Recipe: Tuna and Piquillo Pepper Tapas

This delicious tapas recipe ranks as one of our favorites. Provided by the fine people at Whole Foods, the various ingredients are easy to obtain and the finished product is sure to please the guests at your next dinner party. It's also an easy one for all of you reluctant cooks out there.

Tuna and Piquillo Pepper

This will serve between six and eight people. Serve this Spanish tapas dish as an appetizer alongside olives and roasted peppers, with glasses of cold, sparkling wine for sipping.

Ingredients

1 (7.76 ounce) jar Ortiz Tuna with oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon capers
2 teaspoons minced red onion
1 tablespoon chopped piquillo peppers
Salt and pepper to taste
Sliced baguette (toasted, if desired)

Method

In a small bowl, mix together tuna (leave some large chunks), vinegar, capers, onion and peppers. Season and let marinate for several hours or overnight. Serve atop sliced baguette.

Nutrition

Per Serving (49g-wt.): 100 calories (35 from fat), 3.5g total fat, 0.5g saturated fat, 0g dietary fiber, 11g protein, 5g carbohydrate, 5mg cholesterol, 420mg sodium.

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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.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Alto Alentejo: Old Meets New In Portugal

The New York Times recently ran a fascinating article on the developing tourism hub at Marvão - a walled town in the eastern portion of Alto Alentejo in Portugal. The article's subject - a boutique hotel owner named Doug Smith - was looking to expand from his roots as a Palm Springs, CA hotelier in 2002 and was actively looking for new properties while traveling throughout Spain. He crossed the border into Portugal and found Alto Alentejo -- the perfect setting for boutique expansion. Featuring an amazing, elevated landscape (from the town's former usage as a Moorish fortress), top-notch cuisine and what the Times describes as a "lost-in-time lifestyle" and "relatively inexpensive cost of living," Alto Alentejo became the home of Smith's new venture.

"After four days of inspecting broken-down barns and farmhouses, he bought a 130-acre 18th-century farm outside the village of Campo Maior," explains the Times. 'Compared with Spain, this place was even more charming, beautiful and about a third less expensive,' Mr. Smith said. 'Old guys in snap caps and corduroys tip their hats to strangers.'

In the past seven years, Mr. Smith, who no longer owns Korakia Pensione, has watched the Alto Alentejo, a border province carpeted with cork oaks and olive trees in southeastern Portugal, emerge as a stylish backwater. The region’s name is derived from “Além-Tejo,” which means “beyond the Tagus,” the river that flows past Lisbon. A new blacktop highway now stretches eastward from Lisbon, and within an hour you’re admiring vineyards, the occasional whitewashed town or castle and gently rolling plains."

Head over to the New York Times for the full article. As you've likely noticed, ILC is now offering pousadas throughout Portugal. We encourage you to head to our website or give us a call to check out the options.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Madrid Brings The Culture This Fall

While it's certainly no secret that Madrid is a major culture capital whose cache extends beyond Spain, sometimes there's so many great options going on that every traveler can find the perfect activity. This fall season is one of those times.

In addition to world-class museum offerings, Madrid will welcome 35 major concerts, including appearances from international stars such as Diana Krall and the Jonas Brothers. The 26th Annual Jazz Festival starts at the end of October and there are plenty of theatre, dance, and family entertainment options going on as well.

Here's the full scoop from the Tourist Office of Spain:

Kicking off September 29 at the Thyssen Bornemisza is a major exhibition of 70 paintings by Henri Fantin-Latour. The Museo del Prado is presenting a show about Maíno, one of the most original and least known 17th century Spanish painters on October 20. One of the most important figures in Croatia’s contemporary art scene, David Maljkovic, will be the subject of a show running through January 18 at the Reina Sofía. The focus is on architecture at the CaixaForum Madrid with a review of Richard Rogers obra running through October 18 and Palladio the Architect, the first exhibition in Spain devoted to this 16th century Italian architect which kicks off October 7.

On October 13, Diana Krall will perform at the Palacio de Congresos. The Jonas Brothers are set to appear at the Sports Palace on November 11 and Depeche Mode will be there on the 16.

