English Version of Boquería Gourmand, a Book about Barcelona's Fabulous La Boquería Market (Foreword by Gerry Dawes)

* * * * *

Boquería Gourmand

English edition, published by Viena Edicions (www.vienaeditorial.com)

La Boquería:  My Favorite Pueblo is a Gastronomer’s Paradise

(Foreword includes additional paragraphs not in the published version.)

By Gerry Dawes©2018

Premio Nacional de Gastronomía 2003
(Stay tuned for many more photographs of La Boquería.)

El Mercat de San Josep, La Boquería. 
Photo: Gerry Dawes©2018 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

“I felt dizzy with the idea that I was part of that paradise of food. It was, and still is, a petit poble (small village) inside the big city.” - - Quim Marquéz, Chef-owner, Quim de la Boquería, Parada 606 (location), El Mercat de La Boquería. 

Quim Marquéz, Chef-owner, Quim de la Boquería

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

For forty years I have been traveling in the patrias chicas of the Iberian Peninsula.  I lived for eight years in Andalucía and have repeatedly crisscrossed El País Vasco, Galicia, Valencia, Navarra, Aragón, La Rioja, Asturias, Extremadura, the lands of Castilla y León, and all of the other provinces of Iberia, including Catalunya.  Over these decades of travel, I have come to love many "pueblos" across the vast, wonderful and exotic Iberian landscape-Sanlúcar de Barrameda (where my soul resides) and Ronda in Andalucía: Chinchón just outside Madrid; Covarrubias (Burgos); Burguete (Navarra); Haro (La Rioja), Cangas de Onís (Asturias), Gratallops (Tarragona) and Cadaqués (Girona), among many. 

 

Gerry Dawes, Juanito Bayen and Juli Soler at Pinotxo Bar, Barcelona, Jan. 14, 2014. 
 / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS30 43-86mm f3.3 – f6.4.
 Photo courtesy of Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com

 
As much as I long to return to such places for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is a multitude of friends and memories, few have quite the compelling attraction of Barcelona's El Mercat de San Josep, La Boquería market, which as Quim Marquéz put it so well, "still is a petit poble (small village) inside the big city" and is literally one of my favorite pueblos in the world.

Ever since I spent six weeks in Barcelona in 1970--first working as an extra on the American movie, The Great White Hope (many of the boxing scenes were filmed on Montjuic) and having anecdotal quality adventures off the set with the actor, James Earl Jones--this exciting city has occupied a favored spot in my heart.  While working on the movie, I stayed in a steeply discounted small room in the Hotel Ritz, then I moved to a very modest pensión, ironically on the calle de la Boquería.  Each day, I lived the rich Bohemian life of the legendary pedestrian artery,  Les Rambles, and the narrow, labyrinthine streets of the Barri Goti, el Raval and Born, incessantly taking photographs, including a memorable Sunday when I captured soulful images of Catalan sardana dancing in front of the Cathedral.  

Caren (from Argentina), Winged Victory. Les Rambles, Barcelona.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2008 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

In those early days, I was not yet the gourmet and gourmand that I would become as a writer-photographer specializing in the gastronomy of Spain--in 1997, Food Arts magazine (http://www.foodarts.com/Foodarts/FA_Feature/0,4041,387,00.html) published my article on  Ferran Adrià, the first major article in the U.S. on elBulli's superstar chef.   I wandered into La Boquería on occasion (and returned there periodically on subsequent trips), but then usually I went on to explore Barcelona's other attractions - Les Rambles, the Barri Gotic, Montjuic, La Barceloneta and Antoni Gaudi's architecture.  

