Oh, food trade shows. How I love you! Yesterday was the Spanish Wine Cellar and Pantry show at Gotham Hall, and there was wine, wine everywhere. Plus a little cheese and food. This is like the aesthetic opposite of being in a cheese cave. The setting was fancy, my friends.
Regarding wine, I liked a Don Jacobo Rioja Reserva. Their literature described it as spicy and minerally, and I thought so, too. Not too pricey. Extremely tasty with the gazillion manchegos that were available for tasting.
And manchegos were really ruling the roost. Because of, I'm sure, its wild popularity, most of the cheese offerings were manchego and variations on manchego. There was also a really unusual garroxta that was very soft at the center, and extremely goaty. I admit, I prefer the harder, drier versions.
Some of the best food options, for my money, were at the beautiful spread from Despana,
a Spanish imports specialty shop with sausages, white anchovies, and a wheel of La Serena sheep milk cheese with its top cut off. The soft center of the cheese was scooped out and spread on crackers (shown in a funny little stock photo here). Yum.There were also fabulously lush (and fabulously expensive) conservas from Conservas Ana Maria. Fish pudding, baby!
