Restaurante d’Berto, O Grove (Galicia) One of the Best Shellfish Restaurants in the World

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Persistence of Memory* (Salvador Dalí) Five Melting Watch Rating

Spain's Best Undiscovered Restaurants

by Gerry Dawes

(Note: Photos to come soon.  Picasa Web Albums screwed a lot of people by ceasing to exist, thus wiping out all the slide shows on this blog and erasing days and days of work!.)

Departures

D’Berto specializes in simply prepared but sensational crustaceans, mollusks and fish from the beautiful Rías Baixas (lower fjords) of the northwestern region of Galicia: cigalas (Dublin Bay prawns), langostas (spiny, clawless lobsters), camarones (small, succulent shrimp), vieiras (scallops with their orange coral) and centollos (big spider crabs). Owner Alberto “Berto” Domínguez’s pristine selections are matched by his chef-sister Marisol’s spot-on cooking techniques, and the wine list features stellar picks, like Albariño Do Ferreiro “Cepas Vellas,” one of Spain’s best whites. 

Dinner, $70. 84 Avenida Teniente Domínguez, O Grove, Pontevedra, Galicia; 34-986/733-447.

Where to Stay: Located roughly ten miles south of O Grove, the Gran Talaso Hotel Sanxenxo (rooms, from $175; 3 Paseo Praia de Silgar; 34-986/691-111) overlooks the Ría de Pontevedra. Nearby, two other options are the classic beachfront Gran Hotel La Toja (rooms, from $300; 34-986/730-025) and the Parador Nacional de Cambados (rooms, from $200; Plaza Calzada; 34-902/547-979), set in a 17th-century mansion.

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Experience Gerry Dawes's Spain: Customized, Specialized Food, Wine Cultural & Photographic Tours of Spain & Tour Advice

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Drinking Godello at Estado Puro in Madrid.
Photo by Harold Heckle, Associated Press, Madrid.

In October, 2015, John Sconzo (Docsconz: Musings on Food & Life) and I led a group on an exclusive tour of Northern Spain, visiting Galicia, Asturias, the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja and Madrid. 

 In January 2014, I organized and led the Club Chefs of Connecticut and New York on a culinary educational tour through Barcelona, San Sadurni d'Anoia (Cava country), Valencia, Alicante and Madrid. 

In October 2013, I led 28 people, including baseball great Keith Hernandez, on The  Commonwealth Club of California Taste of Spain Tour with Gerry Dawes 2013 to Madrid, Córdoba, Sevilla, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Ronda, Granada, Almagro, Toledo and Chinchón, highlighting gastronomy, culture and wine.  

Gerry Dawes and baseball great Keith Hernandez at the Alhambra in Granada.

The following week, I organized and led John Sconzo (Docsconz:  Musings on Food and Life http://docsconz.com/2014/02/a-master-cortador-makes-his-mark-in-avila/) and his son L. J. on a week-long trip through Segovia, Ávila, Segovia, Cáceres, Mérida, Jabugo, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, the Sierra Morenas north of Córdoba, Chinchón and Toledo.  With more posts to come on his blog, John Sconzo wrote this in one of his first entries about the trip:

"Nights like this are ones that just need to be appreciated for the something special that they are. It is no exaggeration that Gerry Dawes, my friend, traveling companion and guide “knows and appreciates Spain more than all but a few Spaniards” let alone people from other countries. That statement came from our host for the evening, Benjamin Rodriguez Rodriguez, the proprietor of the humble appearing, but fully sensational El Rincon de Jabugo situated in the equally humble, but comfortable Gran Hostal San Segundo located just outside the historic walls of Avila near the  San Vicente gate."

“I have said this before and I’ll say it again, nobody knows Spain like Gerry Dawes. I sincerely doubt that there is another American, and very few, if any, Spaniards can approach, let alone surpass his knowledge of the people, food, wine and culture of Spain. He has been frequenting the depths, breadths and heights of the country as a second home for nearly fifty years, leaving no stone, and especially no wine, unturned during that time.” -- Wining and Dining Around Spain with Gerry Dawes: Part 1 (of a 6-part series) by John Sconzo, Docsconz: Musings on Food & Life, March 10, 2015 (From a second trip Sconzo took with me, this one this year.)

