Photography: All photos on this blog were taken with Canon cameras and these lenses.

* * * * *

NOTES: Except for the Canon T2i and the 17-70mm Sigma both purchased in July, 2010 and the long-awaited Tokina 11-16mm ultra wide angle lense purchased in Sept. 2010, I made most of these images with this equipment shown below. In addition, in August 2011, I added the Canon 85mm portrait lens and the Tokina 100mm Macro. (I included the Canon 18-55mm IS "kit" lense, while not made like a tank, is a real sleeper of a light-weight walk-around lens and a bargain that has received several very favorable reviews in serious photographic journals.)


RANT: Warning! I have included a reasonably priced back-up battery for the Canon T2i, since Canon charges about $45 for a spare battery. Canon makes good camera equipment, but their corporate mentality is heavy handed and exploitive. Almost every new Canon camera comes with a distinctive battery (instead of a universal battery that would fit all their SLRs) and thus a different charger, configuration, so you end up buying more batteries and carrying more batteries and chargers. The charger on the T2i, a great camera, comes with a cord instead of having the plug built in! And, with most of the already quite expensive Canon lenses, you will pay quite a bit extra for a lens hood! You can get good lens hoods and great padded cases for Canon from Pearstone for much less!!


Now ask me why Amazon has chosen to remove the image of the excellent Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens and substitute it with someone's picture of a child putting his hands on a mirror. I truly cannot explain that either!

And the fact that I bought ALL of this equipment from B&H and the gear has Amazon links?  Well, I petitioned B &H about being an associate and they totally ignored my request, so if you purchase any of this equipment through amazon.com, you will be helping to underwrite this blog.

Barcelona: In a Disgraceful Action, Catalan Police with Clubs and Rubber Bullets Attack Peaceful Demonstrators in La Plaza de Catalunya

* * * * *

This tragedy, which occurred yesterday morning in Barcelona, is still unfolding. The Catalan Police, the Mosso d'Esquadra, not the Spanish National Police, moved in a group of people who had been camping in La Plaza de Catalunya, historically the heart of Barcelona and of Catalunya.  The protesters had been there for several days peacefully protesting the handling of the economic crisis by the government. 

Indignats | Desallotjament de la Plaça Catalunya 

(Video on YouTube by jsalvia)

The Police moved in and soon began clubbing defenseless civilians, most of them young people, causing at least 100 of them to require medical treatment and putting some of them in the hospital.  At one point a photographer (acampapadabcnfoto on Flickr) captured a member of the Catalan police force, the Mosso d'Esquadra, attacking a man in a wheelchair.  As the morning wore on, they began firing rubber bullets at the pavement, which caused many of them to ricochet into the crowd.


Spanish protesters clash with police over clean-up: Violence breaks out around Barcelona's Plaça de Catalunya, the first trouble after 12 days of protests (Report by Giles Tremlett, guardian.co.uk)



Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com

Fish market at the Mercado Municipal de Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain.

* * * * *

Cigalas (Dublin Bay prawns) at Pontevedra Municipal market, Galicia.

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com for publication rights.

The Mercado Municipal in Pontevedra has an incredible fish market, said to handle more fish and shellfish than any market in Spain.  It is incredibly colorful and the fishmongers, mostly women, are an equally incredible cast of characters.  A photographer can easily spend the good part of a morning in this market.

Fishmonger at Pontevedra Municipal market, Galicia. 

Within seconds she will go back to gutting small sharks.

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Fishmonger at Pontevedra Municipal market, Galicia. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Navajas (razor clams) and almejas (clams).
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Slide show of Pontevedra Municipal Fish Market.
(Double click on images to enlarge, go to Picasa, click on Slideshow and F11 for full-screen view.)

_________________________________________________________________________

About Gerry Dawes

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

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. 
(Valencia-Alicante espisode.)

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

Salvador Dalì's Pan (Bread), Pa en Catalan, Pa de Figueres (Girona)

* * * * *

Salvador Dalì claimed, "Bread has been one of the oldest subjects of fetishism and obsessions in my work, the number one, the one to which I have been most faithful." 

The distinctive shape of the local pa de crostons, 
or triangular-shaped bread of Figueres, Salvador Dalì's hometown.