Lovers in Antoni Gaudí's Parque Güell, Barcelona. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

It was not until 1992 that I was properly introduced to La Boquería on a pre-Olympic, gastronomic scouting trip with two major American journalists, Bryan Miller of The New York Times and William Rice of The Chicago Tribune.  With us was Spanish expatriate restaurateur, Gabino Sotelino from Chicago, who seemed to know everyone.  On our first day in Barcelona, we had an incredible breakfast in La Boquería at Bar Pinotxo, where Juanito Bayen held court and posed for his famous trademark thumbs-up photographs.  Catalan culinary luminaries, American chef Jonathan Waxman and writer Colman Andrews (author of Catalan Cuisine), both stopped by to say "bon día" to Juanito and see what he and his battery of cooks were serving that morning.

Juanito Bayen, owner of Pinotxo in La Boquería, Barcelona. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2008. Contact: gerrydawes@aol.com

There were egg dishes, mongetes (little white beans prized here as fesols de Sant Pau) and butifarra blanca (Catalan sausages), grilled asparagus and more, all washed down with lots of glasses of cava (Catulunya's fine sparkling wine), then carajillos, brandy-spiked espresso with the naughty name.   Later, we went with Isidre Gironés, owner of the legendary Ca L'Isidre restaurant, to Petras's mushroom stall, where I photographed Isidre with a large box of truffles.

 
Breakfast of Champions, calamarsets saltats amb fesols  de Sant Pau, beans with tiny squid dressed with a drizzle of reduced balsamic vinegar, with beer or cava (Catalan Champagne), Pinotxo Bar, La Boquería, Barcelona, Jan. 11, 2014.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

 

After Pinotxo and my "first breakfast"-- now served to me by my friend, Jordi Asín (l).  Sadly his co-chef and a great friend of mine, brother Albert (r) died in February 2011.

Everywhere in La Boquería there is color. Artistically arranged in tiers are red, green, yellow and orange peppers; yellow-and-blush pink peaches, red, yellow and green apples, oranges, lemons and limes; shiny black or purple eggplant; green zucchini squash, green and white asparagus, artichokes and chirmoyas (custard apples); little baskets of red raspberries and currants; red and red-green tomatoes; white and red radishes, hanging strings of garlic and dried dark red ñora peppers.  Around a corner, a stand sells a dozen varieties of cured green, black and purple olives, pickled cucumbers, pickled onions, garbanzos, etc.  And another specializes in a Catalan staple, bacalao, salt cod in small stacks or in trays soaking in water, being de-salinated before cooking.

 

Eduard Soley, Vice President of La Boquería Owners Association bags a purchase at his stand in la Boquería. 

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2010 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Jordi Mas's (co-author of Boquería Gourmand) family establishment, Mas Gourmets de L'Embotit (five stalls in La Boquería), specializes in Spanish hams and a variety of traditional and innovative embotits (cured meats and sausages).  Hanging from hooks attached to metal rods suspended from the ceiling are a dozen types of jamónes Ibéricos de bellota--exquisite pink-to-wine red, streaked with ethereal white-yellow fat hams from free-range pata negra (black hoof breed) pigs fattened on acorns-specially selected from three separate denominaciones de origen in western Spain.  

 

 Jordi Mas at on of his five Mas Embotits stands at la Boqueria market in Barcelona.

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

And, in La Boquería, a variety of butcher shops offer everything from steaks and pork chops to whole lamb, suckling pig, goat, rabbit and game birds.  Some specialize in offal--brains, livers, hearts, mounds of snow white tripe and "off" parts, pigs' trotters, lambs' heads, etc.

Another stall offers a wide range of imported and local cows', ewes' and goats' milk cheeses from Catalan Garrotxa to Extremaduran torta del Casar to French Vacherin Mont d'Or. A number of bakeries sell a wide variety of breads, pastries and pa coca, the original Catalana version of pizza.  A favorite photo opportunity is Ous de Calaf, which specializes in an impressive array of eggs from hens (organically raised), bantams, turkeys, ducks, pheasants, partridge, quail, ostrich and even emu!!  

And, at Avinova Ous i Caça (Eggs and Game), my friend Salvador Capdevila, depending upon the season, will have rows of rabbits, partridge, ducks, geese and other game, including venison, hanging in his cases to be hand dressed or cut according to the needs of his customers, which include some of the top restaurants in Catalunya.

