Great Seafood in the Local Bar Restaurante Labu in Cantabria, June 2, 2021. Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain The Pre-Post COVID 3500 Kms. Road Warrior Adventure.

 

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Text and photographs by Gerry Dawes©2021.

 Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award)

 

Dinner at Bar Restaurante Labu in Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria), my first meal in Cantabria in several years.  With Tom Perry and his wife Toñica, June 2, 2021.

 

Zamburiña, a small scallop (not so small here), with its coral (roe) intact, at Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).  In the United States, the coral is removed, which is a shame.

 

Click on the title to see the whole post.

 

 

 

Menu at Labu.
 

Angel Benés Matute ¨"Ojo de Gallo," a type of rosado from southern Rioja Alta, made with both white and red grapes, usually the red Garnacha and white Viura.  This wnes are pale, almost rust-tinted white wines that are inexpensive and delicious.  If any rosés could accurately be called "blush" wines, these could in the finest sense of the description.  At Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

Anchoas, anchovies cured in oil, at Bar Restaurante Labu in Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).   Some of the best anchovies in Spain come from the Cantabrian coast, especially from the port of Santoña (13.5 kms./8.5 miles east of Ajo). 

 

Freshly-caught anchovies, port of Santoña (Cantabria). 

 

 

Cured anchovies served by the tin at La Lonja, puerto de Santoña (Cantabria).

 

Olive oil-cured Mingo anchovies served by the tin at Asador-Restaurante La Lonja, puerto de Santoña (Cantabria).

 

 Tomates, cebollas y atún (tomatoes, onions and tuna), Bar Restaurante Labu Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

 

Zamburiñas, small scallops (not so small here), with its coral (roe) intact, at Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).  In the United States, the coral is removed, which is a shame.

 

 

Chef Francisco Lainz, co-owner, 

Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

Grilled navajas (razor clams) at Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).


Grilled navajas (razor clams) at Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

Grilled navajas (razor clams) and zamburiñas (small scallops) shells at Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

Arroz negro con calamar, squid-ink black rice with squid at Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

Arroz negro con calamar, squid-ink black rice with squid at Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

 Sergio Lainz Fernández, co-owner, 

 

Night Two, June 4, 2021. 

Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

Salpicón de mariscos, seafood in a vinagreta, in vinegar and oil, one of the great seafood dishes of Spain, in the restaurant dining room at Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

Sopa de pescado y mariscos, in the restaurant dining room at Bar Restaurante Labu,
Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

Almejas al sarten, skillet sauteéd clams, in the restaurant dining room at Bar Restaurante Labu, Ajo (Cantabria).

 

 Almejas al sarten, skillet sauteéd clams, in the restaurant dining room at Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

Queso curado, cured Manchego-type cheese, with a bottle of Luis Alberto Lecea´s Cuevas de Lecea, from his family winery Bodegas Lecea in San Asensio, La Rioja.   I had lunch in Bilbao with Luis Alberto and he gave me this bottle to share with Tom Perry and his wife, Toñica. 

At Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

Bar Restaurante Labu, Bareyo-Ajo (Cantabria).

 

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 Constructive comments are welcome and encouraged.

 

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If you enjoy these blog posts, please consider a contribution to help me continue the work of gathering all this great information and these photographs for Gerry Dawes's Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel. Contributions of $5 and up will be greatly appreciated. Contributions of $100 or more will be acknowledged on the blog. Please click on this secure link to Paypal to make your contribution.

 

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.

 

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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 Bio, Awards, Quotes from Famous Chefs and Culinarians and Custom Gastronomic and Cultural Tours to Spain

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