Once ubiquitous in the Empordà region of Catalunya, pa de crostons was Dalì's inspiration for the decorative biege concrete "breads" that decorate the façade of the museum the Salvador Dalì Museum in Figueres (Girona), Catalunya. 

Short Slide Show of pa de crostons and the façade of the Salvador Dalì Museum in Figueres.

The Dalí museum (his final resting place--his tomb is in the museum) is studded with hundreds of representations of the pa de crostons three-cornered breads that meant so much to Dalì in his youth.  (Is Dalì's bread the equivalent of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane's "Rosebud" ?)

Pa de crostons in a shop near the Salvador Dalì Museum in Figueres. As a child, Dalì would hollow out the bottom of one of these pas de crostons and wear it as a hat, which some have likened to a bullfighter's montera (which has only two lobe-like projections).  As an adult, Dalì sometimes appeared with a large flat, sombrero-like circular bread (not pa de croston) on his head and the pan-on-the-head theme appears in numerous Dalì paintings.

Salvador Dalí (Spanish, 1904-1989). The Basket of Bread, 1926. Oil on panel. 13 x 12 1/2 in. (33 x 31.8 cm).
The Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida. © The Salvador Dalí Museum, Inc.

One of his famous paintings, the Zurbaràn-like Basket of Bread, is of the rather ordinary pan (bread) of the Spain, not pa de crostons. 

Memories of the Superb 2005 Salvador Dalí Exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

From Gerry Dawes's Visual Encyclopedia of Spanish Gastronomy & Wine

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



Chinchón II: Lunch at Mesón de la Virreina, A Memory From a February Lunch Long Ago

 * * * * * 

My first trip to Chinchón was way back in February of 1971 with my old friends, Edwin J. Mullens III and Bill and Betty Pearson from Clarksdale, Mississippi.  It was a very cold day, so lunch at Mesón de la Virreina  in the upstairs dining room next to the fireplace at a table by the windows that overlooked La Plaza Mayor was especially welcome, cozy and memorable.   I still recall that I had alubias con chorizo (beans with chorizo), chuletillas de cordero (baby lamb chops) and the local red wine (now from the D.O. Vinos de Madrid).  

With dessert, flan and leche frita, I ordered café con leche and brandy snifters of anís (anís liqueur) de Chinchón, which we sipped as we lingered by the fire in some other-time, other- place reverie.  That day is still a cherished memory.

Leche frita flambeed with anis de Chinchón, El Mesón de la Virreina, Chinchón.

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

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. 

Dawes 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. 

 

A trailer from a proposed reality television series with Gerry Dawes  
on gastronomy, wine, 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

Miguel de Cervantes Monument in Madrid's Plaza España with Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Rocinante, Dulcinea & Aldonza

* * * * *


Don Quixote on Rocinante, the Cervantes monument in La Plaza de España in Madrid. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2011. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.


The Cervantes monument was designed by architects Rafael Martínez Zapatero and Pedro Muguruza. 
The sculptor was Lorenzo Coullaut Valera. Much of the monument was built from 1925 to 1930, 
but it was not completed until 1956-1957 by Federico Coullaut-Valera Mendigutia, Lorenzo Coullaut's son.
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2011. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.


The idealized Dulcinea from Don Quixote, the Cervantes monument in La Plaza de España in Madrid. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2011. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.


The idealized Dulcinea the Cervantes monument in La Plaza de España in Madrid. 
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2011. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

 

Don Quixote: ". . .for her hairs are gold, her forehead Elysian fields, her eyebrows rainbows, her eyes suns, her cheeks roses, her lips coral, her teeth pearls, her neck alabaster, her bosom marble, her hands ivory, her fairness snow, and what modesty conceals from sight such, I think and imagine, as rational reflection can only extol, not compare." 

Aldonza Lorenzo, the peasant girl Don Quixote was once enamored of is morphed into the imaginary Dulcinea in Don Quixote's mind.  Aldonza on the Cervantes monument in La Plaza de España in Madrid.
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2011. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

"I know her well," said Sancho (Panza, of Aldonza), "and let me tell you she can fling a crowbar as well as the lustiest lad in all the town. Giver of all good! but she is a brave lass, and a right and stout one, and fit to be helpmate to any knight-errant that is or is to be, who may make her his lady: the whoreson wench, what sting she has and what a voice!  I can tell you one day she posted herself on the top of the belfry of the village to call some labourers of theirs that were in a ploughed field of her father's, and though they were better than half a league off they heard her as well as if they were at the foot of the tower. . .

