Epicurean Roads: Valencia
January 25, 2010
We are very excited about our 2010 culinary trip with Gerry Dawes. Join us for this insider’s culinary experience in Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Madrid in October 2010. Meet forward-thinking chefs, visit off-the-radar wineries in Priorat, Jumilla and Alicante, see the saffron harvest, eat at contemporary restaurants and traditional tapas bars. You will find out the secrets of Spanish cooking back in the kitchens with some of the great chefs. A cooking demonstrations with two-star Chef Quique Dacosta of Poblet Restaurant in Denia and Chef María José San Román of La Taberna del Gourmet in Alicante will immerse you in contemporary cuisine. A paella-making demonstration in Valencia will yield up a range of paellas for tasting. Contact us at 866-642-2917 for more information or see Epicurean Roads of Valencia.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Sherry
January 20, 2010
A very brief introduction to Sherry.
A Beginner’s Guide to Sherry
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Olive Oil Flan
January 19, 2010
Here’s a fascinating recipe for Spain’s quintessential dessert–flan–made with olive oil. Flan is a lovely custard and always on the menu in Spain. Try this one, or send in your own unique flan recipe. Recipe is in Spanish.
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Day Trips From Madrid
January 11, 2010
The best way to see the fascinating historic small towns around Madrid, if your time in Spain’s capital is limited, is to take day trips. Many of them are within half an hour of Madrid via train, and even those further afield can be visited in a day, returning to Madrid for the night. No packing or changing hotels. This article talks about three easy day trips from Madrid: Segovia, El Escorial and Toledo.
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Food Journeys
January 9, 2010
I love this book, new from National Geographic: Food Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 Extraordinary Places to Eat Around the Globe. Epicurean Ways gets a mention in it, a fact which pleases me as well.
Food Journeys
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Pa amb tomàquet
January 6, 2010
Great news, though not surprising, for us Catalan food enthusiasts. Saveur magazine has included the ubiquitous Catalan Pa amb tomàquet (Bread with Tomato) on the Saveur 100 List for 2010. Go to Catalunya and you will find it everywhere, at every meal, and in the villages and the countryside, it even appears at breakfast. For me, I adore it freshly made topped with jamón ibérico slices.
Here’s how you make it:
Toast baguette pieces sliced lengthwise. Rub the toasted slices with a cut clove of garlic. Next rub a tomato half directly on the toasted bread. (If you prefer, grate the tomato and top the bread with the pulp.) Top this with olive oil and flaked or coarse sea salt. And Iberian ham if you have it.
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Gingercake and Pedro Ximénez
January 5, 2010
I love this photo (from Twitpic) of gingercake and Pedro Ximénez wine. PX is an intensely sweet sherry made from the grape of the same name left to dry in the hot Spanish sun, concentrating the sugars, and aged using the solera system. Two of the Spanish wine regions making PX wine are Montilla-Moriles and Málaga, both in Andalucía.
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Ten Best Sherries
December 30, 2009
The ten best Sherries list, according to the latest Decanter magazine, includes Sherries of all types: Olorosos, Pedro Ximénez, Amontillados, Fino, Manzanilla, and Palo Cortado. To learn more about Sherries see the Sherry site.
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World’s Best Hotels: Travel + Leisure’s Top 500
December 21, 2009
Two hotels in Spain garnered a place on Travel + Leisure magazine’s World’s Best Hotels list for 2010. One in San Sebastián in the Basque Country and one in Madrid. The María Cristina Hotel in San Sebastián is the city’s landmark luxury hotel, near the Parte Vieja where you can sample some of Spain’s best pintxos on an Epicurean Ways guided tour. Madrid’s Hotel Villa Magna in the upscale Salamanca district features a Michelin one star Basque restaurant (Villa Magna) run by Eneko Atxa.
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Tapas Tour
December 6, 2009
Have you ever wondered what a tapas tour is like? What do they mean when they say a ¨tapas crawl¨or ¨tapeo¨? Here is what we consider a nearly perfect bar-by-bar description of a tapas crawl in Cádiz, in the southernmost tip of Spain, written by our American friend and collaborator George Semler. The Culture of Tapas
