Club Chefs of Connecticut & New York Taste of Spain Tour 2014 with Gerry Dawes, Day 4 Jan. 16 Culinary Adventures in Alicante

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On Friday morning, Jan. 17, we visited Valencia’s colorful Mercat Central, located near our hotel, perusing the fish, meat, fruit-and-vegetable, cheese and spice stands, then stopping just outside the Mercat’s entrance to see the often photographed stand selling paella pans and cooking paraphernalia. And at the adjacent market bar, we sampled typical rich, thick, Spanish hot chocolate with churros.

 

 Paella pan and kitchen utensil stand just outside the main entrance to the Mercat Central, Valencia, Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon EOS 6D / Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM.

By noon, we were on our way to the interior of the province of Alicante, south of Valencia, where Rafael Poveda, Director of Bodegas Salvador Poveda, was waiting for us at his Alicante D.O. (denominación de origen) winery outside the town of Monóver.  We were offered tastes of his Fondillón from the 1947 solera, a rare, sherry-like, aged red wine of a type mentioned by Alexandre Dumas pere in The Count of Monte Cristo.   

 

 The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Rafael Poveda pouring Fondillón at Bodegas Salvador Poveda, Monóvar (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

We got to write our names in chalk on the huge 1986 vintage barrel  as did many other visitors over the course of the last 100 years of vintages on the many casks available in this cellar.  In America a bodega refers to a Hispanic convenience store but in Spain a bodega is a winery. 

The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Chef Victor Honrath, Wykagyl Country Club, New Rochelle, NY signs a Fondillón barrel at Bodegas Salvador Poveda, Monóvar (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

Rafael Poveda and one of his friends-partners in the winery, Pedro Cáceres (who, because of that chance meeting has become one of my partners in The Spanish Artisan Wine Group),

came with us to lunch at Casa Elias, a wonderful family-owned restaurant in the nearby village of Xinorlet (Chinorlet) and brought some of his wines for us to drink.  

 

 The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Gerry Dawes with Pedro Caceres (c) and Rafael Poveda (r) at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

At Casa Elias, a long table was set for us with little bowls of almonds, sweet, slow-cooked tomato compote, and aioli, which laid the groundwork for the dishes to come:  superb local charcutería (sliced cured sausages), snails grilled with rosemary and the star of the afternoon, paella con conejo y caracoles, rice with wild rabbit and snails cooked in a paella pan over grapevine cuttings.

The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Lunch at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

 

The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Lunch appetizers:  Pan-roasted almonds, aioli and tomato compote at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 24-105mm f/4.

The Connecticut & New York Club Chefs Taste of Spain with Gerry Dawes Tour 2014.  Lunch cooking, paella con conejo y caracoles (paella with rabbit and snails) cooked over grape vine cuttings, and arroz caldoso (soupy rice), cooked over wood, at Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante), Jan. 15, 2014.  Photo courtesy Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 24-105mm f/4.

 

 Arros con conejo y caracoles (paella with rabbit and snails) that was cooked over grape vine cuttings at Casa Elías, Xinorlet (Alicante).   
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon 50D / Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8.

After our idyllic lunch, we drove on to beach and port city of Alicante, where we checked in the Hotel Amerigo, whose restaurant is the Michelin one-star Monastrel, owned by Gerry Dawes’s great friend, María José San Román, one of the top women chefs in Spain. 

In the next installment, I will chronicle our adventures in Alicante city and the following day in Alicante province again, on the way to Madrid, where we had our last adventure of the trip with a typical Castilian dinner, excellent flamenco and other highlights.

Chefs participating on this tour were Chefs Brian Limitone, Meadow Ridge Senior Living, Redding, CT;  Gerard Resnick, Century Country Club, Purchase, NY; Robert Rainone, Larchmont Yacht Club, Larchmont, NY; Carey Favreau, Glen Arbor Club, Bedford Hills NY; Wayne Kregling, Brownson Country Club, Huntington, CT; Wayne Klingman, Garden City Country Club, Garden City, NY; Victor Honrath, Wykagyl Country Club, New Rochelle, NY;  Dan Neuroth, Bronxville Field Club, Bronxville, NY;  Austin Simard , Brownson Country Club, Huntington, CT; and James Rosenbauer, Country Club of Farmington, Farmington, CT.