 

 Salvador Capdevila, owner of Avinova, and Catalan food writer and personality Xavi Agulló at Bar Pinotxo, Barcelona.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2010 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

 

Another major attraction is the seafood purveyors selling a stunning selection of fresh fish (all arranged on beds of ice) from both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, interspersed with  a wide variety of shellfish--pink gambas (shrimp) from Denia and Pálamos on the Mediterranean, carbineros (bright scarlet prawns) from Huelva, red or blue-green llagostas (lobsters), walnut-colored, razor-case shaped navalles (razor clams) and white-pink cigalas (Dublin Bay prawns) from Galicia (many so fresh they are still alive!). These colorful market stalls bustle with constant movement with fishmongers.  

 

Gemma Bosch Roca at her great seafood stand in La Boquería. 

 Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS30 43-86mm f3.3 – f6.4.

For years I have always stopped to photograph my friend, the lovely Gemma Bosch Roca, always stylishly dressed, like many women in La Boquería, wearing an elegantly embroidered bodice and looking gorgeous, all the while bagging mariscos (exquisite crustaceans and mollusks), cutting up fish, wrapping slices and filets, passing them to customers and taking payment.  Many of the women of La Boquería go to work dressed like they are going after work to attend a performance at the nearby Gran Teatre de Liceu (on Les Rambles), Barcelona's equivalent of Milano's La Scala.  (Years ago, one such well-dressed woman in a Boquería butcher's shop--before the health authorities made everyone wear gloves--spread open the carcass of a goat hanging in her stall for me to photograph with her carefully manicured, bright carmine-lacquered fingernails and the gold ring with diamonds she was wearing juxtaposed against the pink flesh of the freshly butchered animal.) 

At the back of the market, I always return to the famous stall of Bolets Petras, which even though my friend owner Llorenç Petràs has retired and left the business in the capable hands of his son, Xavier, still sells a multitude of mushrooms in season, along with truffles like the ones in the box that Isidre Gironés of Ca L'Isidre held for me to photograph twenty years ago.  

 The legendary mushroom-and-truffle guru, Llorenç Petràs, now-retired, but who just happened to be at his Petras stand in Barcelona’s Mercat de La Boquería that day (the stand is now run by his son) and showed the chefs a pile of prime black truffles.Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon EOS 6D / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

 
I always finish my tour of la Boquería at Quím de la Boquería, another legendary market bar, whose slogan is "El Arte de Comer en Un Taburete" (The Art of Eating on a Barstool). If he is not crazy busy, I get a thumbs-up and a big abrazo from Quím Marquéz, the owner. From a small stove in impossibly tight quarters his sauteé pans flame and his plancha grill sizzles as Quím and his crew prepare some of the best food in food-crazy Barcelona.  For my "second breakfast"-- the first was at Pinotxo-knowing that I am going to be fed like a king I put myself in Quím's hands, like he did with me when I took him and his two young sons to New York City's Chinatown a few years ago.  

 

 Quím Marquéz, legendary market bar, whose slogan is "El Arte de Comer en Un Taburete" (The Art of Eating on a Barstool). 

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon EOS 6D / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

Quím may make me a bowl of steaming beberechos (cockles); a plate of grilled asparagus or deep-fried artichoke hearts; an exquisite dish of shrimp with the heads still on; my beloved mongetes with butifarra and aioli; then a perfectly cooked slab of foie gras with crispy fried leeks, all accompanied by glasses of cava rosat (rosé), Catalan Champagne. 

