The Great John Curtas, Author of Eating Las Vegas and the "Being John Curtas" Blog on My Opinions About The Michelin Guide and Spain and Three-star Chef Quique Dacosta

* * * * *

Bibendum, the Michelin Tire Man, with his foot on Spain's neck.

 John Curtas with one of my rosados from The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirits Group at Ibiza Tapas Danbury (CT) in Curtas's hometown.   The jacket is just another example of Curtas's dedication to sartorial splendor and went exceptionally well with the red pants he was wearing!

"Gerry Dawes — Spanish food expert, guide, raconteur, writer, etc., (and a fellow so curmudgeonly he makes me look like Dora the Explorer*) — had these insights that are worth considering the next time you hear someone brag about their Michelin stars:

'Why do you think restaurants in Japan were suddenly given a surfeit of rosettes? Because Doughboy (aka Bibendum) wants to sell tires to Japanese car manufacturers! In Spain, France’s next door neighbor, who competes with them for gastro-tourism Euros, Michelin gives a miserable number of rosettes, about a fifth of what France has. I have proposed a boycott of Michelin tires in Spain unless the Guide gives out a significant number of rosettes to really reflect the quality of restaurants in Spain. Spain should make Michelin decide what they really want, to sell paper (the Guide) or rubber.'" - - John Curtas, Being John Curtas blog: Michelin Guides are Bullshit, March 27, 2019 (published the day I left for a month in Spain; see blog post for the link to the article). 

Photo is of Curtas with one of my rosados from The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirits Group at Ibiza Tapas Danbury (CT) in Curtas's hometown. The jacket is just another example of Curtas's dedication to sartorial splendor and the jacket went exceptionally well with the red pants he was wearing!

*It should be noted that no one can make Curtas look like Dora the Explorer. Look up curmudgeon, with a baked-on crust, curmudgeon crème brûlée, in any visual dictionary and Curtas countenance will appear.
 

 * * * * *

What I actually wrote in December 2009 (when the Michelin Awards for 2010 were announced), about Michelin, its Red Guide and its coverage of Spain:

Quique Dacosta is probably the brightest culinary star of his generation and this year, he and his stunning restaurant and state-of-the-art cocina de vangaurdia food were yet again royally screwed by the Michelin Guide (2010), who failed to give Quique (and others) a deserved third star.  (Dacosta got his Third Star in 2012). 

[Quique Dacosta, whom I have known for more than 20 years, has long been a friend of mine.  I took Santa Fe Chef Mark Miller there for lunch on September 11, 2001.  While we were having lunch, I got a call from Chef Teresa Barrenchea, then a New York restaurateur, who was also in Spain.  She told me that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center.  I thought it might have been a small private plane gone astray.  Quique called us into the Bar at El Poblet, what his restaurant was then called, and we watched on a television set in the bar as the second plane hit live.]

 At lunch with Quique Dacosta at Casa Elias in Xinorlet (Alicante).

Gerry Dawes and Quique Dacosta at Quique Dacosta in Denia (Alicante).

Let's get it straight, at one point restaurants in France had received around 1,700 Michelin rosettes while Spain, in the same year, had less than 200.  The ratio is roughly the same this year.  Let's be gracious and call it eight to one in favor of France over Spain.

Taking into consideration that Spanish restaurants and Spanish cuisine--vanguardia, modernized traditional and traditional--have been recognized by far more credible judges than the Michelin Guide as among the best restaurants in the world and that France is in mortal competition with Spain for gastro-tourism Euros, why is anyone giving any credence to Michelin's shameful French-centric judgement any more?

In addition to the long-vaunted modern cuisine restaurants like Ferran Adrià's El Bulli, Arzak, Can Fabes, Martín Berasategui, San Pau, Can Roca and many others, Spain has a slew of traditional cuisine restaurants that merit one and two rosettes (usually called "stars") from Michelin, some of them three.  If Elkano and Kaia in Getaria in the Basque Country alone (Not to mention a slew of other Basque restaurants) don't merit two stars for stellar food, stellar service, ambience, wine cellar, etc., who does?  I go on on listing restaurants all over Spain worthy of Michelin's lofty ratings, but it is futile, since even the vociferous protests of Madrid's culinary press corps who have voiced their displeasure to the faces of Michelin representatives who invited them to press luncheons in Madrid to present each year's new Red Guide, apparently have had little effect. 