“Gerry Dawes is a true gastronomad, walking the culinary and cultural by-ways of the Spanish soul and then sharing every bit of his passion and knowledge (both considerable) with the reader.  I once overheard someone say that James Michener said Gerry was the only one qualified to write the sequel to Iberia.  I have learned so much from his experiences -- he is the "go-to" guy for anything authentically Spanish and is unparalleled in his experience with Spanish wines.  Gerry has introduced the world to Spanish chefs (including Ferran Adria), Spanish food products, wines, history (I especially love his respect for Spain's Jewish culture -- and he's not Jewish), and travel.”  - - Rozanne Gold, Four-time James Beard Foundation award-winning chef and author.  

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

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For customized trips, contact Gerry Dawes (based in New York) with desired dates, areas of interest in Spain (gastronomy, wine, art, history, culture, photography, etc.), specific sights you might like to see, number of possible travelers, and an estimated budget for your group. 

gerrydawes@aol.com

Phone: 914-414-6982 
Teléfono movíl (during stays in España): (011 34) 670 67 39 34

More Endorsements and Testimonials From Culinary Stars 

Gastronomic Adventures in Alicante Province: Quique Dacosta Gets His Well-deserved Third Michelin Star; Plus Personal Adventures with Quique & Casa Elías in Xinorelet

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Quique Dacosta at Casa Elías, Xinorlet (Alicante), October 18, 2012.

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011. gerrydawes@aol.com

Quique Dacosta has long been a friend of mine.  I was very happy to hear that is was announced in November that he had received his third Michelin star, for which he has worked so hard for so many years.  I last ate at Restaurante Quique Dacosta in October 2011, when I was staying in Denia at Hotel La Posada del Mar.  I was traveling with Ryan Mcilwraith, Michael Chiarello's executive sous chef and we were supposed to go to Quique Dacosta that night.  Ryan was sick with a bad stomach, so I decided not to go either, but Quique called me on my cell phone at 10:30 p.m. and demanded that I get my ass over there (it is about 2 kilometers from the hotel), so I ended up going by myself.  I was pretty wiped out from ten days of taking Michael and Ryan around northern Spain (Michael had left the day before from Barcelona), so I told Quique I was only up for an abbreviated menu.  He sent out a dazzling parade of his incredible cocina de vanguardia estilo Quique dishes, then came out and sat with me for half an hour.

Quique Dacosta, Denia (Alicante). Dish with the spooky vapors of the dry ice beneath swirling around your food.

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011. gerrydawes@aol.com

In October 2012, I was the inaugural speaker at the annual Turismo conference in Benidorm (Alicante) and I met Director General de Turismo de Valencia Sebastian Fernández, who told me he was going for lunch at one of my favorite restaurantes in Spain, Casa Elías, a exceptional family place in the small village of Xinorlet.   Casa Elías specializes in wonderful thin-layered arroses (rice dishes, call them paellas) con conejo y caracoles (rabbit and local snails [with fresh rosemary]) cooked over grape vine cuttings, usually from the local Monastrell vineyards.  Casa Elías also serves a number of other authentic local speciaties (see photos of the luncheon here: Xinorlet (Alicante) Casa Elias Rabbit & Snail Paella Paco Torreblanca - Quique Dacosta Oct 18, 2012).  Sr. Fernández also told me that two great friends--two of my favorite Spanish chefs--Quique Dacosta and Paco Torreblanca were also coming.  I managed to wrangle (not wangle) an invitation to accompany Sr. Fernández to the luncheon.  

We got to Casa Elías first and I hid in a private dining room until Paco, his wife Chelo, Quique and journalist Maria Canabal (http://www.gastronomad.eu) were in the main dining, then came out to surprise them (I took it as a good sign that they didn't flee).  I felt like I had hit the lottery.  Not only did I get to schmooze the Director of Tourism for Valencia on the hour-long ride from Benidorm to Xinorlet and have a chance to eat the terrific food at Casa Elías again, among my dining companions for the next two hours were two of Spain's real culinary super stars:  Paco Torreblanca may be the top chocolatier in Europe and Quique Dacosta could well be the heir apparent to Ferran Adrià's throne, now that elBulli has closed. 