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About Gerry Dawes

Writing, Photography, & Specialized Tours of Spain & Tour Advice

 For custom-designed tours of Spain, organized and lead by Gerry Dawes, and custom-planned Spanish wine, food, cultural and photographic itineraries, send inquiries to gerrydawes@aol.com.  

I have planned and led tours for such culinary stars as Chefs Thomas Keller, Mark Miller, Mark Kiffin, Michael Lomonaco and Michael Chiarello and such personalities as baseball great Keith Hernandez and led on shorter excursions and have given detailed travel advice to many other well-known chefs and personalities such as Drew Nieporent, Norman Van Aken, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg, Christopher Gross, Rick Moonen, James Campbell Caruso and many others.

 * * * * * 

“The American writer and town crier for all good Spanish things Gerry Dawes . . . the American connoisseur of all things Spanish . . .” Michael Paterniti, The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge and The World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese

* * * * *

"Gerry Dawes, I can't thank you enough for opening up Spain to me." -- Michael Chiarello on Twitter. 

"Chiarello embarked on a crash course by traveling to Spain for 10 days in 2011 with Food Arts

contributing authority Gerry Dawes, a noted expert on Spanish food and wine.  Coqueta's (Chiarello's new restaurant at Pier Five, San Francisco) chef de cuisine, Ryan McIlwraith, later joined Dawes for his own two week excursion, as well. Sampling both old and new, they visited wineries and marketplaces, as well as some of Spain's most revered dining establishments, including the Michelin three-star Arzak, Etxebarri, the temple to live fire-grilling; Tickets, the playful Barcelona tapas bar run by Ferran Adrià and his brother, Albert; and ABaC, where Catalan cooking goes avant-garde." - - Carolyn Jung, Food Arts, May 2013.

* * * * *

"In his nearly thirty years of wandering the back roads of Spain," Gerry Dawes has built up a much stronger bank of experiences than I had to rely on when I started writing Iberia...His adventures far exceeded mine in both width and depth..." -- James A. Michener, author of Iberia: Spanish Travels and Reflections

 * * * * *

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 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. 
 

". . .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 with Gerry Dawes  
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

7 Days, 7 Nights: Beyond Paella, A Video Culinary, Wine & Travel Adventure in Valencia & Alicante with Gerry Dawes & Special Guests Including New York Chef Terrance Brennan

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Las Fallas, Valencia, March 19 Día de San José, fireworks and the burning of the giant fallas statues in the streets. 

 

 

 Las Fallas, Valencia, March 19 Día de San José, fireworks and the burning of the giant fallas statues in the streets.

 

 Arroz con conejo y caracoles (paella with rabbit and snails, cooked over grape vine cuttings), Casa Elias, Xinorlet (Alicante). 

Photograph copyright by Gerry Dawes / gerrydawes@aol.com. 

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Pilot Trailer for a Proposed Television Reality Series

(Click on the arrow to play.)

All Rights Reserved, EO Agency, Copyright

Filmed in Valencia, Alicante, Denia, Monóver, Xinorlet, Parcent, L'Albufera, El Palmar, Alfafar

Special Thanks to:

- Iberia Airlines of Spain

- Turespaña, The National Tourist Office of Spain in New York (Javier Piñanes, Director; Pilar Vico, Public Relations Director) 

- Executive Director Bisila Bokoko of The Spain-U.S. Chamber of Commerce

- La Comunitat Valenciana and Press Liason Juan Llantada

- Ayuntamiento de Valencia

- Mercat Central de Valencia

- Chef Terrance Brennan (Picholine & Artisanal Restaurants, New York City)

- María José San Román (Monastrell & La Taberna del Gourmet, Alicante);
'Pitu' Perramón & Jorge Perramón (Bar Tribeca, Alicante); Geni Perramón (Taberna del Gourmet, Alicante)

- Felipe and Pilar Gútierrez de la Vega (Bodegas Gútierrez de la Vega, Parcent, Alicante)

- Salvador and Rafael Poveda (Bodegas Salvador Poveda, Monóver, Alicante)

- Quique Dacosta (El Poblet, Denia, Alicante)

- Familia Ferrer, La Posada del Mar (Denia, Alicante)

- Casa Elias (Xinorlet, Alicante)

- 'Sento' El Tio Pastilla Paseos en Barca (El Palmar, L'Albufera, Valencia)

- Raúl & Pilar Aleixandre (Ca Sento, Valencia)

- Emiliano García (Casa Montaña, Valencia)

- La Cuitat des Artes y Ciències, Valencia.