At Quím de la Boquería, I usually meet my old friend, Salvador Capdevila, owner of Avinova and now President of La Boquería owner's association.  Sometimes Salvador, then Vice President, would come with the amiable and highly regarded Manel Ripoll, who was President of La Boquería and who also became a friend.  (Sadly, Manel and two other friends of mine, the three-star Catalan chef Santi Santamaría and Pinotxo's Albert Asín, all died early in 2011).  And during the course of the hour I may spend at Quím de la Boquería, I sometimes see some of the most famous names in Catalan gastronomy such as my dear friend, (the late) Juli Soler (Ferran Adrià's partner at elBulli); Ferran's brother, Albert, chef-owner of Tickets; and Christian Escribà, Barcelona's supremely talented pastry maestro and event planner. 

 

My late great friend Juli Soler and I in front of a photo of Christian Escribà at Escribà on Les Rambles, next to La Boquería Market, Barcelona, Jan. 11, 2014. 

Photo by a friend of Juli Soler, Hubert Wiese Tornoe, Montblanc Iberia, SLU.

But, regardless of who shows up, when I return to this gastronomic paradise that is La Boquería, I always feel like I have come home to the pueblo of my dreams.

* * * * *

  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.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________

 

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

Breakfast of Champions in La Boquería Market in Barcelona and A Wine Adventure Trip in Catalunya October 2016

* * * * *

Casa Battlò, one of Antoni Gaudi’s architectural masterpieces, in the Eixample district of Barcelona. 

 All photos ©2016 by Gerry Dawes.

When I received an invitation for the National Tourist Office of Spain (Turespaña) to go on a wine adventure in Catalunya, promoting some newly developed wine routes in the four provinces (Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona) in this enticing corner of northeastern Spain.  I jumped at the chance.  This trip would also give me an opportunity to return to Barcelona, a city I have been visiting since 1970--I never miss a chance to visit to that vibrant, sophisticated, yet rough-cut jewel of a city, which really embedded itself in my soul when I went there to work as an extra on The Great White Hope and had anecdotal experiences with then budding supper star, James Earl Jones.  After my film worked ended, I stayed on in Barcelona for a couple more months, perhaps one month in total.  The Barcelona immersion worked and I have been coming back ever since, usually two-three times per year.

And, the Catalan part of the trip would end in Girona, a compelling provincial capital with a beautiful old Jewish quarter that I had only recently come to know. 

 Steps down a steep, narrow street in the old Jewish Quarter of Girona, Catalunya, one of the most important Jewish heritage cities in Spain.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon EOS 6D / Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM.

 

 Gerry Dawes, Juan Súarez, Ferran Adrià, Juan´s wife Esmeralda Capel (one of the Directors of Madrid Fusion) and my fiancee Kay Balun in the kitchen at elBulli, Dec. 4, 2010.  Photo by the late Juli Soler, co-owner of elBulli.

I had spent considerable time in Girona province when I went there to have lunch or dinner five times from 1997 to 2010 at Ferran Adrià´s and Juli Soler´s elBulli at Cala Montjoi, ate at the super star Roca brothers Celler de Can Roca (and drank excellent Cava with Jordi Roca and his parents at their traditional cuisine restaurant next door on their day off), explored the great Salvador Dalí´s shrines in Figueres, Cadaqués-Port Lligat and Pubol and drove on twisting roads to many of the towns and villages on the rocky Costa Brava.  

Despite having visited some 700 wineries in Spain over the past forty years, many of them more than a dozen times each, I knew relatively little about some of the Catalan wine regions we were going to visit.  Although I had been in Penedès on numerous occasions and had visited at least of score of Cava producers in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia over the years, I had been to very few wineries in the other two wine regions we were going to visit:  Empordà in Girona province and the up-and-coming Costers del Segre in Lleida province.

 

 Drinking Cava with Pitu Roca, Partner, Maitre'd and Beverage Director, Cellar de Can Roca, Girona.  
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest.  Canon EOS 6D / Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM.   All photos ©2016 by Gerry Dawes.