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Paco Torreblanca Slideshow, Including the Full Food Arts Article.

I never see Quique without remembering (how could I not?) that on September 11, 2001 I was having lunch with Santa Fe Chef Mark Miller (then owner of Coyote Cafe) at Quique's restaurant in Denia, at the time called El Poblet.  Halfway through a terrific meal--we were having a course of supernal grilled gambas de Denia  (superb rosa-colored shrimp that actually come from deep water off the Balearic island of Ibiza), when my Spanish cell phone rang.  It was chef Teresa Barrenechea, who then owned Marichu restaurant in Manhattan.  She, too, was traveling in Spain.  She told me that a plane had hit The World Trade Center.  I thought, "Wow, someone has had the misfortune to have crashed a private plane into The World Trade Center!"   Soon enough, Quique called us to the bar, where we saw the rest in real time, including the second plane crashing into the second tower.  Mark Miller, Quique, myself and his employees watched dumbfounded as we the events unfolded on television.  Mark Miller's Coyote Cafe restaurant managers from Santa Fe and Las Vegas were still in-flight headed for Valencia, where we were supposed to pick them up after lunch.  

Mark Miller (at the end of the table) and some friends tasting wines with me at Taberna La Boca in Santa Fe 

during the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta in September 2012

Miller's managers were able to get to Valencia on time, but, as we soon found out, there would be no going back to the U.S. right away, since all flights were grounded, so we continued on our planned intinerary to Barcelona, Navarra, The Basque Country, la Rioja and back to Madrid.   In Navarra, we had lunch in Tudela, and found out the next day that an Al-Qaeda operative who had planned to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris had been apprehended in a nearby village, where he had been living for several months.

For several days, I was sure that I had lost friends in The World Trade Center attack, including Michael Lomonaco, one of the original members of my Chefs From Hell Club, who was then Executive Chef of Windows on the World, Cellar in the Sky and The World Trade Center Club; Jules Roinnel, the Managing Director of The World Trade Center Club; and a number of others who had been on a trip to Spain with me that spring.

Chef Michael Lomonaco, now Chef-partner at Porterhouse New York.

Ironically, in May of 2001, I had led a group of 26 people from The World Trade Center Club around Spain for eleven days.  The group include Jules Roinnel, the Club's Director and my old friend, Michael Lomonaco, Executive Chef of Windows on the World, Cellar in the Sky and The World Trade Center Club.  Ironically, on that trip, we had gone for lunch one day in Madrid at a great seafood restaurant, La Trainera, on calle Lagasca.  Since the street was too narrow for our bus, the driver double-parked the bus alongside some parked cars on calle Goya across the street from Bar Goya and in front of a BBVA bank branch and we walked a block or so to the restaurant.  After a terrific lunch, at which on old friend of mine, John Ewing, joined the group, we drove back to our hotel and continuing touring Madrid in the afternoon.  

After dinner, some of us decided to have a drink in the Hemingway Bar at the Hotel Palace. John Ewing, who had also joined us for dinner, decided to call it night and took a cab back to his hotel, which coincidentally was the Hotel Lagasca, on the street where we had had lunch.  Within half an hour, Ewing called me on my cell phone and told me, "You won't believe what just happened!  A bomb just exploded and damned near blew me out of bed."The Basque separatist group ETA had planted a bomb in a car parked in front of that BBVA bank branch where our bus was parked during lunch.  

For all we knew the bomb could have been there while our bus was there.  The bomb injured 14 people, destroyed a number of cars and wrecked a number of business along calle Goya, including the Bar Goya, which got destroyed and was where John Ewing had considered stopping for a nightcap, but opted to return to his hotel, go to bed and read a book, a decision that may have saved his life.

The next morning, our World Trade Center Club group was preparing to leave for Ribera del Duero, Burgos and The Basque Country.  The Deputy Security Inspector for The Bridge and Tunnel Authority (in charge of The World Trade Center), had his offices on the 77th Floor of the tower that was home to the World Trade Center Club, Windows on the World, Cellar in the Sky and City Lights Bar.  He stood outside the cargo compartments of the bus and made sure that each bag belonged to its owner and was verified.  Looking back, I have always considered that Basque bomb on calle Goya as a harbinger of things to come.