Kicking off November 4, the city’s Autumn Festival celebrates its 26th year with 35 concerts, theatre, dance and circus performances. Thirty-five companies from 19 countries including: Spain, the U.S., Argentina, Australia, France, Italy, Portugal and Morocco, among many others, will perform at 11 theatres in Madrid and in ten municipalities. On the program are:

• Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (11/, 4, 5, 7, and 8)
• Compañía Israel Galván (11/5-8) (flamenco)
• Norwegian singer and guitarist Hanne Hukkelberg (11/5)
• Whale Watching Tour, musicians from the U.S., Australia and Iceland (11/6)
• Japanese pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto (11/11)
• Les ballets C de la B (11/12-14)
• The San Quentin Drama Workshop with Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape (11/21)
• Spanish soprano Marina Bollaín singing The Three Penny Opera by Brecht and Weill (11/27-29)

The 26th International Jazz Festival will kick off around the end of October and while the schedule has not yet been announced, there are usually 15 concerts and world-renowned musicians perform at some 20 jazz clubs.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

NYTimes Covers Matadors In NE Spain

The New York Times published an excellent piece this morning on the fate of matadors in Northeast Spain. Facing an aging, brutal event with high ticket prices (think opera), the public is slowly mandating that bullfighting needs to slip away from both global and national consciousness. There's one notable exception: José Tomás.

Tomás was at the absolute height of his game when he retired seven years ago. Like many famous athletes, the game called him back and he returned with a stunning streak of sellout performances that are keeping the crowds talking. Last Sunday, he might have participated in the last bullfight ever in Catalonia.

"Over the last three decades or so, dwindling interest among young Catalans has combined with pressure from animal-rights advocates and from Catalan nationalists to cripple toreo in Catalonia," writes Michael Kimmelman in the Times. "Across the region’s four provinces, bullrings have closed; Barcelona’s is the only one still active."

The Catalan Parliament recently introduced a high-profile referendum that would end bullfighting all together. The subject has been on the tips of tongues for so long that it's not really surprising to anyone involved. Long the dream of animal fights activists, now even aficionados feel the days of bullfighting are numbered."

Kimmelman continues, "Sunday’s corrida — the term refers to an afternoon’s regular card of three matadors and six bulls — was more than just the last bullfight of the season. It was possibly the end of an era. And José Tomás (José Tomás Román Martín, but everybody knows him by his double-barreled first name) had come, in what seemed almost like a last-ditch attempt, to lend his box office appeal and artistry to the anti-ban side."

We recommend heading over to the New York Times website to read the full article.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

New Terminal T1 Opens At Barcelona Airport

Travelers to Barcelona will be treated to a more luxurious arrival and departure with the official opening of the new Terminal T1. The Ricardo Bofill-designed terminal will accommodate approximately 30 million people annually.

Created for $1.7 billion, Terminal T1 boasts some serious amenities. In addition to a 256,181-square-foot shopping promenade, there's also a spa, fitness center, hair salon, four VIP lounges and a multi-faith chapel. Business travelers will have access to a series of offices, boardrooms, a private gym and rest area with beds, baths and TVs.

More from the Tourist Office of Spain:

This terminal is one of the largest civil engineering projects recently undertaken in Europe. Bofill designed the structure with sustainability in mind, placing hundreds of solar panels on the aluminum roof. Thus, 70 percent of the water in T1 is heated using thermal collectors. Curtain walls, designed to resist air, water infiltration, wind and its own dead load forces are composed of an aluminum framing filled with glass to provide an architecturally-pleasing and light-filled structure.

The opening of T1 has created 3,000 jobs in a terminal where over 6,000 will be employed. Many will work in the new processing building which has 166 check-in desks and 52 auto check-in machines. The Barcelona Airport is now able to serve 55 million passengers per year. Improvements have also been made in regards to flight operations. In 2004, the airport facilitated 64 operations per hour. Flight operations will now increase to up to 90 per hour. A total of 19 airlines are currently based in T1 including: Lufthansa, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, Swiss International, TAP Portugal, US Airways and Egyptair. At the beginning of September, One World (Iberia, American Airlines and Vueling), will move to the new terminal and by the end of the year, SkyTeam (incorporating Air Europa) will relocate there. Every seven minutes, a shuttle bus connects passengers from T1 to T2. For further information about the Barcelona Airport, go to www.aena.es.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Portugal Parks: Serra da Estrela National Park (Pt. 2)

Continuing our series highlighting Portugal parks (with some excellent information from the Tourist Office), today we'll feature Serra da Estrela National Park.

