A TASTE OF SPAIN IN NEW YORK

Look at this! You can buy my book, TAPAS--A BITE OF SPAIN -at DESPANA in New York. You also can find lots of ingredients for preparing tapas and the wines to accompany them at Despana. I visited the shop with my friend Donna Gelb, a New York-based food writer, in search of a taste of Spain in New York.

Pedro slices iberico ham at Despana.

We sampled some fine jamon iberico de bellota-- that's the very best iberico ham--and shared several tapas that are made fresh in the shop. Tender bites of octopus with a Galician-style dressing of pimenton (paprika) and extra virgin olive oil; three kinds of croquettes--ham, cod and Idiazabal cheese; thick slabs of potato tortilla, one with just onion, the other with chunks of chorizo sausage, and tostas with melted cheese. What a great lunch for a day in the city.

Despana, located in Soho, has wine tastings and pairings every other Thursday, serving a selection of wines from Spain along with tapas.

Browsing products from Spain.

The shop offers a good selection of cheeses from Spain; canned gourmet foods; olive oil; serrano and iberico hams; spices such as saffron and pimenton; beans and garbanzos; piquillo peppers; earthenware cazuelas and metal paella pans. Most products are imported from Spain, but Despana manufacturers its own house-brand of chorizo.

DESPANA--Vinos y Mas

410 Broome Street

New York, NY

www.despanafinewines.com

Here I am in the U.S., typing on a key board that doesn't have accent marks and a tilda ~ to go over the "n" in Espana. Now I understand why Despana spells its name that way!  Nevertheless, I am enjoying my visit and my tastes of Spain in America. Next stop, Atlanta.