As Mark Miller, his Coyote Cafe managers and I continued our trip, I checked newspapers at every stop and listened to Spanish radio in the car, but, in the absence of any direct news about my friends, I was almost sure that they had perished.  Then three days later, my daughter, Elena, who had dined with me at Windows on the World in August, called crying about the attacks, but told me that she had seen my friend, Chef Lomonaco, on television.  Michael had survived because he took 15 minutes to have his glasses repaired and did not catch the elevator that would have taken him 110 stories to his kitchens at Windows on the World and to certain death.  

Later I would find out that Jules Roinnel had switched shifts and planned to work that evening.  Mike Nester, the Deputy Inspector who had checked the bags going on the bus in front of the Hotel Ritz in May had had breakfast at The World Trade Center Club and had just reached the 77th floor when the first plane hit.  He was able to get out in time by walking down all those flights of stairs, helping and injured person to get out as well, injuring his neck in the process.  But, of the some 24 people on that Spain trip with me, not a one perished.  Pardon me if I have digressed in reporting about Quique Dacosta's third Michelin star, but I spent one of the most unforgettable days of my life in his restaurant.  

Subsequent meals at Quique Dacosta have fortunately had a much happier outcome, but we seldom see one another for any length of time without recalling that incredible afternoon that we watched unfold on television together.  

(A video trailer on Valencia and Alicante showing Quique Dacosta, Paco Torreblanca and Casa Elías.)
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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 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.
 

Gerry Dawes would like to host a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain that features a different star American chef in each episode.  Serious inquiries welcome.

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com.

 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

A Taste of Northern Spain Tour With Gerry Dawes and John Sconzo

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A Taste of Northern Spain Tour

With Gerry Dawes and John Sconzo

Wednesday, Oct. 28 – Saturday, November 8

(Terms & Conditions Available on Request)

 

$5795 (double occcupancy) without airfare; 

$900 single room supplement

Tour limited to 12 guests.

   

Gerry Dawes, John Sconzo and George Mendes at Casa Botín during Madrid Fusión 2013.  Photo by L. J. Sconzo.

Day 00 Wed, October 28 Fly USA – Madrid – Vigo

  Flights should be booked via Madrid with Vigo as the final destination.  Iberia Airlines is your best bet.

 Day 01 Thurs., Oct 29 Madrid – Vigo – Cambados  

Arrive in Madrid, transfer to the plane to Vigo, pickup at Vigo airport by small bus, drive via the Rias (fjords) to Pontevedra and visit the most important fish market in Spain, then on to nearby Cambados, check into Casa Rosita, give our guests some time to freshen up, then have lunch nearby in a special seafood restaurant and return to the hotel for a siesta.   In the evening, we will have a light seafood dinner in Cambados and turn in early.

  
Rías de Vigo with shellfish rafts beyond the boats.  Photograph by Gerry Dawes.

After arriving at Vigo, Galicia via New York and Madrid, my first tapas of the trip, deviled eggs and empanada de atun, Estrella de Galicia cerveza.  A Centoleira, Playa de Beluso, Bueu (Pontevedra), Galicia.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Day 02 Friday, Oct. 30 Cambados 

Drive to vine-covered Meaño through wine country and visit the artesano Albariño producers and taste wines from six wineries, then drive to O Grove and take a boat (if available) out into the Rias and visit some of bateas (shellfish rafts) and eat steamed mussels fresh from a batea, then back in O Grove to D’ Berto for lunch, where we will accompany the lunch with the artesano wines, some 6-8 of them.
 

 

Paco Dovalo, President of the Asociación de Bodegas Artesanas, and Gerry Dawes 

at the Encontro de Viño de Autor in Meaño.

After lunch, we will take an hour’s ride back to Cambados and visit the fish market, then the old fisherman’s port and the old quarters of Cambados and have a light dinner in a bar-restaurant in the fishermen’s quarter.

Mussels from the bateas (anchored rafts for farming Galicia’s famous shellfish). 

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Employee on the boat Pelegrin feeds a mussel taken from one of the bateas, shellfish farm rafts, to a sea gull, O Grove (Pontevedra).  Photo by Gerry Dawes.

