Gourmet For The New Year

Let's start off 2010 with a rousing Happy New Year from us at ILC. This could very well be your year of exploring the bountiful pleasures that Spain has to offer, and there's no better way to kick things off than pointing you to excellent travel piece that appeared in yesterday's New York Times. The quest: Find and sample the finest ham Spain has to offer.

Paola Singer writes:

As people’s knowledge and love of Spanish cuisine grow, delicacies like jamón Ibérico de bellota are entering the international spotlight. This time-honored ham arrived in the United States in 2008 to much fanfare. Sold for about $200 a pound at specialty stores like LaTienda.com, it became the most expensive cold cut in the country. Discerning consumers seem eager to pay this lofty price. This summer, the powerhouse brand 5J (Cinco Jotas) plans to enter the American market, joining the U.S.D.A.-certified producer Embutidos Fermín.

“Iberian pork meat is extraordinary,” Ferran Adrià, the acclaimed chef at El Bulli, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Catalonia, said in a phone interview. “There’s nothing like it elsewhere in the world. There’s a great difference between a superior ham and all the rest.”

For our carnivores and foodies interested in the rest of the article, please click through.

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