From pensioners to babies in strollers, everybody goes tapas-hopping in Spain. Here in Logrono, capital of La Rioja and home to well over 100,000, it seems half of them are on the streets and in the bars this warm, moonless Friday night. At 9:30, we're on our way to a formal restaurant dinner but we join the locals on Calle Laurel for a quick drink at a tapas bar that specializes in garlicky mushrooms stuffed with shrimp.
That glazed expression? We've been up since dawn, working hard all day. Winery visits, elegant lunches, trade shows. That's the director of tourism of La Rioja province on my right, making sure we don't falter now that we're close to the finish line.
Here in the Rioja, it's all about the ham. And the lamb. And the wine. A glass of tinto and a plate of pinxos starts with thinly sliced jamon. Anything less would be an insult. You think the TV chef is going to prepare those greens without a generous shot of sauteed jamon? Hah!
Not to slight the lamb. Cutlets grilled over vine clippings, hard to beat that. Today's lunch at La Cueva de Dona Isabela in Casalarreina starts with smoked salmon roulades, potato croquettes and codfish salad, then continues with crepe stuffed with blood sausage. Would be plenty anywhere else. Not here. Next up is massive chunks of roast lamb: complete foreleg, entire rib cage, the whole haunch. All very formal, too. The wine, a 2002 Puelles Crianza, is served in Riedel stems. And goes down very well.
A gorra is just a cap, but a boina, that's the real thing, a genuine Basque beret. Bought one at a hat shop in the prosperous business district of Vitoria, the Basque provincial capital. Could fit right in, don't you think?
Cantabrian massif shelters the Rioja Alavesa, keeping clouds at bay; sun shines bright. Ysios winery down the road from Laguardia designed by architectural wunderkind Santiago de Calatrava, is part of the Domecq conglomerate. Only fair: Spain's Ricardo Bofil does pioneering circular cellar for Lafitte-Rothschild, Ysios gets semi-circular cellar plus undulating roof and craggy prow that echo the nearby mountains.
Highlight is lunch at Remelluri winery. Leeks in garlicky vinaigrette. Patatas con chorizo, a hearty potato soup, is enlivened by a crunchy, green Ibarra pepper. Baby lamb chops, grilled over vine clippings, are fingerlickin' delicious. Pears poached in wine are brilliant purple, offset by fragrant orange slices. A cordial called Pacharan brings the feast to a sweet, cherry-berry conclusion.
On to northern industrial & banking city of Bilbao, reinvented as cultural & arts center. And food. Seven-course lunch highlighted by dreamy-creamy risotto topped with clams, crab and crayfish. Then down to the original LGA, 10th century Laguardia in shadow of Cantabrian mountains.
Tapas for dinner in remote cellar of subterranean El Fabulista winery. Novelty: Gilda, named for Rita Hayworth film (and pronounced with the Spanish aspirant H, hilda). Spicy pepper, salty anchovy, sour cornichon, piquant olive. Mmmm.
Veteran chef John Coletta oversees bustling kitchen with admirable aplomb. Turns out owners also have Gibson's, the subject of an admiring Cornichon post on previous visit, in May of last year.
Off shortly to Spain for a weeklong tour of the Basque Country and La Rioja. Trip is sponsored by the Tourist Office of Spain, Iberia Airlines, and the two local tourism authorities. Muchos gracias!
Vegfest (see earlier post as well) drew a predictable crowd of Birkenstocks to the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall couple of weekends ago, but Dale Sherrow wasn't among them. The owner of Seattle Caviar Company, he had the foresight to lock in the domain name Caviar.com long before Russian mafia types started looting Caspian Sea sturgeon, causing the price of beluga, osetra and sevruga to triple. His solution: caviar from the stable, government-controlled markets of Iran, which keeps the price under $200 an ounce. And alternate sources, like caviar from Montana's Yellowstone River p