* * * * *
Persistence of Memory* (Salvador Dalí) Five-Watch Rating
Slide show by Gerry Dawes on Restaurante Elkano, not a part of the Departures article.
Double click on the photos to see the slide show enlarged.
Double click on the photos to see the slide show enlarged.
Getaria (Basque Country)
(From my article Spain's Best Undiscovered Restaurants, Departures, May 2011; also see my report on a dinner at Elkano during San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010.)
Located 15 miles west of San Sebastián, Getaria is the picture-postcard Basque Country fishing village that produced designer Cristóbal Balenciaga and Plácido Domingo’s mother. It was also home to the first mariner to circumnavigate the globe, Juan Sebastián Elcano, who is the namesake of what may be the best fish restaurant in the world (just ask chef Daniel Boulud or Nobu owner Drew Nieporent). Aided by longtime grill master Luís Manterola, Elkano chef Pedro Arregui and his son Aitor regularly turn out superb grilled clams, fat, sea-tasting percebes (goose barnacles), wood charcoal–grilled langostas (spiny, clawless lobsters) and whole wild turbot, fileted at the table. They do an excellent version of the Getaria speciality tartar de chipirón, a tartare of small, line-caught squid with sea urchin and ink sauce, and their two ways of preparing of kokotxas (hake glands), grilled or deep fried, are equally ethereal, especially when accompanied by light, refreshing Txakoli whites from the region’s small producers. Dinner, $115. 2 Herrerieta, Getaria, Guipúzcoa, Basque Country; 34-943/140-024.
Where to Stay: If driving back to San Sebastián’s fin-de-siècle Hotel María Cristina (rooms, from $435; 4 Paseo República Argentina; 34-943/437-600) isn’t an option, reserve a room with a spectacular ocean view at the Hotel Saiaz Getaria (rooms, from $160; 25 H. Roke Deuna; 34-943/140-143), which is ensconced in a 15th-century building in old-town Getaria.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
About Gerry Dawes
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 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by star chef 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.
Trailer for a proposed reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in 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
Posts
