* * * * *
Northern Spain: The Basque Country, Cantabria (the anchovy
capital), Asturias (cheeses and cider), Galicia (one of the world’s greatest
seafood restaurants, tinned shellfish, Rías Baixas, Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra and
Monterrei wine regions), Tordesillas (Rueda and Toro) and Ribera del Duero (baby
lamb chops cooked over grape vine cuttings)
From May 4 to April 14,
2023, I led a tour of Western and Southern Spain that was sold out.
I suggested to Chef
James Campbell Caruso, La Boca Restaurant and La Boca Tienda (Santa Fe), who
was already coming on that tour, that we could do a pre-trip tour of northern
Spain. He jumped at the chance, then
John Gottfried, founder of Gourmet Garage and Devour.tv, who has been to Spain
with me twice, and Washington, DC Restaurant Consultant Janet Cam and her
partner Jeffrey Krause asked to join us.
Soon the Southwestern Chef and restaurant consultant Mark Miller, also
of Santa Fe and has been to Spain with me six times), and his friend Chef
Robert Quintana, who has co-authored books with him, signed on.
Wednesday, 26 April
Madrid – Aranda Tudanca - Axpe-Atxondo - San Sebastián
Outside the kitchen at Etxebarri, Chef-owner Bittor Arguinzoniz, Chef Robert Quintana (back), John Gottfried, Jeffrey Krauss (back), Janet Cam, Chef James Campbell Caruso.
We were picked up in Madrid by a taxi driver with a seven-passenger car, Antonio Fernández, whom I met and used on a trip last May.
On our way to Etebarri, our first stop in The Basque Country, I arranged for our group to have breakfast at Area Tudanca, where owner Jesús Tudanca, who was away on a business trip, arranged for us to taste his lovely Tudanca Ribera del Duero Tinto, along with breakfast.
By 13:30, we were having drinks on the terrace of
Asador Etxebarri en Axpe/Atxondo, some four hours from Madrid. It would be my sixth visit to Etxebarri over the past 20+ years. Once again, we had a marvelous, with every dish a jewel of the product-driven cuisine that comes out of Chef-owner Bittor Arguinzoniz's masterful grill-based kitchen. Not living up to its advance billing on this occasion was the service, which was a bit disjointed and slow, nor was I impressed with the wine selections and service. It did not seem to be to be on a par with my experience at Etxebarri on other visits.
We stayed at the classic Hotel Londres, on El Paseo de la Concha (overlooking La Concha beach), in San Sebastián.
Our group on the terrace at Etxebarri, Chef James Campbell Caruso, John Gottfried, Robert Quintana, Jeffrey Krauss and Janet Cam.
The infamous burro of Michael Chiarello fame. Anchoas en salazón, cured anchovies, smoked and grilled.
Mantequilla con leche de cabra ahumada, smoked goat´s milk butter.
Percebes, goose barnacles.
Gambas de Pálamos, superb prawns from Pálamos in Catalunya.
Pulpitos con raíz de perejil, tiny octopus with parsely root.
Longueiron (navaja), razor clam.
Kokotxas de merluza con kale, egg battered hake throat meat with kale.
Guisantes, garden peas.
Ventresca de atún, tuna belly.
Chuleta de vaca, steak from an old cow.
Comments are welcome and encouraged.
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?
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
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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 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.
".
. .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.
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