(Slide show. Double click on lower left corner to go to Picasa and see it enlarged.)

More on Cervantes:

Miguel de Cervantes. Don Quijote

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes (Wikipedia)

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

 

Taberna del Alabardero, Madrid: Several Excellent Meals from the Kitchen of Chef Roberto de Hierro from November-February

* * * * *

La Taberna del Alabardero

C/ Felipe V, 6

28013 Madrid, Spain

915 472 577

Metro: Ópera

On Jan. 28, I had lunch at the bar at La Taberna del Alabardero, Madrid, and dinner in the dining room that same night. From beginning to end, it was an incredible experience. I met Patxo and Pedro de Lezama at the bar--which was in the film "Around the World in Eighty Days--and Chef Roberto Hierro began to send out revueltos con setas (eggs with chanterelles), calamares, impeccably fresh sea urchin, a plancha grilled carabinero (large scarlett prawn) and torrijas de vainilla with ice cream for dessert. 

Later that evening, I returned for dinner by myself. I was served some croquetas with jamon Iberico to start, then a wonderful bowl of six varieties of sauteed mushrooms (I asked for a fresh egg yolk, the perfect sauce for hot mushrooms), then I had terrific porrusalda with brandade de bacalao, fresh bacalao and txangurro (spider crab), a typical Basque dish. A lovely mandarine sorbert served in a Champagne glass was a great finish to the evening and a terrific dining experience at La Taberna.

A superb rendition of bacalao, much beloved in Spain. Chef Roberto de Hierro roasts fresh bacalao (cod), puts a spoonful of txangurro (spider crab meat) and a spoonful of brandade underneath, then a waiter pours on porrusalda, a wonderful classic Basque leek and potato soup as a sauce, La Taberna del Alabardero.
Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

On another occasion in February, I went with Esmeralda Capel of Madrid Fusion, her husband Juan Suarez and Blanca Villarello of Madrid Fusion Mexico. On still another occasion I had dinner there by myself and Chef de Hierro served me anchoas de Santoña (Santander), served with grated tomato, a garlic clove and toasted bread; pimientos de Padrón; sopa de pescado with clams, fish and saffron; and canutillos with caramel sauce and arroz con leche for dessert.

La Taberna del Alabadero Chef Roberto de Hierro's sopa de pescado with clams, fish and saffron.

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010.

On a couple of occasions back in November and December I also had meals at la Taberna del Alabadero with Padre Luis de Lezama and Bryan Miller, former restaurant critic of The New York Times. All the meals were personally prepared by Chef Roberto de Hierro. (Disclaimer: I am writing a book on Padre Lezama tentatively entitled, "The Padre's Tavern." However, I would not have filed this report had Roberto de Hierro's food not been exceptional.  I recommend that if you make a reservation at La Taberna del Alabardero in Madrid that you tell them I sent you and ask for Roberto to prepare a menu, after a consultation about any likes, dislikes or allergies.)

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

Gerry y Sus Amigos (A trailer in Spanish filmed in The Basque Country for a proposed television series in Spain).

* * * * *

Gerry y Sus Amigos (In Spanish, 1:44 secs.)

MADRID FUSIÓN 2011 January 25, 26 & 27, 2011 Headliners: Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak, Joan Roca, rising Catalan star Jordi Cruz, Mexican chefs Bricio Domínguez and Martha Ortiz, Peruvian star Gastón Acurio, Chefs from Singapore and Flanders, Along with Carlo Cracco and Slow Food's Carlo Petrini from Italy.

* * * * *

 Ferran Adrià in a pensive moment at Madrid Fusión 2009. 

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2009

 

The 9th annual Madrid Fusión International Gastronomy Summit will take place in Madrid on January 25, 26 & 27.  Headlining the conference, as he has every year since its inception in 2003, will be Ferran Adrià, who will give his annual estado de Ferranismo (state of Ferranismo) address on opening day, this one entitled El Nuevo Bulli.