- Submarino Restaurante in L'Oceanografíc (La Cuitat des Artes y Ciències, Valencia).

- Very Special Thanks to guests Geraldine Paz; Eduardo Fontán and to Roberto Alcázar and Àdria Jover, EO Agency, New York.

********

Culinary Insider's Adventures in Spain with Gerry Dawes. Join a true expert who has led such figures as Chefs Mark Miller, Michael Lomonaco, Thomas Keller, Mark Kiffin, Michael Chiarello, Baseball Great Keith Hernandez and many more.

 

* * * * * 

 

Gerry Dawes with Chef Tetsuya Wakuka, Charlie Trotter's wife Rochelle, Lidia Iaccarino of Ristorante Don Alfonso (Italy), Janet Van Aken, Charlie Trotter and Norman Van Aken at Marisquería Rafa, Madrid.  Photo by Alfonso Iaccarino.

 

I have planned and led tours for such culinary stars as Chefs Thomas Keller, Mark Miller, Mark Kiffin, Michael Lomonaco, Michael Whiteman (Joseph Baum Michael Whiteman Restaurant Consultants), Rozanne Gold, Michael Chiarello and such personalities as baseball great Keith Hernandez and I have led on shorter excursions and given detailed travel advice to many other well-known chefs and personalities such as Danny Meyer, Drew Nieporent, Norman Van Aken, Charlie Trotter, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg, Christopher Gross, Rick Moonen, James Campbell Caruso and many others. 

 

Click on title to see entire post.

 

Explanada de España, Alicante, Mosaic and Optical Illusion

 

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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 esplanada, it is flat!

 

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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.

 

Constructive 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 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

A Truly Special Lunch at the Bar at La Sirena in Petrer Alicante with a Dear Friend Chef-Owner Mari Carmen Vélez

 

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Mari Carmen Vélez's gambas rosas de Denia (pink shrimp) at the bar at La Sirena in Petrer (Alicante).

 

 

April 14, 2019 (B. C., Before COVID)

 

Yesterday, I dumbly listened to my Spanish GPS-not a phone connection on the way from Valencia to Alicante airport to pick up Kay, who was on a delayed flight from New York to Madrid, causing her to miss the first flight to Alicante. The GPS took me by the slightly longer inland route to Alicante. When I was half an hour or so west of Alicante, I realized that I would pass the towns of Elda and Petrer. Elda is where my friend Paco Torreblanca, the renowned pastry chef lives and works, and neighboring Petrer is where another long-time friend, star chef Mari Carmen Vélez has her marvelous restaurant La Sirena with its legendary tapas bar. 

 

As I was approaching Petrer, it was 15:30 (3:30 p.m.) and I had not eaten. I self debated whether to stop and bother Mari Carmen, because I knew they were closing by 4 p.m. and it was a Saturday and she has another business. She might not even be there. 

 

 

 

Then I decided, what the Hell? I haven't been this close in awhile and I hadn't seen Mari Carmen for years and Kay's plane was due in some time after 5 p.m., so I decided to get off the highway and see if I could get to La Sirena before 4 p.m. By 3:45 p.m., I had found the restaurant and one lucky parking spot a block away. I parked and went down to bar of La Sirena, which is right next to the see-in kitchen and there was Mari Carmen at her station still working away. I motioned to another kitchen employee who spotted me in the doorway to get Mari Carmen's attention. She looked up, saw me, at first didn't realize it was me, but when she did she stopped what she was doing and came out of kitchen with smiles, hugs and besos. 

 

She put me at the bar and started sending out some exceptional dishes, then joined me at the bar for part of the feast. Mari Carmen is a great chef, has a great restaurant and one of the greatest restaurant tapas bars in Spain. 

 

Along with a draft Alhambra Especial beer, these are some of the more than half a dozen dishes I had. (I did get to the airport to pick up Kay, but because of the airport configuration and directions miscues (damned GPS again), we couldn't find one another for more than half an hour!)

 

 

Tartar de atún with cerveza Alhambra at Mari Carmen Vélez´s Restaurante & Bar La Sirena in Petrer (Alicante). 

 

Gambas rosas de Denia (pink shrimp) at the bar at Mari Carmen Vélez's La Sirena in Petrer (Alicante).

 

Kokotxas de merluza rebozadas (battered, fried hake cheeks) at Mari Carmen Vélez´s Restaurante & Bar La Sirena in Petrer (Alicante).  