"The Natural Park of Serra da Estrela is the largest in Portugal and also features the highest mountain peaks in mainland Portugal. Both the Rio Mondego and the Rio Zêzere start here and cut through the Natural Park. These are the biggest two rivers that start and end in Portuguese territory. The Park began in 1976 to protect the rural character of the granite villages and its landscape. It lies to the east of the Central region of Portugal and stretches 55 kilometers from Celorico de Beira in the north, down to Vide in the south west, covering 1,000 square kilometers. It has some of the most stunning mountain scenery in Portugal and even has a small skiing resort."

The park also contains villages towards to the bottom of its mountain ranges. There's a notable Roman presence and past Arab settlers demonstrate influence on the area with unique irrigation systems and orchards. This diverse history gives travelers the opportunity to purchase region-specific cuisine and crafts.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Portugal Parks: Peneda-Geres National Park (Pt. 1)

The Portuguese Tourist Office recently sent over an excellent information guide to the country's vibrant parks and natural habitats. We'll roll out the information slowly, so you get a chance to really soak it in.

To start, we'll preview Peneda-Geres National Park way up north:

"The Peneda-Gerês National Park is a stunningly beautiful wilderness ofrugged granite mountains mixed with forest and fields of flowers. Lower lying areas offer conifer and broadleaved forests including some rare native woodland that contain oaks. The National Park covers a 70,000 metric acres. The striking mountains reach 1500 meters in rough granite. Here you will find the only surviving, untouched Roman road, complete with markers, on the Peninsula, and wild Gerês horses, roaming the wilderness. The spa town of Gerês offers water that is like silk, and renews you at first touch. Ancient villages fill the northern part, with a lake built around a sunken town."

Click here for more information.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Jardines del Buen Retiro

No matter where you are, nothing beats a lovely summer concert in the park. Yet as usual, those who visit Madrid are on the lucky side. Each summer, Madrid's main park (El Retiro) puts on a series of midday Sunday concerts by the local Madrid Symphony. You can rent rowboats to paddle around the Estanque or take a breezy ride on a romantic horse-drawn carriage. Other events vary week-by-week, but highlights include an annual book fair, puppet shows and all sorts of family friendly activities.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Valencia Is Home To August Grand Prix

Capitalizing on last year's successful run alongside the old river bed of the Turia, Valencia is proud to bring back a summer of grand prix racing for visitors. More than 500,000 people gathered to watch the cars rip, roar and rumble at nearly 200 miles per hour along the city's picturesque waterfront. The track - a 3.4 mile circuit that transforms city streets into a Formula One maze - is the work of a fantastic architect named Hermann Tilke. It's really not to be missed!

Here's the ticket information from the Tourist Office:

New General Admission tickets will permit fans access to the Valencia Street Circuit without buying a seat (about $42, or 30 euros on Friday, $70, or 50 euros on Saturday and $142, or 100 euros for the Grand Prix on Sunday.) Grandstand tickets are on sale now and range in price from around $212 to $680 (150 to 480 euros). Sailors can moor their yachts and view the race from the water and the marina also has a special grandstand. To learn more about the Grand Prix of Europe, go to www.valenciastreetcircuit.com/index_eng.html.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

The Pottery Of Portugal

The Portuguese National Tourism Office sent over some great information about one of the country's artistic treasures: pottery. While Portugal is certainly well-known for its high quality crafts (ranging from leather, copper, silver and gold to tapestries, woodcarving and amazing glassware), pottery is the real core of the nation's creative production.

The Tourism Office writes:

People in Portugal have worked clay since prehistory - it is part of the very ground the nation is built on. Travel the country and one finds glazed tiles everywhere, on churches, houses, palace façades and in gardens. You see traditional red and black clay and every region has both. Many areas offer amazing museum reproductions such as Viana do Castelo and Coimbra and, there are whimsical and fun clay traditions such as the figures from Estremoz, the greenware from Caldas, or the Rooster of Barcelos.