Chicago's Grant Achatz at Madrid Fusión 2009. 

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2009.

This time Ferran will  elaborate further on the permanent closing of elBulli, "the world's best restaurant," on July 31, something he has done frequently for the past year since announcing the restaurant's closing at Madrid Fusión 2010 in a bombastic press conference that produced an explosion of articles about Ferran that could be described as the espuma (foam) that frothed around the gastronomic world--in record time.  Presumably, Ferran will enlighten this year's audience about his more definitive plans for the elBulli foundation (read Ferranismo think tank), when it opens in 2014 on the site of elBulli restaurant on Cala Montjoi, the legendary hard-to-get-to cove near Roses (Girona).   And certainly, we should hear more about the January opening in Barcelona Tickets, the flagship of undoubtedly will be become a string of tapas-and-cocktail bars that Ferran and his brother, Albert, have in the works.

Other highlights planned for Madrid Fusión 2010 include appearances by star Spanish Basque chefs Juan Mari Arzak, Elena Arzak, Martín Berasategui, Pedro Subijana, Andoni Aduriz and Eneko Atxa; Catalan stars Joan Roca and his brother Jordi, Carme Ruscalleda, Ramón Freixa and Jordi Cruz, a superb young chef who recently moved from the wonderful off-the-beaten-path provincial restaurant L'Angle (located next to Fundación Alicia near Manresa) to take over at Barcelona's tony Restaurante Abac.   Stars from other parts of Spain such as Quique DaCosta (Alicante), Mari Carmen Vélez (Alicante), Dani García (Andalucía) and Angel León (Andalucía).  Madrid chefs will include Paco Roncero (La Terraza),  Sergi Arola (Arola Gastro) and Ricardo Sanz (Kabuki  Wellington).   

The region of Galicia will be represented by transplanted Italian  chef Flavio Morganti (Galileo, Ourense) and Beatriz Sotelo (La Estación, A Coruña) plus Iago Pazos y Marcos Cerqueiro, two young rising stars who run an exceptional  tapas restaurant, Abastos 2.0, in the Santiago de Compostela market.  On the sweet side, super stars include the great pasteleros-chocolateros Christían Escribà, Oriol Balaguer, Jordi Butrón, Paco Torreblanca and Jacob Torreblanca.

Mexico and South America chefs invited include Mexico's Bricio Domínguez and Martha Ortiz, with Peruvian star Gastón Acurio.  Italy will be represented by the great Carlo Cracco and Carlo Petrini of Slow Food.

Each year, Madrid Fusión has a sub-theme representing the cuisines of a single country--Mexico, Perú, Japan.  This year Singapore will be represented with chefs Matthew Bax (Trippling Club), former Restaurant Daniel (New York) and elBulli stagier Kevin Cherkas (Blu) and French-trained (Ducasse and Gagnaire) rising star Andre Chiang (Restaurant Andre) and Flanders will feature presentations from chefs Bernard Lahousse (Sense for Taste, Bruges, Belgium), Dave De Belder (De Godevaart, Antwerp) and Gert de Mangeleer (Restaurant Hertong Jan, Bruges).  

The first version of Madrid Fusión in 2003 was a huge success and launched a plethora of international food conferences and spawned numerous imitators in Spain itself.  Each year it seems something of note that resounds throughout the culinary world occurs here.  

Nobu & Ferran, Madrid Fusión 2004. 

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2004. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Among the most memorable were the appearance of France's nouvelle cuisine super stars  and Nobu Matsuhisa in 2004, the appearance of Thomas Keller and awards to several great American culinary stars in 2006 (see photo below), Santi Santamaría's spectacularly scandalous declarations deriding Spanish cocina de vangaurdia practitioners in 2007--"The only truth that counts is the product   comes from the earth, passes from our stoves to the diner's mouth, and is then defecated."--and Ferran Adria's bomba announcement last year that he was closing elBulli.

The late Michael Batterberry, publisher-editor of Food Arts magazine, speaking at Madrid Fusión 2006
with a stage full of American and Spanish culinary stars as Mayor of Madrid Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and Ferran Adrià applaud, with Juan Mari Arzak between them.  Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

About Gerry Dawes

* * * * *

___________________________________________________

About Gerry Dawes  

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

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.

