Soldaditos de Pavia, battered and fried bacalao, one of Sevilla's favorite tapas explained. At Las Teresas, an excellent tapas bar in the Barrio de Santa Cruz.

 

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Soldaditos de Pavia, battered and fried bacalao, one of Sevilla's favorite tapas.  "The little soldiers of Pavia" supposedly gets its name from Pavia in Italy or from a general Pavia whose soldiers wore red berets.  This tapa is often served with a strip of red pepper on top, the red "beret," so came to be called by this popular name, soldaditos de Pavia, at least that is what my Sevillano brother Manolo Esquivias Fedriani told me. 

 

This is why I sometimes go to my very long-time friend Janet Mendel, the great author of books and cookbooks on Spanish cuisine. From her My Kitchen in Spain blog: "Soldaditos de Pavía means “little soldiers of Pavía.” The “soldiers” are strips of batter-fried cod. The saffron in the batter turns the fritters yellow and they’re usually wrapped in a strips of red pimiento, so they are named, depending on which story you prefer, either for the color of the uniforms worn by the Spanish Hussars who occupied the Italian city of Pavia in a famous battle of 1525, won by Emperor Charles V, or else for the troops of General Pavía, who wore red waistcoasts when in 1874 they stormed Parliament and forced its dissolution at bayonet point, marking the beginning of the end of Spain’s first republic."

 

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Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain Volume I Enhanced Photography Edition

 

Available at Amazon, Despana (NYC), LaTienda.com, La Boca Restaurant (Santa Fe, NM) and at Kitchen Arts & Letters bookstore (NYC). 

 

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.

 

Help Support Gerry Dawes's Spain & Its Content

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.

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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.

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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 Four-hour (Maybe Five-hour!) Tapas Lunch-y-Sobremesa* at Bar Las Teresas in My Old Barrio de Santa Cruz, the Former Jewish Quarter of Sevilla with My Best Friends Manolo Esquivias & His Wife Mari Carmen Onrubia & Las Teresas Owner Luis Sánchez

* * * * * 
 A Four-hour (Maybe Five-hour!) Tapas Lunch-y-Sobremesa* at Bar Las Teresas,
Calle Santa Teresa 2, 41004 Sevilla +34 954 21 30 69

(*The BBC on Sobremesa: Click on link)

(Bar Las Teresas is named after calle Las Teresas, which is the street where the Convento de San José del Carmen is located.  The convent was founded by Santa Teresa de Jesús and is popularly known as el Convento de Las Teresas.)

Mari Carmen at Bar Las Teresas, Barrio de Santa Cruz, Sevilla.

 My dear and long-time (50 years) friend, Mari Carmen Onrubia (wife of my best friend Manolo Esquivias), always one of the most beautiful women in Sevilla, in front of the statue of Don Juan Tenorio in la Plaza los Refinadores in my old barrio, el Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter of Sevilla. The day before her birthday.

Jamones Ibéricos hanging from the ceiling in Bar Las Teresas in my old barrio, el Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter of Sevilla.

Juanma Morroquin serving La Tradición Fino Sherry from magnum in Bar Las Teresas in my old barrio, el Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter of Sevilla.

Lunch at Bar Las Teresas in my old barrio, el Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter of Sevilla. With my old friends Manolo Manuel Esquivias Fedriani and his wife, Mari Carmen Onrubia and their friend Las Teresas owner Luis Sánchez.

Café Bar Las Teresas has some 130 jamones Ibéricos puros hanging from the ceiling around the bar and in storage areas in Bar Las Teresas in my old barrio, el Barrio de Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter of Sevilla. A first-rate Ibérico ham can cost hundreds of Euros.   Las Teresas may have more than $20,000 invested in hams hanging in the restaurant. 

 A plate of jamón Ibérico puro at Café Bar Las Teresas.

 Worn-down, retired knives used to cut jamones Ibéricos since 1984 in Las Teresas.

 The tapas menu at Las Teresas with a dish of hueva alinada (cooked fish roe in olive oil and vinegar, a very popular tapa in Sevilla and the rest of Andalucía, and glasses of Bodegas Tradición Fino de Jerez Sherry and Spanish draft beer.

  Mejillones gallegas en escabeche (Galician tinned mussels in a vinaigrette with Spanish pimentón [paprika] with Bodegas Tradición Fino de Jerez Sherry at Las Teresas, Sevilla. 

  Hueva de maruca curada (maruca, Mediterranean ling, similar to whiting; salt- and air-cured like mojama) sliced thin and served with Spanish Extra Virgen Aceite de Olivo and Bodegas Tradición Fino de Jerez Sherry at Las Teresas, Sevilla.  

 Lomo Ibérico de bellota (cured Ibérico pork loin from acorn-fattened pigs) at Las Teresas.

 Las Teresas owner Luis Sánchez shows off the two wrist watches he wears.

 

 My dear and long-time (50 years) friend Manolo Esquivias, my Sevillano brother, at Les Teresas.

 Las Teresas was originally founded in 1870.

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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 WPWL 103.7 FM Pawling Public Radio in Pawling, New York.

 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@spanishartisanwine.com