Fishermen delivering the daily catch at 8:30 p.m.  to Restaurante D' Berto.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.From Michael Chiarello Spain Trip October 2011

Day 03 Saturday, Oct. 31 Cambados – Santiago de Compostela – Ribadavia – Ribeiro – Monforte de Lemos

We will ride 45 minutes in the morning to the great city of Santiago de Compostela, the spiritual capital of Galicia, visit the magnificent Cathedral and Cathedral Square, stroll through old historic Santiago, the destination point for the renowned Camino de Santiago, then visit Santiago’s wonderful municipal market and have a tapas lunch at one of most innovative and best restaurants in town located right in the market.

 Iago Pazos with empanadas at Abastos 2.0 market bar in the market of Santiago de Compostela.  

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

 After lunch, we will drive an hour or so to Ribadavia, which has one of the best preserved old Jewish quarters in northern Spain, then 10 minutes away, we will visit one of the best wineries in the Ribeiro wine region and taste wines with the owner-winemaker.

 

 Sign denoting that this was the Barrio Judio from the 12th to the 16th century, in the old Jewish quarter of Ribadavia (Ourense), Galicia.  

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2012; gerrydawes@aol.com

Video of Manuel Formigo winery in Ribeiro.

 Another hour through very picturesque Galicia will take us to the important town of Monforte de Lemos, where we will check in the Parador Nacional de Turismo, which is in a former convent perched a hill. After we check in, we will take a short walking tour of the older sections of Monforte, then relax at the parador until time for dinner, which will be 200 yards down the hill at one of the best regional specialty restaurants in the region. Several winemakers from La Ribera Sacra, one of the greatest red wine regions (with some surprising white wines as well) in Spain, will join us for dinner with their wines. After dinner, we will return to the Parador early.

 

Chef Michael Chiarello, Bottega, Napa Valley with José Manuel Rodríguez, President of the D.O. Ribeira Sacra and producer of The Spanish Artisan Wine Group wine, Décima, in José Manuel's precipitously steep Ribeira Sacra vineyards on the Sil River. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Day 04 Sunday, Nov. 1 Ribeira Sacra – Chantada - Monforte de Lemos

 After a leisurely breakfast on Sunday morning, we will drive half an hour to spectacular Miño River wine region south of the town of Chantada. We will visit several wineries, have lunch with several winemakers and their wines at a special restaurant right on the river, then take a boat ride for an hour on the incredibly picturesque Miño, where the steep hill are covered in vines planted right down to the river’s edge.

 
Gerry Dawes and winemaker Roberto Regal with several top wines from small artisan producers from the vineyards that line the Miño river around the town of Chantada.  At Belesar in Lugo province.

After lunch, we will drive an hour to the southeast back past Monforte to visit the awesome Sil River canyons that are filled with some of the greatest vineyards in La Ribeira Sacra. We will visit some unique wineries and then have an early dinner in a restaurant-winery in the prime Amandi region of Ribeira Sacra. 

After dinner, we will return to Monforte de Lemos to the Parador, where we can have optional libations in the patio bar and review the events of the past few days.

Day 05 Monday, Nov. 2 Ribeira Sacra – Valdeorras – Villafranca del Bierzo – Cangas de Onís (Asturias).

 

 Catch the optical illusion at the rim of the glass (look the rim for a few seconds and it will change perspective).  Kay Balun at D. Berna with a glass of D. Berna Godello, Córgomo, Valdeorras, Galicia.  

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2012; gerrydawes@aol.com

After breakfast at the Parador, we will embark on a 45-minute drive through wine country to Valdeorras, where we will visit two wineries that make wonderful wines from one of the greatest white wine grapes in the world, Godello. The mother of one of our winery principals has a bar-restaurant in the center of the main town, O Barco de Valdeorras, where we will taste wines and sample Galician specialties like steamed octopus with olive oil, sea salt and Spanish paprika and empanadas fulled with tuna, shellfish or meat.
 

From O Barco, we will drive 45 minutes to El Bierzo, where visit the picturesque Camino de Santiago and major wine town of Cacabelos and taste wines with 2-3 winemakers, then have lunch with some of the wines at a lovely restaurant in Villafranca del Bierzo frequented by local winemakers and located in a small charming hotel that sits right on the Camino de Santiago.