 

Chuletillas de cabrito from a small-flock goatherder near Jumilla at the bar at Mari Carmen Vélez's La Sirena in Petrer (Alicante).

 

Constructive comments are welcome and encouraged.

 

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.

* * * * *

  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 was 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

Alicante's Monastrell Restaurant, Dinner at Chef María José San Román Pérez´s Jewelbox Restaurant

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 Chef María José San Román Pérez, chef-owner of the Michelin-starred Restaurante Monastrell in Alicante, Spain, with her chicharónes del mar, billed as “Fish cracklings” on the English menu, actually eel cracklings.

Chef María José San Román Pérez is the chef-owner of the Michelin-starred Restaurante Monastrell, which is located at the far end of the pleasure boat port, in Alicante, Spain. María José, one of my dearest friends of more than 20 years, is a brilliant, dynamic chef who is a great student of food products and is always creating exceptional dishes--and always using the best possible products to do it. (Her la Taberna del Gourmet in Alicante is, IMHO, one of the greatest casual restaurants in the world and it is with some trepidation that I even add the word “casual,” since it is one of the best restaurants I have ever had the pleasure of eating in--now at least a dozen times.)

Chef María José San Román coming to greet us at Monastrell.

Classic ensaladilla (rusa) con aceite de cornicabra (olive variety) y bonito, classic Spanish “Russian” potato salad with cornicabra extra virgen olive oil and bonito tuna at Monastrell. 

María José showing us samples of her only partly polished (65%) rice, which retains the nutrients that are "polished" away during commercial rice processing. These samples are from three rice varieties: Bomba, Bahia and Carnoroli. 

 

Beberechos con puré de coliflor y plankton, cockles with a puree of cauliflower and plankton (Video). 

 

 This artichoke dish was simple, but brilliant. A thick-walled bowl, like a mortar bowl, was brought to the table with a glowing piece of charcoal inside. A small square metal grill had been placed on top with several pieces of tender artichokes and alongside was a green anchovy-laced sauce. I love these table-top mini-grills and am in the hunt for something similar. What a terrific dish and terrific presentation.  Video (6 secs.)

 Ventresca de atún con sal de Pinoso, tuna belly with salt from the nearby town of Pinoso.  The pink tuna belly slice is the edible part, the block of salt is not!

 

 Arroz seco socarrat con pata de vaca y garbanzos, variedad Bahia, "dry" (non-soupy) rice with cow's foot and garbanzos, rice variety, local Bahia rice, with the socarrat, or caramelized rice from the bottom of the pan, served on top.  No place does rice dishes better than in the Alicante and south of Valencia area of Spain.

Arroz meloso con atún, arroz Canaroli envejecido, risotto consistency rice with tuna, aged Canaroli rice.

 Crema helada de AOVE hojiblanca arroz de naranja, chilled crema Catalana made with hojiblanca Extra Virgen Olive Oil and rice flavored with orange, with a caramelized crème brûlée crust. This is a very Alicante inspired dish, since arroz con leche (Spanish rice pudding) is often served with a caramelized crème brûlée crust.

Nothing at Monastrell was over-the-top cocina de vanguardia.  All the dishes were riffs on traditional Spanish dishes, down with the best ingredients and presented with the imagination and seriousness of thought and research for which Chef María José San Román Pérez is known.  This one of the best meals I have ever had at Monastrell.

 

 * * * * *

Constructive comments are welcome and encouraged.

 

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.

 

* * * * *

  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 was 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

 

"MENÚ DEGUSTACIÓN “GERRY DAWES" Update on Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía's The Best Tapas Bar in Spain: Alicante's La Taberna del Gourmet, a Persistence of Memory Dalí Five-Watch Dining Experience

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Persistence of Memory (Salvador Dalí) Five-Watch Rating.

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"MENÚ DEGUSTACIÓN “GERRY DAWES"
Featured at Alicante's La Taberna del Gourmet 

 La Taberna del Gourmet, the Perramón-San Román restaurant that Geni Perramón San Román's runs in Alicante, was named "La Mejor Barra de España" (The Best [Tapas] Bar in Spain) at the Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía Conference in Alicante.  

The culinary genius in the kitchen of this incredible tapas restaurant-bar--which myself (and others) have thought for several years was the best tapas restaurant in all of Spain--is María José San Román, an award-winning chef, one of the best cooks in the country.

Geni & María José at La Taberna del Gourmet.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2008.

