The Spanish Table
Espanolita X The Ruby Street
A while back I met Lourdes at her newly opened space, and old church in Highland Park that she called The Ruby Street. The space is a dream and I had always envisioned putting something together here. Lourdes is from Madrid, like me, so the idea of a Spanish Sunday lunch was just natural to us. So we hosted a gathering called the Spanish Table November 4th, and we ended up being 38 at the long table surrounded by old and new friends, and the cooking was incredibly good.
The season inspired us to create a menu with bold tastes, and with a jamón being sliced right there for us by Carles Salas from Fermín , we knew we had to offer a succession of strong dishes. Black rice was high up on my list, and weeks before my friend Eva from Mallorca, mentioned that her husband from Australia had cooked one that was to die for. So there I was calling up Luca to help me prepare 3 huge pans of Squid Ink Rice or ‘Arroz Negro’.
Almudena from Classical Wines from Spain, partnered with us to bring the best possible wines to the table who carefully selected a white Albariño from Adegas Morgadío (Morgadío Albariño 2017 D.O. RÍAS BAIXAS) and a Ribera Dominio Bascocillos (Viña Magna Seis Meses 2016 D.O. RIBERA DEL DUERO)
The gathering for sure took us to the rustic flavours of Spain, through the ham, the bold flavour of cheeses, Octopus and Black squid ink rice, followed by flan.
Photo by Annie Meisel