If I were the Spaniards--and I often feel like I am--I would get Michelin's attention quick. 

"Señores (Monsieurs y Madames), is it not true that the Michelin Guides originated as a way to help your company sell more tires?" 

"In that case, would you prefer to sell rubber or paper?  Because we intend to organize a boycott against your pneumaticos if you don't manage to award Spain at least, at the very least, 1,000 more rosettes by the next time your guidebook to Spain and Portugal is published."  

Yes, we know there are Michelin tire factories in Spain.  Do you know how many people restaurants in Spain employ, how many farmers supply food to Spanish restaurants, how many wineries and winery employees provide them with wine?

  

* * * * *

  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?

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.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________

 

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 is 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

La Explanada de España: Alicante's Great Pedestrian Boulevard and the City's Communal Living Room

  
* * * * * 

 

The main pedestrian street in Alicante is the palm-lined Explanada de España, which has a wavy mosaic running its considerable length that is an optical illusion that even shows up in photographs. Those are not troughs on the Explanada, it is flat!

La Terraza del Gourmet, the casual, bar-restaurant-breakfast spot run by the Perramón-San Román family and featuring the exceptional breads of Chef María José San Román´s San Román bakery that is a block away and supplies all of the families restaurants--the Michelin-starred Monastrell, , a steakhouse in the suburb of Playa de San Juan.   Kay and I spent a fine Easter morning with María José, daughter Geni Perramón, who manages la Taberna del Gourmet, and daughter Raquel Perramón, who has opened a pizzeria with her husband in Playa de San Juan. 

La Terraza del Gourmet Delicatessen and Wine Bar, featuring the breads of Panadería San Román, on la Explanada de España, Alicante, Spain

Breakfast menu at La Terraza del Gourmet Delicatessen and Wine Bar, featuring the breads of Panadería San Román, on la Explanada de España, Alicante, Spain

Chef María José San Román at La Terraza del Gourmet Delicatessen and Wine Bar on la Explanada de España, Alicante, Spain

Geni Peramón, General Manager of la Taberna del Gourmet and one of her daughters, Catalina, at la Terraza del Gourmet on Easter morning 2019.

Sisters Geni Peramón, General Manager of la Taberna del Gourmet and her sister Raquel at la Terraza del Gourmet on Easter morning 2019.

Kay showing off her grandkids to Chef María José San Román at la Terraza del Gourmet on la Explanada de España in Alicante on Easter Morning 2019.

Horchata at the famous Peret Horchatería, Explanada de España, Alicante.

  

* * * * *

  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?

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.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________

 

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 is 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

Lorca (Murcia): The Bordados Paso Blanco Museum of Spectacular Embroidered Cloaks Used in the Holy Week Processions

 * * * * *

MuBBla (Museo de Bordados Blanco; Museum of Embroidery, Paso Blanco), King Solomon's Cloak (Original from 1934). 

Banner of Prayer in the Garden and Nazarenos cloaks.  Tunic and elaborate head-dress of the Estandarte De La Oración En El Huerto, the Banner of the Prayer by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is carried and escorted by the Tercio de Nazarenos del Rosario (Tercio is a military term for a division, of Nazarenes, penitents, who escort this banner during processons).  The outfit of these Nazarenos is Gothic inspired.  of the Virgen de la Amargura, of Gothic inspiration. The tunic is embroidered in gold and in the place of the tympanum (triangle space on the front of the skirt of the tunic) there are depictions of the fifteen Misterios del Rosario (Mysteries of the Rosary). The hoods are meant to resemble church spires, with three-dimensional pinnacles embroidered in gold. Capilla del Rosario, Museo de Bordados Paso Blanco, Lorca (Murcia).  