After lunch, all but our bus driver will have a bus siesta as we pass through the Picos de Europa mountains and into Asturias, a drive of about two hours with stops.

We will stay in the colorful Asturian town of Cangas de Onis, which is deep in the Parque Nacional de Quesos, the main town of one of the greatest cheese and cider regions in Europe. 

We will check into our hotel in Cangas, visit some cheesemakers and Cabrales aging caves and taste cheeses accompanied by cider poured splashing into wide-mouthed glasses from bottles held high above their heads by dexterous cider-pouring barmen.   We will have dinner in a very colorful sidreria with a cheese guru and sample more cheeses, local specialties such as fabada Asturiana and wonderful steaks.

After dinner, we will return to Cangas.

Pouring cider at El Campanu, Cangas de Onís, Asturias.  
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2012; gerrydawes@aol.com

Day 06 Tuesday, November 3 Asturias – Santillana del Mar – Bilbao

In the morning, we will relax and leave time for shopping in Cangas, visit a couple of cheese villages, then drive north of Oviedo to have lunch at one of the best restaurants in northern Spain, Michelin-starred Casa Gerardo, where father-and-son Chef team Pedro and Marcos Morán will prepare a special menu for us.

After lunch we will drive to Bilbao, diverting to see some of the dramatic Asturian and Cantabrian coasts and fishing ports, along the way. We will stop for an hour in the picturesque medieval village of Santillana del Mar, then drive on to Bilbao arriving in the evening.

We will check into our centrally located hotel in Bilbao, then have tapas in the colorful Plaza Nueva before settling into a wonderful restaurant in the Bilbao barrio of Deusto, where we will have some superb steaks (or fish for those who choose not to have steak), roasted red peppers, salad, sidra (cider) and red and Rosado wines from nearby Basque Rioja Alavesa.

There is a casino in Bilbao for optional games and local bars where we can have the option of relaxing with adult libations.

Guggenheim Bilbao Museum. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2014. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Day 07, Wednesday, Nov. 4 Bilbao – San Sebastián

In the morning, we will have a guided tour of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, which was designed by Frank Gehry.

After the museum tour we will drive to the coast to see some enchanting fishing villages, then drop down into the mountains of the interior of The Basque Country and have lunch at Asador Etxebarri, one of the greatest grill restaurants in the world.

After lunch, we will ride an hour to San Sebastián to our hotel, which overlooks the famous La Concha beach and bay.

After some time to settle into the hotel, we will do a walking tour of the old quarter of San Sebastián, which has the highest concentration of bars (mostly tapas bar-restaurants) in Europe and is a great area for shopping for original gifts. (We can make a stop in the market building to allow those who want to put some laundry in for afternoon or next morning pickup at Cinc a Sec.)

In early evening in two groups, we will sample tapas in a few bars, then gather at one of the best and most colorful of them and have sit-down tapas in their basement restaurant.

 

Amaia and Jose (owners of Bar-Asador Ganbara), and Chef Michael Chiarello (Bottega, Napa Valley & Coqueta, San Francisco), Ganbara, Casco Viejo (old quarter), San Sebastián.  Photo by Gerry Dawes.

Day 08, Thursday, November 5 San Sebastián

This morning, we will walk back over to the old quarter and visit the markets—La Brecha for fish, all kinds of meat, cheeses, vegetables, etc. and the outdoor farmers’ market.

After we visit the market, we will take our bus for a 15-minute ride to the Pasaia port, where we will take a five-minute ferry ride to Pasaia Donibane (Pasajes de San Juan in Spanish), a picturesque one-street town where Victor Hugo lived for a year. We will explore this photogenic waterside village, then have lunch in a wonderful typical restaurant overlooking the inlet, where Basque rowers can usually be seen practicing their sport.

We will return to San Sebastián after lunch and the afternoon will be free to explore this 
glorious city, walk on the beach, shop, etc.

In early evening, wearing jackets and ties for the gentlemen, evening attire for the ladies, we will gather in the hotel lobby and then board our bus for a short ride up to Monte Igueldo, where we will see breathtaking view overlooking San Sebastián and the sea. 