And a couple of years ago I was lucky to have as a friend and guide, Yvon Más, who expanded the horizons of one of my avocations, exploring the Jewish quarters of Spain.  Más, who I reccommend very, very highly as a guide (contact: yvanmas@hotmail.com), not only gave me a marvelous introduction to Jewish Girona, he also took me to an exceptionally memorable lunch at Restaurante Ibèric in the town of Ullastret, 35 kilometers from Girona. 

Artist – Girona guide Yvon Màs  watches the owner pulling a bogavante lobster out on the tanks at Restaurante Ibèric, a marvelous regional cuisine restaurant in Ullastret on the Costa Brava in Girona province.  All photos ©2016 by Gerry Dawes.

This time we were embarking on an ambitious trip, since we were going to cram in a lot of visits--eight wineries, a Cava museum, the magnificent Seu Vella Cathedral in Lleida, a couple of golf hotels, a castle-casino and a guided tour of Girona--and cover over 1050 kilometers (about 650 miles) in a mini/bus in just four days!

Map of Catalunya Wine Routes Trip October  18-22, 2016 - Part One

Map of Catalunya Wine Routes Trip October  18-22, 2016 - Part Two

Because of itineraries like this, which I have been doing versions of in Spain for more than forty years, I never arrive the same day as the group I might be traveling with, so Brad Haskel and I flew into Barcelona a day early.   We should have arrived two days early, as it turned out!

The first night's lodging was on us, so I booked Brad and me in Pensión Casa Blanca on Vía Layetana, one of the two main arteries that run from the Plaza de Catalunya to the port and bisects the Barri Goti, Barcelona’s exotic old quarter, which in some sections is an ancient labyrinth of narrow streets and lively plazas.  The Casablanca, itself exotic sounding, had some decent reviews on-line, so I booked a room where we could stash our luggage, shower, nap and  perhaps then catch the train to San Sadurni d’Anoia, the Cava and sparkling wine capital of Spain, where we hoped to have a visit early the next morning with star sparkling wine producer, AT Roca.  We would then rendezvous with the Spanish Tourist Office group, who was beginning our wine tour in Sant Sadurni in mid-morning.
 
Best laid plans.  Not!  Our flight from New York arrived in BCN around 7:30 a.m.  We collected our luggage and took a taxi to the Pensión Casa Blanca, which was supposedly on the third floor, but because of double floors, it was actually on the Sixth Floor.  We were thankful that the building had a working elevator, but when we arrived at the entrance door to the pensión, we found it locked.   It was 9:00 a.m. when we rang the doorbell.  We were hoping to be allowed into our room for a shower and a nap, before going out to explore Barcelona, one of my favorite cities and a place I have been coming to a few times a year since 1970.  Then, we would consider looking for lodging in Sant Sadurni for that very night and write off the Pensión Casa Blanca as a way station in Barcelona

After a couple of re-rings, the door was opened by the pensión manager, who let us into the silence of the darkened hall.  The manager (owner?) seemed none to happy to see us and had obviously just gotten out of bed, uncombed hair, sleepy look and all, to answer the bell.  His whole demeanor suggested that we were obviously not up on our arrival timing etiquette, at least not at Pensión Casa Blanca, which certainly at first glance, did not seem to be a place where we might encounter latter day incarnations of Humphrey Bogart’s Mr. Rick, let alone the breathtaking soft-focus beauty of Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa from the movie Casablanca.  

  Lovers in Antoni Gaudí's Parque Güell, Barcelona. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

The manager informed us that all the other guests were asleep and the pensión was full.  He would stash our luggage, but our room would not be available until at least 1:30 p.m.!   So much for a shower and a nap.  We left our luggage and headed for the Boquería, the world-famous market, whose main entrance on the equally famous street, Les Rambles, was a meandering 20-minute stroll across the Barri Goti.  

El Mercat de San Josep, La Boquería. 
Photo: Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@gmail.com.

“I felt dizzy with the idea that I was part of that paradise of food. It was, and still is, a
petit poble (small village) inside the big city.” - - Quím Marquéz, Chef-owner, Quím de la Boquería, Parada 606 (location), El Mercat de La Boquería. 