 
The Banner of Jesus Praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Detail of Banner of Prayer in the Garden and Nazarenos headresss.  This tunic and elaborate head-dress is of the Estandarte De La Oración En El Huerto, the Banner of the Prayer by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is carried and escorted by the Tercio de Nazarenos del Rosario (Tercio is a military term for a division, of Nazarenes, penitents, who escort this banner during processons).  The outfit of these Nazarenos is Gothic inspired.  The tunic is embroidered in gold and in the place of the tympanum (triangle space on the front of the skirt of the tunic) there are depictions of the fifteen Misterios del Rosario (Mysteries of the Rosary). The hoods are meant to resemble church spires, with three-dimensional pinnacles embroidered in gold.

Nuestra Señora, La Santísima Virgen de la Amargura, Our Lady, the Holiest Virgin of Bitterness, of the Royal and Very Illustrious Order-Archconfraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary, Paso Blanco, in La Capilla del Rosario, Lorca (Murcia).  The Virgin of the present Amargura is the 1949 work of Jose Sanchez Lozano, the former image of the Virgen de la Amargura was sculpted in 1756 by Francisco Salzillo, but that image was destroyed in the civil war in 1936.   The present image one represents the Virgin Mary looking with her arms raised looking with crystal tears to Heaven in the moment after the death of Jesus.  This image is much revered by the people of Lorca, since she the Virgen representing the Paso Blanco, one of the two main religious brotherhoods that participate in Semana Santa.  She is only brought out on Holy Friday.

Nuestra Señora, La Santísima Virgen de la Amargura, Our Lady, the Holiest Virgin of Bitterness, of the Royal and Very Illustrious Order-Archconfraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary, Paso Blanco, in La Capilla del Rosario, Lorca (Murcia). 

Nuestra Señora, La Santísima Virgen de la Amargura, Our Lady, the Holiest Virgin of Bitterness, of the Royal and Very Illustrious Order-Archconfraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary, Paso Blanco, in La Capilla del Rosario, Lorca (Murcia).

One of the ornately embroidered Paso Blanco religious confraternity robes worn by the Mayordomos, who lead the processions during Holy Week in Lorca.  The outfit of these Nazarenos is Gothic inspired.  The tunic is embroidered in gold and in the place of the tympanum (triangle space on the front of the skirt of the tunic) there are depictions of the fifteen Misterios del Rosario (Mysteries of the Rosary). The hoods are meant to resemble church spires, with three-dimensional pinnacles embroidered in gold.In the Capilla del Rosario, home church of La Virgen de la Amargura. 

Manto de Betsabé (Esposa del Rey David y Madre del Rey Solomón), Bathsheba´s Cape (King David´s Wife and King Solomon´s Mother), 2011.

Caballería de la Reina de Saba Capeta del Negro (Emilio Felices, 1935), Queen of Sheba´s Cavalry, Black Abyssinian Slave´s Cloak.

 Representation in bas-relief of the costaleros-penitentes, the penitents, now both men and women, who bear the heavy floats through the streets during Holy Week, Museo de Bordados Paso Blanco, Lorca (Murcia).

The costaleros-penitentes, the penitents, now both men and women (before usually only men in most Holy Week processions), who carry the heavy floats bearing religious images for several hours through the streets during Holy Week, Lorca (Murcia).    It takes eighty-eight of these penitents from the Paso Azul (Blue group, not the Paso Blanco, or white group) to carry the float of el Misterio de la Coronación de Espinas, showing Roman soldiers escorting Christ to his crucifixion and putting a crown of thorns on his head. 

 

The Paso Azul float of el Misterio de la Coronación de Espinas, showing Roman soldiers escorting Christ to his crucifixion and putting a crown of thorns on his head. 

 The Paso Azul float of el Misterio de la Coronación de Espinas, showing Roman soldiers escorting Christ to his crucifixion and putting a crown of thorns on his head. 