After this breathtaking beginning, we will take a short drive to a Michelin 3 star restaurant to meet the chef and dine on some of his cocina de vanguardia vasca creations that have made this city famous as one of the great gastronomy destinations in the world.

Day 09 Friday, November 6 San Sebastián – Getaria – Olite – Tudela
 
The morning will be free to explore this glorious city, walk on the beach, shop, etc. Again, around noon, we gather back at the hotel, and with our bags on board the bus, drive 30 minutes west to very picturesque fishing village of Getaria on the Basque Coast, where we will have a seafood lunch at one of the best fish restaurants in the world.

Getaria, near San Sebastián. Photograph by Gerry Dawes ©2014

 

Wylie Dufresne and Drew Nieporent pose as David Chang contemplates how "f-king" great the dinner at Elkano was. San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010.  
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.
 

After lunch, we will ride through the dramatic foothills of the Pyrenees into Navarra, stop at the charming castle village of Olite, then half an hour south, we will reach the southern Navarra town of Tudela, a historic Christian-Jewish-and Moorish town with an evocative old quarter. We will visit the magnificent restored church, which has one of the greatest 13^th Century Romanesque doorways in Europe, plus vestiges of the former synagogue and a former mosque that once stood on this site.

 

 Aliaga Lágrima de Garnacha Navarra Rosado 2012 at El Crucero Restaurante, Corella (Navarra).  Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2013 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter.

 

In the early evening, we will drive to nearby Corella and have dinner in one of the best and most unsung vegetable-dish focused restaurants in northern Spain. This region is famous for its vegetables–you will have none better in all of Spain. In addition to dishes such as a salad cardos y semillas de granada (cardoons with pomegranate seeds), pimientos de cristál (red peppers), pochas (supernal beans) and deep-fried alcachofas con foie (artichokes (served with foie gras) and esparragos blancos (white asparagus), there are dishes such as pan-seared bacalao on a bed of vegetables, roast kid with patatas panaderas and turron ice cream with torrijas (you will thank us for introducing you to this dessert—and this restaurant).

   
Cardoons with a special touch, granada (pomegranate seeds) and the house's own extra virgin olive oil from Navarra, El Crucero Restaurante, Corella (Navarra).  

Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter.

We will return to our hotel, which is parador-esque, ensconced in a renovated historic building.

Day 10 Saturday, November 7 Tudela – Zaragoza – Madrid 

In the morning, we will ride an hour to Zaragoza, take a tour of the old city, then head for Madrid, stopping for a snack along the way.

We will arrive at our central Madrid hotel, check in and go to lunch in Madrid’s old quarter.

The afternoon will be free for touring the Prado Museum, strolling and shopping.

We will gather in our hotel in the early evening, have drinks in a restaurant overlooking the Plaza de Cibeles, then have our farewell dinner in Madrid’s old quarter on typical Castillian specialties.  

Optional Flamenco show. 

Victoria Duende, one of the stars at Madrid's Café de Chinitas, also danced at Corral de la Morería in Madrid. Victoria Duende was born in el barrio de la Macarena in Sevilla and began to study dance at age 3 under the great Matilde Coral, a splendid dancer who used to perform at Sevilla's legendary La Cuadra with her husband Rafael El Negro and the great dancer El Farruco.  Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2013 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter.

Chef Georges Mendes (Aldea, New York) with a plate of carabineros at  El Pecado Original at the Mercado de San Miguel, with L. J. Sconzo and Mendes's sous chef at Aldea, Mitchell Barr.  
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2015 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon EOS 50D / Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

Day 11, Sunday, Nov. 8 Madrid – USA

Taxis in the morning to Madrid airport to catch flights back to the U.S. Option for more days in Madrid, visits to Segovia, Avila, Toledo, etc.

Option to spend more days in Madrid, visit other parts of Spain.

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About Gerry Dawes  

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel G

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. 

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. 
 

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

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes
Presidente-Jefe & Chairman of the Board
The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirits Group - Gerry Dawes Selections
Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel
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Patterson, NY 12563

gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com
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Spanish National Gastronomy Award 2003

Food Arts Silver Spoon Award (Written by JBF Outstanding Chef José Andrés)