Quím Marquéz, Chef-owner, Quím de la Boquería

Photo: Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@gmail.com.

La Boquería, whose official name is the Mercat de San Josep, is filled with colorful food stalls and often superb market bars, a multitude of them.  I wrote this in the foreword to the English version of Boquería Gourmand, a guidebook to La Boquería, its market stalls and its people: 

“For forty years I have been traveling in the patrias chicas of the Iberian Peninsula.  I lived for eight years in Andalucía and have repeatedly crisscrossed El País Vasco, Galicia, Valencia, Navarra, Aragón, La Rioja, Asturias, Extremadura, the lands of Castilla y León, and all of the other provinces of Iberia, including Catalunya.  Over these decades of travel, I have come to love many "pueblos" across the vast, wonderful and exotic Iberian landscape-Sanlúcar de Barrameda (where my soul resides) and Ronda in Andalucía, there are others such as Chinchón just outside Madrid; Covarrubias (Burgos); Burguete (Navarra); Haro (La Rioja), Cangas de Onís (Asturias), Gratallops (Tarragona) and Cadaqués (Girona), among many.

As much as I long to return to such places for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is a multitude of friends and memories, few have quite the compelling attraction of Barcelona's El Mercat de San Josep, La Boquería market, which as Quím Marquéz put it so well, "still is a petit poble (small village) inside the big city" and is literally one of my favorite pueblos in the world.”

 

Eduard Soley, Vice President of La Boquería Owners Association bags a purchase at his stand in la Boquería. 

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

 

Gemma Bosch Roca at her great seafood stand in La Boquería. 

 Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS30 43-86mm f3.3 – f6.4.

But, this was a Monday, and a number of stalls, especially the spectacular fishmonger stands, are closed, as is the legendary Quím de la Boquería, owned by my good  friend Quím Marquez, who with his practiced crew manages to turn out some of the best, freshest food in Barcelona while playing a constant game of dodge-em with their half dozen co-workers, all jockeying for position in a kitchen-bar-food display area that is probably no more than 12 feet square.  Quím and his crew, including his movie-star handsome twenty-something son Yuri, cooking on a rugged looking professional grade gas stove juggle multiple pans, flipping the food in the them so it cooks evenly, then plating each dish and getting it piping hot to the counters surrounding this three-ring circus.  

 

Quím Marquéz, Chef-owner, Quím de la Boquería, legendary market bar, whose slogan is "El Arte de Comer en Un Taburete" (The Art of Eating on a Barstool). 

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon EOS 6D / Tokina 17-35mm f/4.

The counters are lined two to three deep with customers waiting for a taburete, or bar stool to open up.  Others in the crew take orders, pop Cava sparkling wine corks, pull corks on bottles of Catalan table wines, and draw draft beer expertly, pouring non-stop and serving plates of often quite original food as they come off the line.   And this is just during the breakfast rush!  This show goes on until 4 p.m. every day.

Breakfast of Champions

 

Gerry Dawes, Pinotxo Bar owner Juanito Bayen and elBulli owner, the late Juli Soler at Pinotxo Bar, Barcelona, Jan. 14, 2014. 
 Photo courtesy of Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com
 / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS30 43-86mm f3.3 – f6.4.

Fortunately for us, Pintoxo Bar, another long-time favorite of mine, which I have been frequenting since 1992--in 2015 Pinotxo celebrated its 75th year of operation (opened 1940)--is open on Mondays and my old friend Jordi Asín, the chef and nephew of the market legend, “thumbs-up” (always for photographs) owner Juanito Bayen was there and so was Juanito himself. 

 

 Cap from a house Cava stopper celebrating Pinotxo Bar's 75th Anniversary.