Capilla del Rosario, Lorca, home of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias, one of the major Virgin figures brought out by the Paso Blanco group.  The Museo de Bordados Paso Blanco, Lorca (Murcia) Embroidery Museum, which is housed in an extension of this chapel. 

Museo de Bordados Paso Blanco, Lorca (Murcia) Embroidery Museum. 


* * * * *

  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?

 

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.

 _____________________________________________________________________________________

 

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 is 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

The Most The Most Spectacular Holy Week Processions I Have Ever Seen: Unabashedly Hollywood-esque Semana Santa in the Outback Spanish City of Lorca (Murcia): Roman Chariots Racing Down the Street a la Ben-Hur, Anthony & Cleopatra, The Queen of Sheba, King Solomon, Old & New Testament Re-Enactments

 * * * * * 

Woman driving a horse-pulled chariot during Semana Santa in Lorca (Murcia).

On Saturday, April 13, the day before Palm Sunday, I picked up my partner, my SE (Spousal Equivalent) Kay at Alicante airport.  She was running late from a delayed flight from New York that caused her to miss her connection in Madrid.  And, then when we didn’t make contact until nearly 3:00 p.m., waiting for each other for nearly an hour in the ever-growing Alicante airport--she upstairs, me downstairs where the flights arrive.  Finally, we headed for Cartagena.  I had no idea what we were going to find a few days down the road.

When we arrived at Hotel Los Habaneros in Cartagena, one of the few major towns in Spain to which I had never been, she showed me article from the magazine she picked up on Air Nostrum, the regional airline that flies from Madrid a few times a day to such places as Alicante and Valencia. It was a article about Holy Week in an outback town called Lorca, a place I may have only passed through once, if that, years ago and a town that was not on my radar and not on our agenda for the trip we had planned for Semana Santa, Holy Week.  

We were going to get acquainted with historic Roman Cartagena, a town with one of the most beautifully sheltered harbors in the Mediterranean, then we planned to go to Almeria, where I had for years been promising Kay lunch on the beach at Cabo de Gata.

Then we planned to visit the villages of las Alpujarras, south from Granada, on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the mountain range between Granada and the Mediterranean, with the highest peak in Spain, Mulhacen.  My literary hero in Spain, Gerald Brenan, whom I would subsequently come to know, lived for seven years in the village of Yegen in the 1920s in the Alpujarras and wrote one of the most influential and finest books on Spain, South From Granada.   His book and others, especially The Face of Spain and Literature of the Spanish People, became classics and were a great inspiration to me, but other than a couple of minor forays, I had done no in-depth exploring of the villages he wrote about so many years ago.  

I will have an in-depth entry on Gerald Brenan later.  This photo from the cover of his book, Thoughts in a dry season:  A Miscellany.  Brenan was in his late 70s, when I first met him at his home in Alhaurín el Grande, a town in Málaga province near where I lived.

So, first off, not only would Lorca not be on my radar, I had no plans to go there, but with bad weather forecast and the prospect of making a trip to Granada later this Fall, which would allow us to visit las Alpujarras, coupled with the sight in that airline magazine of Roman chariots racing down the streets of Lorca during Holy Week, brought about a change in plans.  So, when Kay did some research on hotels in Lorca, found only the Parador available, albeit expensive, we decided to change our plans and go to Lorca for Jueves Santo, Holy Thursday. It was a remarkable twist of events that lead us to the most incredible Semana Santa spectacle I have ever seen and ironically it would also lead me to the discovery of a lost Jewish village that I had no idea existed, inside a castle and on grounds of the Parador, no less.  

 A section of the Jewish village unearthed when the builders began the excavations to construct the Parador de Turismo on the grounds of the castle at Lorca (Murcia), Spain

See my post of the Jewish pueblo that was found when they were excavating to construct the Lorca Parador:

Sephardic Spain: Update on My Search for Jewish Historical Sites in Spain Part III of III Lorca's (Murcia) Jewish Village & Synagogue in a Castle and the Most Incredible Holy Week Processions Ever

We were only in Lorca for Holy Thursday and the morning of Friday, but what an incredible 24 hours it was.   In addition to visiting the Jewish village on the ground of the Parador, we wisely had the Parador staff call a taxi whose driver took us a close to the epicenter of the events as possible (ironically, several hours later when we looked for a taxi to take us back up the hill to the Parador, we encountered the very same taxi driver).  

