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In 2019, again ranked in the Top 50 Gastronomy Blogs and Websites for Gastronomists & Gastronomes in 2019 by Feedspot. "The Best Gastronomy blogs selected from thousands of Food blogs, Culture blogs and Food Science. We’ve carefully selected these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with . . . high-quality information. (Last Updated Oct 23, 2019)

Over 1,150,000 views since inception, 16,000+ views in January 2020.

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

"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; Chef-partner of Mercado Little Spain at Hudson Yards, New York 2019

Gerry Dawes at Marisquería Rafa in Madrid.
Photo by John Sconzo, Docsconz: Musings on Food & Life

Custom-designed Wine, Food, Cultural and Photographic Tours of Spain Organized and Led by Gerry Dawes and Spanish Itinerary Planning

5/20/2025

Pasteleria Mallorca, Madrid, Croissant con Cangrejo (a croissant stuffed with crabmeat [and some surimi])

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Seven weeks in Spain and a week in Madrid, but I did not get close enough to Pasteleria Mallorca again to score one of these for breakfast: a croissant con cangrejo (a croissant stuffed with crabmeat [and some surimi]), wonderful.

Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I Enhanced Photography Edition by Gerry Dawes. Available on Amazon.com.

Kass and Eric Mencher

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book and a fantastic trip through Spain!

Reviewed in the United States Verified Purchase

For those who have travelled to and fallen in love with Spain, “Sunset in a Glass” is for you. For those who have never travelled to Spain, well, this book is definitely for you, too!

Gerry Dawes is a master story-teller, with a keen eye for detail in both word and picture. Through a series of in-depth and diverse stories, he captures and beautifully conveys El Alma de España, The Soul of Spain. His love for the Spanish people, their traditions, their talents, and their passions shines brightly on every page. This book is a trip through Spain like no other.

From the comfort of our home, we travelled with Mr. Dawes as he sipped manzanilla on the beach at sunset. We felt his exhilaration (and terror?) as he ran with the bulls in Pamplona. And we were with him through a dozen other adventures, too, exploring the famed Barcelona market, La Boquería, or tasting the famed flavored foams of Ferran Adriá at elBulli, or watching the expertise of the Maestros Cortadores so skillfully slice the melt in your mouth jamón Ibérico de Bellota.

But the book is more than just expert story-telling. It’s an education in history, in tradition, in language, in life. We are among those who have travelled to and fallen in love with Spain and after just finishing “Sunset in a Glass”, we are also now confirmed lovers of this book.

Comments are welcome and encouraged.

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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 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 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

5/16/2025

The Basque Pintxo/Tapa "Gilda," Inspired by Spanish Descendant (Are you decent?) Rita Hayworh's Curves and Picante Spiciness in the 1940s film Gilda, Has Become One of Spain's Most Popular Tapas.

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Gildas (pronounced 'Hildas' in Spanish), the tapas whose curving anchovy bodies (salada, salty) alternating with olives (salada, salty) and picante guindilla peppers (verde & picante, green & spicy) on a skewer were inspired by Rita Hayworth's curves in the 1946 American movie 'Gilda,' which starred Hayworth and somehow made it past Generalisimo Franco's film censors since it was a pretty provocative "salada, verde and picante" (all of which have sexual connotations in Spanish) movie. Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid. (Note that these Gildas are made with boquerones en vinagre, fresh anchovies marinated in vinegar, not the traditional cured, salted anchoa normally used in making this pintxo.)

Gilda with the traditional cured anchovy at Bar Gorriti in the Casco Viejo (Old Quarter) of San Sebastiá

Spaniards went wild over the 1946 Rita Hayworth film "Gilda," which first appeared in Spain at the end of 1947. In the grips of the Franco dictatorship, still not ten years since the end of the Spanish Civil War, Spanish moviegoers were so gobsmacked by Rita's sexiness and curvaceousness in Gilda, a movie which somehow got by the very Catholic Franco regimes censors. At newly opened Casa Vallés in San Sebastián, one of the bodega wine shop/food purveyor/bar’s habitues, a man named Joaquín Aramburu, nicknamed “Txepetxa” (pronounced Chepecha), invented perhaps the first pintxo (Basque for tapa).

Supposedly imitating Rita Hayworth’s voluptuousness, la Gilda was a cured anchovy in olive oil curving on a toothpick around slightly picante (Rita was certainly picante, or spicy, in Franco era Spain) green peppers--verde, the Spanish euphemism for “green,’ or sexually naughty behavior; a viejo verde is a dirty old man. These green peppers, similar in taste and color to Greek pepperoncini peppers, are called guindillas (or piparras in Basque), the most famous of which came from the Guipuzcoan town (San Sebastián is in Guipuzcoa province) of Ybarra, whose piparras/guindillas were locally referred as “langostinos de Ybarra” (Ybarran prawns).

From ingredients—anchoas, guindillas and aceitunas (olives)--available to customers at Casa Vallés, Txeptxa used a toothpick to pinchar, poke a hole in or “pinch” the guindillas doubled up and pierced through on four sides around which he curved an anchovy, then skewered a round curvy olive (the breasts?) on to each end and the curvaceous Gilda tapa, perhaps the very first pintxo, was born. The bar owners, brothers Blas and Antxon Vallés, began putting the combination together, and dubbed it la Gilda and offered it as a finished pintxo to its customers. Thus, Rita Hayworth's performance in Gilda was immortalized in a tapa that can be found almost anywhere in Spain these days.

