect to work for it: the lobster is in pieces and the juice goes where it likes, which is why some tables come with paper bibs. Little else is needed. A plain tomato salad, perhaps, and water. The broth at the bottom is the best part, and no one will mind if you tilt the pot.

Because the stew is cooked to order and the lobster is bought in small quantities, many kitchens in Fornells ask for caldereta to be ordered when you book, sometimes a day ahead in high summer. Lunch is the easier meal. The village is quieter at midday than in the evening, and the light on the bay is better at two o'clock than at nine. A table by the water, with the boats coming in, is the version worth planning for.

How it became a dish

For a long time the north coast lived from fishing and farming, and Fornells was a modest place of boats, nets, a few houses and a tower to watch the sea. The sheltered bay and the watch posts point to a coast that was worked and guarded rather than visited. Lobster was landed here and cooked here, in kitchens with a pot, a fire and whatever the garden gave. Tomatoes, onions and garlic came from the fields behind the village.

Tourism changed the balance in the twentieth century, and Fornells became a place people came to eat as well as to swim. The caldereta moved from family kitchens to the village's tables without changing much, which is rare. It is still made from what the boats bring in, still ordered for celebrations, and still the dish most visitors remember from a week on the island. Ask in Maó or Ciutadella where to eat it and the answer usually points north, to this bay.

The village out of season

Fornells is small and its business is seasonal. From roughly November to April many places close, the boats stay in more often, and the bay is left to the wind and the gulls. Do not come expecting a choice of tables in February. The village is not abandoned and a few places keep going, but the rhythm of the year here is a working one, and the quiet months are genuinely quiet.

That is also a good time to see the shape of the place. The walk around the bay, the climb to the tower and the road out towards Cap de Cavalleria are all better without a crowd, and Es Mercadal, at the foot of Monte Toro, keeps shops and life all year. Bring a coat. The tramuntana, the north wind, is what makes this coast what it is. It arrives without warning and leaves the water cold and clear.

• WinterMany kitchens and hotels shut from November to April; check what is open before travelling for the stew.
• BookingIn July and August, ask for a table and for the caldereta in the same call.
• The windThe tramuntana blows from the north; a calm day changes the whole bay.

Around the bay

The Camí de Cavalls, the old bridleway that circles Menorca, passes through Fornells, and walking either way from the village gives a half day on the coast. Kayaks go out from the harbour in summer towards the coves at the mouth of the bay. The water is clear because the seagrass is healthy, and it stays cold well into June, which is worth knowing before an early swim. Wind decides more here than the calendar does.

Inland, Es Mercadal sits under Monte Toro, the highest point of the island at about 358 m, with a sanctuary at the summit and a road that makes the climb easy. The village is a practical base, with shops, a market and roads that reach both coasts. From Fornells the drive is short, and the view from the top takes in the northern half of Menorca, from the bay to the lighthouse at Favàritx.

• WalkThe Camí de Cavalls runs through the village; either direction gives a half day on the coast.
• ClimbThe Torre de Fornells sits above the harbour, a short walk with the bay below.
• SwimThe bay is shallow and sheltered, best early before the wind gets up.