Michelin Two-Star, New York Times Three-Star American Chef Terrance Brennan of Picholine and Artisanal Bistro & Fromagerie in New York City says, "La Taberna del Gourmet is the best Spanish tapas bar I have ever eaten in."  

(Also see Terrance Brennan and Gerry Dawes Blaze a Trail Through Spain.)

Pitu Perramón & Terrance Brennan at La Taberna del Gourmet. 
Photo Gerry Dawes©2007.

La Taberna del Gourmet (Taberna, Delicatessen & Wine Bar)

San Fernando 10, Alicante. 965-204-233. 

María José San Román is a creative cuisine chef who opened this phenomenal, quality product-oriented, tapas bar-taberna-restaurant next to her Michelin one-star Monastrell restaurant.  La Taberna soon cannibalized her temple of vanguardia cuisine restaurant, so she moved Monastrell down the street to the fancy Hotel Amérigo (see below), so she could use the Monastrell space as an extra dining room for her tapas emporium overflow.

María José's superb, quality product-driven, taberna, tapas and wine bar is one of the best traditional cuisine restaurants in La Comunitat Valenciana. 

La Taberna del Gourmet is run by English-speaking Geni Perramón, daughter of María José and "Pitu" Perramón (El Portero ).   My recommendation at La Taberna, which is also Pitu's (legendary former goalkeeper for the Spanish national handball team) pride and joy, is to put yourself in the hands of Geni and ask her (drop my name) to do a tasting luncheon of her mother's stellar modernized traditional offerings.

Depending on the season, a "small" sampling luncheon may include such dishes as little Navarrese txistorra chorizos; a shared portion of arrós con magro y verduras (paella-like rice with pork and vegetables), maybe the best patatas bravas (saffron-infused) in Spain; splendid, supernal gambas rojas (legendary prawns from the Alicante coast); and unbeatable grilled sepionets (small cuttle fish).

Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, go on with white esparragos de Navarra with a vinagreta de solera de requena (aged vinegar); an ensalada méditerranea (arugula, goat cheese cubes, tomatoes and siurana olive oil); spectacularly good croquetas de chorizo Ibérico; equally spectacular alcachofa a vinagreta (artichokes); pan con tomate y anchoas (bread rubbed with tomate and topped with house-cured anchovies; a little escalivada montadito con foie (grilled vegetables on a toast round with foie gras); riñoncitos de lechazo (milk-fed lamb kidneys) and finish up with a bit of arrós caldoso con cigala y sepia en dados (a delicious soupy marinera rice with chunks of Dublin Bay prawns and sepia cuttle fish).

The wine: A Godello from Valdeorras.

After such a light repast, a little dessert won't hurt, so try María José's bizcocho de tocino de cielo, borracho de lima, freson and helado de gengibre, a take off on the classic, normally sinfully rich, lighter in this version tocino de cielo (read eggs and sugar), with lime, strawberries and ginger ice cream.

 

Or course, you don't have to do this whole-nine-yards-menu--which I am very honored to say is now called "MENÚ DEGUSTACIÓN “GERRY DAWES" - - you can tell Geni when to stop anytime.

Gerry with Geni and María José at La Taberna del Gourmet, July 2009 
(Photo by Kay Killian Balun.)

Don't be surprised  if you encounter the likes of a Michael Jackson sibling, Francis Ford Coppola, über chef Ferran Adrià or top Spanish chocolatero-pastelero Paco Torreblanca hanging out here, as the photographs on the walls attest.

 

Lodging: 

Hotel Amérigo, Rafael Altamira, 7 03002 Alicante, Spain 965 146 570, just a block of the lively palm tree-lined Explanada, the recreational port and the beach.

  

Downstairs is María José's slick new barra Monastrell tapas bar and upstairs is her transplanted cocina de vanguardia Monastrell Restaurante, many of whose dishes feature the world's most expensive spice, saffron, as an ingredient.   The Perramón-San Román also has the fun-and-funky (get photos of the funky decorations on the outside of the bar) Tribeca Music Bar Old Frankfurt and American Diner (just around the corner from La Taberna del Gourmet; best hamburgers in Alicante!), El Mejillón (a mussels bar) on La Explanada (just a block from La Taberna del Gourmet) and Asador La Vaquería, (a grilled meat and fish house), carretera de Benimagrel 52 (just off Muchavista beach in Campello, a few kms. northeast of Alicante).

Constructive comments are welcome and encouraged.

 

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

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 was 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