 Photo courtesy of Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com

We soon found seats at the counter and what turned out to be our never-ending breakfast got underway. What better way to knock the edge of jet lag, than have a glass of Cava for breakfast, along with a plate of baby squid with small white beans--known in Catalunya as mongetes--topped with a trail of balsamic vinegar (balsamic is never my favorite, but it works with this dish). 

Chef Jordi Asín, Bar Pinotxo

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@aol.com

When I tried to order the xipirons amb mongetes (the baby squid with white beans), Jordi Asín informed us that the dish was not on the menu and, soon, a plate of mejillones aliñados (mussels dressed with chopped peppers and onion in vinegar and oil vinagreta) and Cava, Catalunya's methode champenoise sparkling wine, were placed in front of us by one of Pinotxo’s  kitchen crew.  Copa de Cava #1!  For breakfast!

 Breakfast of Champions:  Mejillones aliñados (mussels dressed with chopped peppers and onion in vinegar and oil vinagreta) and Cava, Catalunya's methode champenoise sparkling wine, at Bar Pinotxo in LA Boquería market, Barcelona. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@aol.com

    “No tenemos xipirons amb mongetes, pero tenemos garbanzos con morcilla (garbanzos cooked with bits of blood sausage), Jordi told us.   

    “Vale,” I responded, “bring them on.”

    “Y dos copas más de Cava, por favor” (another round of Cava, please).

    The garbanzos soon appeared with refills of our Cava glasses.  Cava Round Two, still breakfast. 

 Garbanzos con morcilla (garbanzos cooked with bits of blood sausage) at Pinotxo Bar.

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@aol.com

  “Oye!, the rabo de toro (bull’s tail stew) is good today,” Jordi said.

    “Great, let’s have it!”

    Soon the dark rich stew appeared and we called for two more copas de Cava to wash it down.  Cava #3, but who is counting?  I looked at my Spanish cell phone. It was 11:00 a.m., still breakfast.

"The rabo de toro (bull’s tail stew) is good today."

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 / gerrydawes@aol.com

We sipped our Cava, ate the rabo de toro and mopped up the rich brown stew sauce with pieces of crusty pa (bread).

 Jordi came back and told me that the oeufs remenats amb gambes y esparrecs / huevos revueltos con gambas y espárragos (scrambled eggs with shrimp, asparagus and thin slivers of onion) were good.
 

“Vale!  Y dos copas más de Cava, por favor.”   Cava #4. 

  

 Oeufs remenats amb gambes y esparrecs / huevos revueltos con gambas y espárragos (scrambled eggs with shrimp, asparagus and thin slivers of onion). 

Suddenly, a couple of small orbs (lamb kidneys?) appeared on a small dish in front of us.  At second look, we saw they were exquisite small saffron milk-cap (also known as red pine) mushrooms, níscalos in Spanish, rovellons in Catalan.  

 

 Small saffron milk-cap (also known as red pine) mushrooms, níscalos in Spanish, rovellons in Catalan.

We nibbled on these wonderful ‘srooms and I took pictures of Juanito Bayen with his thumbs up pose and one of the family members, the sharply dressed María José.   And we sipped our cava.  

                               Juanito Bayen                                                                         María José



 Was our room ready yet?  Not a chance, it was barely past noon!  We ordered a full ración, a plateful of the rovellons and a couple more copa de Cava (#5).  We were feeling jet lag, but the feeling had passed on into something a lot like reverie. 

 

 Níscalos in Spanish, rovellons in Catalan.

 Around 13:00 hours, as they say in Spain, we decided to free up the Pinotxo bar stools and stroll across the market.  I called Salvador Capdevila, my dear friend who is the owner of Avinova (a specialist in the best seasonal game, foie gras, snails, etc.) and President of la Boquería's Merchant Owner's Association.  He answered the call and told us to come over to his stand and meet him.  

Salvador Capdevila and Gerry Dawes in la Boquería.

