A Happy Mistake with My Camera at El Mercado de San Miguel in Madrid

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Sometimes I make mistakes with my cameras, most of which come out awful, but this is a happy mistake that for some reason grabs me, because I think it catches some of the spirit of the movida life style that attracts a great young crowd to the newly renovated El Mercado de San Miguel in Madrid.

A surrealistic view of patrons eating at communal tables at El Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2009. gerrydawes@aol.com __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ About Gerry Dawes Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel Gerry 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.  Mr. Dawes is currently working on 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

Spain Journal January 2010, Madrid, Day Two: Lunch with Gabriela Llamas--cooking instructor-author--and seven charming women.

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Sometimes the Gods smile on the undeserving. My great friend, Gabriela Llamas (and her husband, Carlos Maier), at whose apartment near the Opera I have had the privilege of staying a number of times and who is hosting once again, kindly invited me to lunch at her teaching kitchen just down the street from her home. Gabi was going to be cooking lunch for seven ladies--Spanish, English and American--and she invited me to join them.

To make an installment on the debt I owe to Gabriela, I volunteered as sommelier and serve the Champagne and wines (a Vinos Sanz Rueda Clasico white, a Marques de Alicante Tinto and a Bodegas Torres Viña Esmeralda Muscat-Gerwurztraminer). Gabi started us off with Champagne to accompany some terrific cecina (beef "ham"), sliced carpaccio style and a tete de moines cheese cut with a special cutting device that curls the cheese into lovely little florettes.

María Luisa Muller brought a cows' milk blue cheese, La Peral (Asturias) and a small disk of delicious goats' milk cheese from Sevilla.

Gabi's luncheon was excellent: an elegant, silky sopa de calabacin (green squash soup with onions and ginger; steamed marinated (with miso) salmon with basmati rice laced with cranberries, and blanched asparagus.

 For dessert, we had tarta de Santiago, the classic almond cake from Santiago de Compostela (where, unforeseen by me, I would soon be going), a wonderful flourless chocolate tart and a peeled orange with a light syrup that included strips of sliced bitter orange peel that came from a tree on Gabriela's farm in Extremadura. The camaraderie was terrific with this group of very simpatica friends of Gabriela.

You can contact me at gerrydawes@aol.com for info on Gabriela Llamas's cooking classes in Madrid.

________________________________________________________________

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel


Gerry 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. 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on 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

I am in Madrid and another adventure begins. Last night, I went to the newly renovated Mercado de San Miguel, next to the Plaza Mayor.

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In Madrid and another adventure begins. Last night, I went to the newly renovated Mercado de San Miguel, next to the Plaza Mayor. It has been converted into one big tapas bar prowl with an oyster bar, a cheese counter, another specializing in jamòn Ibèrico and CUNE wines, a pastry shop, a sushi counter and more. It is like a miniature, upscale Boqueria, sexy, but a quite a bit yuppieville. Lots of young people. I took a lot of shots of a guy eating at the bar alone, devouring an entire plate of cigalas (Dublin Bay prawns), by himself.  Didn't take him long either.

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About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel

Gerry 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. 

 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on 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

Packing, getting ready to head for Madrid tomorrow evening

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Packing, getting ready to head for Madrid tomorrow evening, nine days in Madrid, Madrid Fusion, then to La Rioja, Navarra, a week on the wine roads of Galicia, down to Cigales, then back to Madrid to pick up Kay and on east and south to Alicante, Valencia,  Granada and Mijas, spending nights in my favorite, Chinchòn, on each end of the trip!! More reports to follow.

 

(This trip turned into five weeks, with a return to Madrid, a night in Tordesillas and a return trip to Galicia: Valdeorras, Ribeira Sacra, Lugo, Santiago de Compostela and Cambados, a cancelled flight from Santiago to Madrid, a six-hour run to Madrid Barajas airport Terminal IV with Spanish journalists Carlos Maribona and Rosa Rivas, checking in (miraculously with only 45 minutes to spare) and making the 16:55 plane to New York, where I was greeted by a monster snow storm (Feb. 25) and a harrowing ride in a limo up to Kay's house in Putnam County.)

____________________________________________________________________________

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel


Gerry 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. 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on 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

Coming up in less than two weeks: MADRID FUSIÓN 2010, THEATRE OF IDEAS: Preview of the International Summit of Gastronomy Coming Up in Madrid, January 26, 27 & 28

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Ferran Adrià at Madrid Fusión.

Photo Gerry Dawes©2009. gerrydawes@aol.com

For full-screen slide show, double click on lower right corner, 
go to Picasa, click on slide show at left, F11 for full-screen.

__________________________________________________________________________

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel


Gerry 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. 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on 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