Joe Ray
Food & Travel / Words & Photos
EATING
THE
MOTHERLAND
Food writer and photographer Joe Ray's gastronomic visits in Europe - the home of his ancestors - and beyond.
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Cebas, C’est Bon! - The Great Rioja Tapas Crawl Part II
LOGRONO, Spain
“At bar Cebas, get everything,” says Artadi.
Pressed, he mentions a tortilla and the anchovies and the chroizo I immediately burn my mouth on when we get there.
“It’s hot!” I warn my friend before burning myself again.
The tortilla is fantastic, I even had a lamb’s ear sandwich (!), but the sublime star is a toothpick with a pair of olives and a pair of anchovies sandwiching a guindilla – a pickled green pepper folks in the Midwest would call a sport pepper.
There’s vinegar, spicy heat, salt and texture, all at once – it’s mind-blowing goodness, especially when coupled with any of the wines on their wonderful list (just scan the wall – it’s somewhere near Artadi’s picture with the owners).
Count on a few well-spent euros for snacks.
Bar Sebas - MAP
Caille del Albornoz, 3
Logroño, Spain
+34 94 122 0196
Monday, November 30, 2009
Mushroom Pops - The Great Rioja Tapas Crawl Part I
In the Rioja, we ask winemaker Juan Carlos Artadi where to go on and around Logroño’s Caille del Laurel – a foodie heaven of a street with nothing but tapas bars. Technically, we’re in the region for a wine conference, but this is the place that gets my blood racing.
“First, go to Bar Soriano and get mushrooms à la plancha,” he says.
It’s a shoebox of a place with a mushroom-shaped sign hanging out front, thousands of those useless Spanish napkins littering the floor, three men behind the bar and a heavenly smell.
“Some mushrooms?” I say tentatively, looking for a menu.
“Vamos!” he calls to the man at the griddle, confirming there is no menu. Soriano is a one trick pony I could ride all day.
Moments later, two tiny towers of hollowed-out button mushrooms arrive, undersides facing heaven, cupping their own juices and one tiny shrimp.
“How do you eat them?”
The bartender smiles the gentle smile he must give to all the rookies and motions that we should push the toothpick that holds them together down through the bottom, turning the whole thing into something of a mushroom Push-Up Pop, allowing you to eat them one by one and finish with the juice-soaked bread. Rrrrowww!!!
We’re off to a good start…
Bar Soriano MAP
Travesia Laurel 2
Logroño
+34 941 22 88 07
Food and travel writer and photographer Joe Ray is the author of the blog Eating The Motherland and contributes to The Boston Globe’s travel blog, Globe-trotting.