Kay and I wandered the people clogged streets and, following my photographer and old Spain hand instincts, we found the staging area where all the participants on horseback, the Roman chariots and their teams of horses, the magnificent Hollywood-inspired floats, music bands and religious pasos (floats carrying figures on Jesus, Mary and Biblical scenes) were preparing to make the pass along the main street, the Avenida de Juan Carlos I, were high-ticket grandstands seating thousands of people are set up for what has to be the most spectacular Holy Week show in Spain.  Written descriptions cannot do these events justice.  

Perhaps this collection of my photographs (all copyright 2019 by Gerry Dawes) will convey some of the uniqueness of our experience.  (My only regrets about not acquiring a couple of the tickets for the sold-out Jueves Santo events was not be able to see and photograph the four-to-eight horse teams pulling the Roman chariots down the street at breakneck speed in front of the grandstands--shades of Ben-Hur!)

 

Elaborate golden eagle chariot pulled by a team of six horses.

 Elaborate golden eagle chariot pulled by a team of six horses.  The driver is wearing one of the heavy, lavishly embroidered cloaks for which Lorca is famous.  The city even has a Museo de Bordados, a museum displaying many of these elaborate embroidery pieces.

 Roman chariot with Roman infantry.

Riders wearing the heavy, lavishly embroidered cloaks for which Lorca is famous. 

 Penitents, both women and men who carry the pasos, heavy religious floats that require a few dozen of the faithful (or hired workmen) to carry them for a couple of kilometers through the streets of Lorca during Semana Santa.


 
  Penitents, both women and men who carry the pasos, heavy religious floats that require a few dozen of the faithful (or hired workmen) to carry them for a couple of kilometers through the streets of Lorca during Semana Santa.  This float depicts two Roman soldiers, one of whom is placing a crown of thorns on Jesus Christ, whom  they are taking to his crucifixion. 

 This float depicts two Roman soldiers, one of whom is placing a crown of thorns on Jesus Christ, whom  they are taking to his crucifixion. 


 

 Young women in the court of the Queen of Sheba strewing flower petals along the streets of Lorca. 


 
Roman infantry, Lorca.

 Elaborately embroidered cape depicting the anti-Christ. 

 Young rider on his horse, whose hooves have been painted gold, Lorca Holy Week processions.

 Young woman in the court of the Queen of Sheba, Holy Thursday, Lorca (Murcia).

 Young lady standard bearer. 

 A Roman infantry standard bearded with wolf headgear.
 

 A standard bearer for the group escorting la Virgen de la Amargura.


 
 Standard bearer for one of the religious groups in the Holy Week processions at Lorca.

 Queen of Sheba float.

 Float of a Roman emperor with a golden elephant.

 Young penitent in a richly embroided velvet robe accompanying one of the processions.

 Roman soldier.

 Young women in the entourage of the Queen of Sheba.

 Entourage of la Reina de Saba, the Queen of Sheba. 

 
 
Entourage of la Reina de Saba, the Queen of Sheba. 

 Part of the band accompanying the Queen of Sheba procession.

 Horsemen with richly embrodered cloaks covering the flanks of their horses.

 Roman soldier, Lorca.

 Mayordomos in richly embroided velvet robes ccompanying one of the processions on Jueves Santo, Holy Thursday in Lorca (Murcia), Spain.

 

 Drummers in their embroidered capes with the Roman infantry band.

 Standard bearer swinging his banner.

 Banner and richly decorated robes of a processon during Holy Thursday in Lorca. 

Not all glamour and pomp and circumstances, a street vendor pushes his cart home at the end of the evening, Lorca (Murcia). 

* * * * *

  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?

 

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.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________

 

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 is 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