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Persistence of Memory (Salvador Dalí) Five-Watch Rating.
La Taberna del Gourmet, the Perramón-San Román restaurant that Geni Perramón San Román's runs in Alicante, was named "La Mejor Barra de España" (The Best [Tapas] Bar in Spain) at the Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía Conference in Alicante.
The culinary genius in the kitchen of this incredible tapas restaurant-bar--which myself (and others) have thought for several years was the best tapas restaurant in all of Spain--is María José San Román, an award-winning chef, one of the best cooks in the country.
Geni & María José at La Taberna del Gourmet. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2008.
Michelin Two-Star, New York Times Three-Star American Chef Terrance Brennan of Picholine and Artisanal Bistro & Fromagerie in New York City says, "La Taberna del Gourmet is the best Spanish tapas bar I have ever eaten in."
(Also see Terrance Brennan and Gerry Dawes Blaze a Trail Through Spain.)
(Also see Terrance Brennan and Gerry Dawes Blaze a Trail Through Spain.)
Pitu Perramón & Terrance Brennan at La Taberna del Gourmet.
Photo Gerry Dawes©2007.
Photo Gerry Dawes©2007.
La Taberna del Gourmet (Taberna, Delicatessen & Wine Bar)
San Fernando 10, Alicante. 965-204-233.
La Taberna del Gourmet is run by English-speaking Geni Perramón, daughter of María José and "Pitu" Perramón (El Portero ). My recommendation at La Taberna, which is also Pitu's (legendary former goalkeeper for the Spanish national handball team) pride and joy, is to put yourself in the hands of Geni and ask her (drop my name) to do a tasting luncheon of her mother's stellar modernized traditional offerings.
After such a light repast, a little dessert won't hurt, so try María José's bizcocho de tocino de cielo, borracho de lima, freson and helado de gengibre, a take off on the classic, normally sinfully rich, lighter in this version tocino de cielo (read eggs and sugar), with lime, strawberries and ginger ice cream. 
María José San Román is a creative cuisine chef who opened this phenomenal, quality product-oriented, tapas bar-taberna-restaurant next to her Michelin one-star Monastrell restaurant. La Taberna soon cannibalized her temple of vanguardia cuisine restaurant, so she moved Monastrell down the street to the fancy Hotel Amérigo (see below), so she could use the Monastrell space as an extra dining room for her tapas emporium overflow.
María José's superb, quality product-driven, taberna, tapas and wine bar is one of the best traditional cuisine restaurants in La Comunitat Valenciana.
La Taberna del Gourmet is run by English-speaking Geni Perramón, daughter of María José and "Pitu" Perramón (El Portero ). My recommendation at La Taberna, which is also Pitu's (legendary former goalkeeper for the Spanish national handball team) pride and joy, is to put yourself in the hands of Geni and ask her (drop my name) to do a tasting luncheon of her mother's stellar modernized traditional offerings.
Depending on the season, a "small" sampling luncheon may include such dishes as little Navarrese txistorra chorizos; a shared portion of arrós con magro y verduras (paella-like rice with pork and vegetables), maybe the best patatas bravas (saffron-infused) in Spain; splendid, supernal gambas rojas (legendary prawns from the Alicante coast); and unbeatable grilled sepionets (small cuttle fish).
Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, go on with white esparragos de Navarra with a vinagreta de solera de requena (aged vinegar); an ensalada méditerranea (arugula, goat cheese cubes, tomatoes and siurana olive oil); spectacularly good croquetas de chorizo Ibérico; equally spectacular alcachofa a vinagreta (artichokes); pan con tomate y anchoas (bread rubbed with tomate and topped with house-cured anchovies; a little escalivada montadito con foie (grilled vegetables on a toast round with foie gras); riñoncitos de lechazo (milk-fed lamb kidneys) and finish up with a bit of arrós caldoso con cigala y sepia en dados (a delicious soupy marinera rice with chunks of Dublin Bay prawns and sepia cuttle fish).
The wine: A Godello from Valdeorras.
After such a light repast, a little dessert won't hurt, so try María José's bizcocho de tocino de cielo, borracho de lima, freson and helado de gengibre, a take off on the classic, normally sinfully rich, lighter in this version tocino de cielo (read eggs and sugar), with lime, strawberries and ginger ice cream.
Or course, you don't have to do this whole-nine-yards-menu--which I am very honored to say is now called "MENÚ DEGUSTACIÓN “GERRY DAWES" - - you can tell Geni when to stop anytime.
Gerry with Geni and María José at La Taberna del Gourmet, July 2009
(Photo by Kay Killian Balun.)
(Photo by Kay Killian Balun.)
Don't be surprised if you encounter the likes of a Michael Jackson sibling, Francis Ford Coppola, über chef Ferran Adrià or top Spanish chocolatero-pastelero Paco Torreblanca hanging out here, as the photographs on the walls attest.
Lodging:
Hotel Amérigo, Rafael Altamira, 7 03002 Alicante, Spain 965 146 570, just a block of the lively palm tree-lined Explanada, the recreational port and the beach.
Downstairs is María José's slick new barra Monastrell tapas bar and upstairs is her transplanted cocina de vanguardia Monastrell Restaurante, many of whose dishes feature the world's most expensive spice, saffron, as an ingredient. The Perramón-San Román also has the fun-and-funky (get photos of the funky decorations on the outside of the bar) Tribeca Music Bar Old Frankfurt and American Diner (just around the corner from La Taberna del Gourmet; best hamburgers in Alicante!), El Mejillón (a mussels bar) on La Explanada (just a block from La Taberna del Gourmet) and Asador La Vaquería, (a grilled meat and fish house), carretera de Benimagrel 52 (just off Muchavista beach in Campello, a few kms. northeast of Alicante).
Constructive comments are welcome and encouraged.
If
you enjoy these blog posts, please consider a contribution to help me
continue the work of gathering all this great information and these
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Text and photographs
copyright by Gerry Dawes©2021. Using photographs without crediting Gerry Dawes©2021 on
Facebook. Publication without my written permission is not authorized.
* * * * *
Shall deeds of Caesar or Napoleon ring
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?
Poem
by Archer M. Huntington inscribed under the Don Quixote on his horse
Rocinante bas-relief sculpture by his wife, Anna Vaughn Hyatt
Huntington,
in the courtyard of the Hispanic
Society of America’s incredible museum at 613 W. 155th Street, New York
City.
_________________________________________________________________________
In 2019, again ranked in the Top 50
Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes in
2019 by Feedspot. (Last Updated Oct 23, 2019)
"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information."
36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel
About Gerry Dawes
"The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science blogs in our index using search and social metrics. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information."
36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel
About Gerry Dawes
My good friend Gerry Dawes, the unbridled Spanish food and wine
enthusiast cum expert whose writing, photography, and countless
crisscrossings of the peninsula have done the most to introduce
Americans—and especially American food professionals—to my country's
culinary life." -- Chef-restaurateur-humanitarian José Andrés, Nobel
Peace Prize Nominee and Oscar Presenter 2019
Gerry Dawes was the Producer and Program Host of Gerry Dawes & Friends, a weekly radio progam on Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York (streaming live and archived at www.pawlingpublicradio.org and at www.beatofthevalley.com.)
Dawes
was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía
(National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on
Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural
tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's
Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava
Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004,
was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles
& Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the
2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature
in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about
Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.
In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.
".
. .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià
in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow
narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish
correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food
journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a
self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again
brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane
Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher,
Food Arts, October 2009.
Pilot for a reality television series
on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
Experience
Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural
Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain
Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com
Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com
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