Trailer 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.

San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010 - Day Three November 24 .

* * * * *

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

San Sebastian Gastronomika 2010 November 22

* * * * *

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

San Sebastian Gastronomika Opening Reception 11-21-2010

* * * * *

All photographs copyright 2010 by Gerry Dawes.

Iberia Airlines Adds New U.S. - Spain Routes

* * * * *

Madrid's Terminal IV

 

Press release from Iberia Airlines:

The United States will be the principal focus of Iberia's long-haul growth strategy in 2011, as it launches two new routes, one between Los Angeles and Madrid, and another between Miami and Barcelona. 

Starting in March 28^th, the Spanish company will operate three non-stop flights weekly from Los Angeles–on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays–with an additional Thursday flight in July-September. 

 Iberia expects to carry some 68,000 passengers on the Los Angeles route in the first year of operation. The flights will depart Los Angeles at 17:55 h. and arrive in Madrid at 14:15 h. the following day. In Madrid passengers can continue to another 36 destinations in Spain, 38 in Europe, 10 in Africa and one in the Middle East (Tel Aviv). The return flight will depart the Spanish capital at 12:35 h. and arrive in Los Angeles at 16:15 h.

 The new Miami-Barcelona service begins next March 29^th, with flights on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, departing Miami at 18:45 h. and arriving in Barcelona at 10:35 h. the following day. The return flight will leave at 13:30 h. to reach Miami at 17:10 h. From Barcelona, passengers from Miami can continue to another 16 destinations in Spain and 27 in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, all operated by Vueling, in which Iberia holds a 45% share. 

These flights to Barcelona are in addition to Iberia's daily Miami-Madrid flights, and brings the total to 10 weekly flights connecting Miami with Spain and, thanks to the numerous connections available in Madrid and Barcelona, with many destinations in the rest of Spain, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In the first year of operation, Iberia expects to transport some 64,000 passengers between Miami and Barcelona.

Barcelona airport (BCN)

The aircraft used on the routes will be 254-seat Airbus A-340/300s, with a 36-seat Business Plus section, recently redesigned, with 2.20 meters of space for each passenger and seats that unfold into flat beds. 

With these two new routes, the United States is consolidated as Iberia's most important long-haul market. In 2011 Iberia will offer a total of 1,164,000 seats between the United States and Spain, representing a 13% increase from 2010. 

There will be seat offer increases in Chicago and Boston: larger aircraft (Airbus A-340/600s with 342 seats) will be used in the Chicago-Madrid route and more frequencies will be added to the Boston-Madrid route – six from May to October next year.   Iberia will also operate three more weekly flights from New York to Madrid in July and August 2011, up to 17 flights a week during the summer time.  

These new routes and the increase of seat offer in New York, Chicago and Boston are part of the "joint business agreement" launched on October 1st between Iberia, American Airlines, and British Airways for routes over the North Atlantic, which increase the travel options available to clients of all three airlines, with more frequencies and more destinations, as well as better connections across all three networks. Thanks to this agreement, Iberia has added its code to an increased number of American Airlines flights from Iberia gateways in U.S. to other U.S. cities.

Insider’s Taste of Northern Spain Gastronomic Tour of Bilbao - San Sebastián - Navarra - Barcelona Nov. 27 - Dec. 5, 2010

*  *  *  *  *

Tour Organized and Led by
Writer-Photographer & Spain Expert
Gerry Dawes

 
Premio Nacional de Gastronómía 2003

  
Food Arts Silver Spoon Award

(Award profile written by José Andrés - Dec. 2009) 

Gerry Dawes has been traveling the Food and Wine Roads of Spain for more than 40 years and is personally acquainted with hundreds of restaurateurs, chefs, winemakers and food-and-wine personalities.  We will eat great food, meet a slew of great Basque and Catalan chefs and food personalities, taste wines with a winemaker or two, take lots of great photographs and develop a camaraderie on this trip that will ripen in recounting into vintage nostalgia.

Ferran Adrià and Gerry Dawes at Bar Basque,  NYC, Oct. 13, 2010. 