Caldas da Rainha, just north Lisbon, is the center of Portuguese pottery due to the abundance of clay deposits. Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, opened a factory in 1884 that makes the town, Fabrica de Faianca, famous. The factory still puts out a variety of cabbage and greenware, figurines, and fanciful pottery.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Nonstop To Valencia

Starting June 5, Delta Airlines will offer direct flights to Valencia - an exotic, beautiful locale on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Flights will depart four times a week from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, and the timing couldn't be any better. Valencia is rapidly becoming one of the must-see Spanish destinations.

If a trip to Valencia is in your cards, we advise you to catch the Fallas (the city's main festival taking place in March). Also, make time for a visit to the City of Arts and Sciences - a futuristic cluster of museums that features an opera house, planetarium and plenty of art.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Sorolla and Matisse in Madrid This Summer

The Spanish Tourist Office just sent over some great news for fans of art. This summer, Madrid will feature two major exhibitions featuring Joaquín Sorolla and Henri Matisse - two of the most renowned and visually-appealing artists in history.

The Sorolla exhibit opens on May 26th and lasts through the 6th of September at the Prado. The exhibit will focus on the artist's great works and includes his Visions of Spain series of 14 panels that he produced for the Hispanic Society of America. This is his biggest show in the last half century.

Starting June 9th, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza houses "Matisse: 1917 - 1941" - a showcase of rare works that cover painting, sculpture and drawing. The Tourist Office writes, "Marked by the shadow of World War I and the forebodings of the next world conflict, the period was one of rapid ascent for Matisse, and this exhibition aims to present the artist’s central role in the flourishing of modern art during this era. More than 50 museums and private collections have lent works – many never before exhibited in Spain – for the show, which will run through September 20."

ILC offers many great Madrid hotels that are within walking distance of these great exhibits.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Hot Deals for August

Another summer is just around the corner and it's the perfect time to book a trip to Spain. Lucky for you, we have some incredible hot deals coming up for the month of August at some of our premiere hotels in Madrid and Barcelona. Please click the hotel links below for more information.

Let's take Barcelona first. We're offering massive savings on both Hotel Claris and Hotel Granados 83 (up to 50 and 30 percent respectively). Hotel Claris is a contemporary 5-star Gran Luxe that was built within the former 19th C. Palace of Count Vedruna. It offers guests a classic old work style and is located in one of the finest areas in Barcelona. Hotel Granados 83 is a 4-star boutique hotel that's housed in a Neoclassic-style building. Located in Barcelona's upscale Eixample neighborhood, this hotel is close to the Avenida Diagonal, Paseo de Gracia, and Gaudí's distinctive buildings, the Casa Mila (La Pedrera) and Casa Batlló.

In Madrid, we're offering discounts on both Hotel Villa Real and Hotel Urban (also at 50 and 30 percent savings respectively). Hotel Villa Real is a 5-star hotel based on 19th C. Spanish architecture. Furnished with period designs throughout (Persian rugs, antique prints, silk curtains and parquet floors), Villa Real is one block from the Paseo de la Castellana and across from the Spanish parliament in the heart of Madrid. Hotel Urban is a 5-star Gran Luxe hotel based on modern, architecturally sleek style. Located in the heart of Madrid's "Art Triangle," the building contains a glass-enclosed atrium that rises the height of the building and showcases exposed glass elevators. Dark woods, warm colors, African and Hindu art are used throughout, lending a warm and contemporary feel to the interior spaces and guest rooms.

These hotels and offers are only available for a limited amount of time and only valid for travel in the month of August. This special insider rate will not last, so please check out our homepage and contact us before all the available rooms are booked.

To check on the availability of a promotional rate, email reservations@ilcweb.com with the hotel name, arrival & departure dates, number of guests (with children's ages) and room type desired.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.

Now Offering: Portugal!

ILC is proud to announce a new addition to our unbeatable stable of lodging options: The Pousadas de Portugal! The Pousadas, like many of our great Spanish options, present the modern traveler with a stunning combination of history and modern amenities. There are tons of different choices, too, with converted monasteries, convents, chateaus and many more.

Please contact us for more information, and we'll keep you updated when we revamp the official ILC website with new photographs and specific materials. We can even connect Spanish and Portugese travel for a whirlwind tour of two of Europe's most beautiful locales.

As usual, thanks for reading. Please visit International Lodging Corporation at our home page.