After a big abrazo and some pleasantries he told us to follow him to a nearby jamón Ibérico specialist stand, which declares itself "The Boquería Ham Shop" (there are at least a dozen ham shops in the market) a few feet away on the outer periphery of la Boquería.  He introduced us to Sergi, the owner, and Sergi’s assistant Montse Benitez began to expertly carve thin slices of Gran Reserva Jamón Ibérico de Bellota (aged Ibérico ham from pig that gain weight by grazing on acorns a couple of months out in the oak covered hills of Extremadura and northern Andalucía before they are “sacrificed” to grace the palates of lovers of the world’s greatest genre of hams. 

Montse Benitez slicing Gran Reserva Jamón Ibérico de Bellota at The Boquería Ham Shop.

After Montse filled a plate with some 30 Euros worth of Gran Reserva Jamón Ibérico de Bellota (going for €210 per kilo, something over $100 per pound), Salvador took it told him to follow us to a room upstairs where Sergi was waiting with a bottle of Cava!  Yes, copa de Cava #6 was soon on it way down and Brad Haskel and I were offering our glasses for a refill and savoring the superb jamón that was laced with those compelling nutty acorn flavors (the oil in the nuts actually imbues the ham with these flavors).  

 Salvador Capdevila, Sergi (The Ham Shop owner) and Gerry Dawes.

After we polished off the ham and the bottle of Cava amongst us, I looked at my phone.  Ah, 13:30, it was time for our Breakfast of Champions to come to an end.  Now, perhaps we could finally get into the pensión for a nap, so we headed back across the Barri Goti. 

Father and son perusing items in a store window in the Barri Goti, the old quarter of Barcelona.

Along the way, I phoned my friend Agustí Torelló Sibil, who with his son, Agustí Torelló Mata, produces AT Roca, splendid sparkling wines (a Brut Reserva and Brut Rosat Reserva that are of Champagne quality, plus several first-rate still white wines from Penedès and an excellent red Montsant from the neighboring province of Tarragona.   AT Roca, along with some 12 dozen other small producers, recently left the D.O. Cava to make wines under the more exclusive Clàssic Penedès designation.

    “Meet us a the Hotel Majestic at 7:00 p.m.  We will be pouring our wines at a wine tasting there tonight.”

    “We were going to catch the train to San Sadurni d’Anoia early in the morning.  Can you give us a ride and recommend a hotel?”

    “No problem.  We will all have dinner after the wine tasting and you can ride down to Sant Sadurni with us.  I will find a hotel for you.”

    “Done!”
 
Brad and I arrived at the hotel to find our room ready and we went in to go down for a nap.  We opened a window to let some air in on this lovely warm day (for January) and saw that we overlooked the ancient walls of the old city of Barcelona and the adjacent spires of the Cathedral de Barcelona.  There was no toilet in the room, it was in the hall, but we did have a shower and a sink.  There were three beds in the room and we each staked out one and dropped into bed and at 14:30, we began to doze off into a deep slumber that less than two hours was interrupted by a horrific clatter coming from the pedestrian-only street below our window.  A small caterpillar excavation machine was jack-hammering the pavement, incessantly, as in, without pause. 

Ancient walls of the Barri Goti (Gothic Quarter), Barcelona, from the sixth floor of Pensión Casablanca.

 Pavement jackhammer machine below our window at Pensión Casablanca.

We didn’t get much sleep, but the Pensión Casablanca had at least given us a place to stash our luggage, had allowed a partial nap, was a place to shower and did not cost a fortune, even considering that we didn’t spend the night there.
 
We showered and dressed, checked out, went down with our luggage to the Vía Layetana to catch a taxi and went to Hotel Majestic to drink some more Cava.   In this day alone, we still had the wine tasting show at the Majestic, dinner with  Agustí Torelló and his son and an hour’s drive down to Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, the cava capital of Spain.  Today, our first day in Cataluna was packed with adventures and we had not even begun our official tour of the wine routes of Catalunya.  I will continue that story in my next post about our adventures in Catalunya. . .

________________________________________________________________ 


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 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@gmail.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com