Ironically, Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino) was of Spanish descent, Her father, a dancer, was from a town near Sevilla, just as ironically, renowned as the capital and possibly, the origin, of tapas in Spain. Her paternal grandfather, Antono Cansino was also a famous dancer, who ran the top dance school in Madrid and is credited with popularizing the bolero. The grandfather made the bolero famous; his granddaughter gave the name to one of the most famous tapas in Spain.

Gilda, Bar Gandarias, (San Sebastián).

"The Gilda is considered to be the first ever Basque pintxo. It was created around 1947 at the Casa Vallés bar in San Sebastian, Spain. Putting out plates with olives, guindilla peppers and anchovies was the norm, but it was one of the bar’s regular patrons that created the pintxo by skewering the three ingredients together for the first time! The name was inspired by the film ‘Gilda’ that debuted at that time. The main character was a woman who was somewhat spicy and salty (not to mention curvy)– just like the taste (and curves) of the pintxo. Gilda Day was created in 2015 to celebrate this unique tapa!"--LaTienda.com

Comments are welcome and encouraged.

* * * * *

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 December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.

Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

5/09/2025

Burgos Revisited, Alubias de Ibeas, Olla Podrida (Rotten Pot Stew) and Vermút at Vermutería Victoria: October 3, 2024

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Ibeas de Juarros, just east of Burgos on the Camino de Santiago, home to the great little black-red beans of Ibeas and near to discovery of the world's oldest human remains at Atapuerca, July 10, 2023. Ironically, this mural suggests that the primeval man is soon going to add some pilgrim meat to enrich his Ibeas beans stew.)

October 3, 2024

Alubias de Ibeas, Rotten Pot Stew and Vermút at Vermutería Victoria

Cathedral of Burgos.

Part of my night foray in Burgos, a terrific, historic Spanish provincial capital that I know very well (I published an article on the front page of The New York Times Travel Section in 1993 wrote chapters about it in both The Penguin and Berlitz Travellers Guides to Spain).

This is what I photographed between 10:30 and midnight, with a light dinner, then drinks in a Vermút bar. The food, one of my all-time favorite Spanish dishes Alubias de Ibeas (pequeña olla podrida) at Restaurante Rincón de España (just half a block west of the Cathedral), where this version was billed as coming from the famous olla podrida (rotten pot stew), which means everything from a pig goes into it.

Alubias de Ibeas (pequeña olla podrida) at Restaurante Rincón de España, Burgos.

Olla Podrida (rotten pot stew), according to the late Ambrosio Molinos

"One day over lunch at Julián de Tolosa, a superb trencherman´s Basque restaurant in Madrid, Ambrosio carefully related the recipe for a great rotten pot stew into my tape recorder, thus preserving for posterity the secret Castilian formula for mainlining pork: "First, an olla podrida should be made with alubias de Ibeas, the little black-red beans that come from around the village of Ibeas east of Burgos and are the best beans in Spain. That is most important.

Then, in a clay stovetop casserole, you slowly cook the beans with a special adobado (marinated) pig foot, a marinated pig´s ear and pork ribs. The adobo marinade is made with salted water, to which orégano is added or, depending on the area, other spices such as black pepper, bay leaves and Spanish pimentón, paprika, sometimes even pimentón picante, piquant paprika.

Ambrosio Molinos.

The marinade, which gives the olla podrida its strong flavor, also preserves the meat, so it can be left all season in a cool place such as a basement or a cave.

Then you put in some fatty chorizo, the one they call botageño, because it has a higher percentage of fat to lean, and some morcilla, blood sausage"

But there is more. Ambrosio continued, "Once the olla podrida is cooked, you make what we call bolas, made from toasted hard bread that is mixed with some of the pork fat from the stew to make "balls," which are then fried and served on a platter alongside the olla. The meat that was cooked with the beans is served on a separate platter, the beans are also served on a separate dish and guindillas (slender picante green peppers), pickled onions and other pickled vegetables are served as a garnish. Then all you need is a big appetite."

He then recommended a scandalous precaution, not to be repeated here, for the flatulence he said was sure to ensue from eating rotten pot stew.

Ambrosio Molinos with chuletillas al sarmiento, lamb chops cooked over grape vine cuttings.

I had accompanied Ambrosio and his family to one of these olla podrida pigouts near Ibeas. And he also offered to take me to the mother of all pig festivals at the Virrey Palafox restaurant in El Burgo de Osma in the neighboring province of Soria, where they have multi-course pig meals in February to celebrate the winter hog slaughter.

Chef-owner Galo Rodrigo González, Restaurante De Galo. Covarrubias (Burgos).

Restaurant de Galo now closed (owners retired).

But now my concern was for Restaurante De Galo, whose chef-owner Galo was the son of the owners of Galín, who were proud of their olla podrida. Just thinking about rotten pot stew conjured up visions of thousands of tiny porkers lumbering through my arteries in pursuit of the Pig Olympics Gold Medal for cardiac arrest."--Excerpt from Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I.

Back in Burgos

After dinner, I had a Vermút at my favorite Vermutería Victoria, one of Spain's greatest Vermút bars. My friend manager Jorge García helped make it a great stop, as did Ángel Alonso and Javier Pontones, whom I met at the bar and who kindly invited me to my Vermút.