Photograph by John Sconzo©2010.

Tour accompanied by Dr. John Sconzo,
food aficionado & photographer extraordinarío.

Author & photographer of
Doc Sconz - The Blog: Musing on Food and Life

 (All photographs copyright by Gerry Dawes 2010.)

 Prices quoted are without airfare from the U.S. to Bilbao and return from Barcelona and include five and four star hotels, all designated restaurant meals with wines selected by Gerry Dawes and bus transportation within Spain.  Pricing depends on how many travelers will be joining the tour.

2 travelers:  $7,000.00

4 travelers:  $5,000.00

6-8 travelers:   $4,500.00

10-16 travelers:  $4,000.00

Itinerary: 

Day 00 USA-Madrid-Bilbao Evening Flight
 

Evening departure from the U.S. with each guest arranging own their flights.
Day 01 Saturday, Nov 27 Arrive Madrid, transfer to flight to Bilbao

Gerry Dawes will meet guests at the Bilbao airport.  We will take a short trip into Bilbao and see the Guggenheim Museum from the outside and have some tapas in the old quarter.

Guggenheim, Bilbao.  Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010.

Leaving Bilbao, we will make another short trip to have lunch at Extebarri, where chef-owner Victor Arguinzoniz has taken the  art of  grilling to a new level.  Some experts consider Etxeberri to be among the top restaurants in Spain.

After lunch, we will drive an hour to San Sebastián, where we will check into the magnificent turn-of-the-19th century Hotel Maria Cristina by 5 p.m.

Siesta time until dinner at 9:30 p.m. at either Restaurante Arzak, Juan Mari Arzak and daughter Elena’s three-star temple of gastronomy, or Martín Berasategui’s superb three-star Restaurante Martín Berasategui in nearby Lasarte.  All three chefs are long-time personal friends of our tour organizer. 

Day 02  Sunday, Nov 28 San Sebastián

Hotel Maria Cristina, San Sebastián

Sunday morning will be free to explore the old quarter and walk the magnificent la Concha beach and esplanade.

Lunch will be a short ride outside San Sebastián at Mugaritz, where Chef Andoni Aduriz is considered one of the most innovative young chefs in the Spanish cocina de vanguardia movement.

Pintxos of mushrooms with ham and txangurro (crab) in a pastry shell 

with a rosado from Navarra at Bar-Restaurante Gandarias.

We will return to San Sebastián after lunch and the afternoon will be free until evening when we will go on a optional tapas-hopping tour of San Sebastián’s best pintxos bars and restaurants, with optional gin-tonics, etc. at one of the city’s greatest bars. 

Joaquín Fernández, owner and champion barman of Dickens 

in San Sebastián, making his classic Gin Tonic.

Day 03  Monday, Nov 29 San Sebastián

Hotel Maria Cristina, San Sebastian

In the morning, we will visit the colorful La Bretxa, Basque caserío farmers' market and San Martín market, then have some tapas in the bars surrounding the markets, some of which may have as many as 50 pintxos lined up along the bar.

For lunch, we will take a drive west along the Cantabrian Sea coast of the Bay of Biscay to the wonderful Basque fishing village of Getaria, hometown of Elkano, the first man to circumnavigate the globe; Balenciaga, the famous fashion designer; and Placido Domingo’s mother.  

First we will have several exceptional seafood appetizers at Elkano, one of the greatest fish and seafood restaurants in the world, then walk down the hill to Kaia (in the same family as Elkano), which has spectacular views of the fishing port from its perch on the hill and offers whole turbot grilled outdoors over a wood fire, accompanied by wines from one of the most enticing wine cellars in nothern Spain.  Gerry Dawes has had multiple experiences in both restaurants and we will get special insights into Basque seafood cooking.

  Turbot grilling at Kaia.

After some post-prandial patxaran (Basque liquor), we will explore a little more of the coast, then return to San Sebastián where guests will be have free time until dinner.

Dinner will be at Rekondo, a game specialist and one of the few restaurants open on  Mondays.  First, we drive past Rekondo up Monte Igeldo for spectacular Ipanema-like night views of San Sebastián.   Txomín Rekondo is a friend of Gerry’s and will show us his phenomenal wine cellar, which is one of the best in Europe.
    
Day 04  Tues, Nov 30  San Sebastián - Navarra - Barcelona
       
Hotel Duquesa de Cardona, Barcelona

In the morning, we will drive south about an hour and a half to visit the wonderful storybook castle-village of Olite in Navarra.
 
A short drive from Olite, we will stop for an early (for Spain) lunch with a Navarra winemaker near Tudela at a restaurant in southern Navarra specializing in the famous vegetables of the Ribera de Navarra region.

Wine lunch in southern Navarra.

After lunch, we will head for Barcelona, arriving in the early evening, and check into our hotel, La Duquesa de Cardona, which is conveniently located between the Port Vell (the yacht basin) and the beach and the lively Las Ramblas area, which we will visit often during our time in Barcelona.

We will check into our hotel and have time to relax before we head for dinner at a restaurant facing the Port Vell, El Suquet de L'Almirall, where chef Quím Marquéz turns out some exceptional interpretations of modern dishes based on traditional Catalan recipes.  Marquéz worked at El Bulli and is a very good friend of José Andrés.

Day 05 Weds, Dec 01 Barcelona

La Boquería

Hotel Duquesa de Cardona, Barcelona
 
We will have breakfast/lunch at the fabulous Mercat de San Josep, La Boquería, where we will sample the cooking of two of the legendary market bars, Pinotxo and Quím de la Boquería, and explore the market, where Gerry will introduce us to several of the key players that make this market one of the greatest in the world. 

Quím de la Boquería

For dinner, we will sample Ramón Freixa's  superb food at El Raco d'en Freixa, Barcelona's top-rated restaurant.  Afterwards, we will either go to the OMM hotel, one of the sexiest restaurant-watering holes in Barcelona, then our guests will have the option of  drinks in the muy movida bar or visiting one of Barcelona's legendary night clubs. 

 Day 06  Thurs, Dec 02 Barcelona - Manresa - Barcelona

 Hotel Duquesa de Cardona, Barcelona

We will try to get our group into Ferran Adrià’s elBulli Taller workshop, but we can’t promise that yet.  However, Ferran and his brother Albert are opening an upscale tapas restaurant in Barcelona in November and the bar should be open by the time of our visit, so we stop there for a drink at some point during our stay in Barcelona.

Albert Adrià, José Andrés and friend at Inopia, the tapas bar in Barcelona that Albert recently sold. All photographs by Gerry Dawes©2010.

By 11 a.m., we will head from Manresa to visit the Alicia Foundation, which Ferran helped to found.  This institution that explores the connection between Alimentacion (food) y Sciencia (science) is more about exploring the science and healthful aspects of food.  It is not a laboratory for creating the innovative new dishes that Ferran and the other vanguardia chefs are famous for, but it is a fascinating place that is not to be missed.

Chef Jordi Cruz, Angle Restaurant, and 

Toni Massenes, head of the Alicia Foundation.

Right next to the Alicia Foundation is the Angle Restaurant, where one of the best young chefs in Catalunya (and all of Spain) cooks.  Gerry had an exceptional lunch there in March. 

After lunch, we will return to Barcelona, where the rest of the afternoon will be free to visit this amazing city.

In the evening, we go on a tapas tour of Barcelona.  Later, we will have the option of having drinks at El Velodromo, a Barcelona classic that was renovated and revived last year, after many years of being closed, by Carlos Abellan, one of Ferran Adrià’s best known disciples.

Day 07  Fri, Dec 03 Barcelona

Hotel Duquesa de Cardona, Barcelona

The morning and afternoon will be free to tour Barcelona.

In the evening, in la Barceloneta, at Can Majo, we will have our farewell dinner on such wonderful dishes as first-rate traditionally prepared mariscos (shellfish), paella and arros negre (black rice) cooked with squid and colored with squid ink, along with some local Catalan wines.

 

Portions of arros negre, black rice with squid, and 

paella de mariscos, shellfish paella, at Can Majó in La Barceloneta.

Day 08, Sat, Dec 04 Barcelona - USA


Late morning flight to the U. S.  Option to spend more days in Barcelona.

__________________________________________________________________________

About Gerry Dawes

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

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. 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on 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