Don Harris recibe premio por su amor a la cocina ibérica
Donald B. Harris, quien junto a su familia fundó www.latienda.com en los años 90, recibió, el jueves 11 de octubre, la Cruz de la Orden del Mérito Civil en una ceremonia que tuvo lugar en la antigua residencia del embajador de España en la calle 16 de Washington. Esta condecoración, uno de los más altos honores que concede el país, fue entregada por el embajador de España ante la Casa Blanca, Ramón Gil-Casares, en nombre del Rey Juan Carlos I. El galardón es el equivalente español a la Medalla Nacional de las Humanidades de Estados Unidos.
“Recibir este galardón de parte del Rey de España en nombre de su pueblo es valiosísimo para mí. A lo largo de toda mi vida, mi familia y yo hemos tenido el privilegio de conocer a muchas familias entrañables a lo largo y ancho de España. Estoy muy agradecido de que podamos trabajar con esas buenas gentes y hacer honor a su tradiciones artesanas a través de La Tienda”, comentó Harris.
Con esta distinción, España reconoce la labor de Harris a la hora de promocionar la cultura, las gentes y la gastronomía españolas en Estados Unidos, expresó el embajador Ramón Gil-Casares.
Harris tuvo su primer contacto con España en 1965, cuando era un joven capellán de la marina americana. En los 70, Harris y su esposa Ruth se trasladaron con sus hijos al Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, junto a la base naval estadounidense de Rota, donde Harris fue destinado. A la vez que disfrutaban de su vida en familia en un vecindario español, le tomaron un profundo apego a la forma de vida española, en la que los niños y los lazos familiares eran esenciales.
Nacido en Boston, Harris se formó en la Universidad de William and Mary en Virginia, y en la Graduate Theological Union de Berkeley, California. Como oficial de marina, alcanzó el rango de capitán del cuerpo de capellanes. Una vez retirado, Harris fundó La Tienda con su familia en 1996. Con la aparición de internet y con la gastronomía española prácticamente desconocida en Estados Unidos, Don, junto a sus hijos Jonathan y Tim, creó una de las primeras tiendas virtuales de productos traídos de España. En 1997, www.LaTienda.com fue la primera en vender jamón serrano online. Hoy, ofrece una selección de más de 800 productos gourmet procedentes de España en donde la empresa trabaja con artesanos y pequeñas empresas familiares.
En 2009, Harris recibió el premio “Amigo de España-Almirante Pedro Menéndez” de manos de la Society of Spain en Washington. Ese mismo año, la familia abrió La Tienda, un establecimiento de venta directa al público en el número 1325 de Jamestown Road, en Williamsburg, en donde Harris tiene su base de operaciones.
Los sábados, sus nietos acuden a menudo a esta tienda a trabajar con él. “Vivieron en España con sus familias y allí fueron al colegio. Es un placer inmenso verles ayudar en el negocio y alimentar ese amor por todo lo español”, apuntó Harris.
En 2011, Harris publicó un libro titulado “The Heart of Spain, Families and Food” (El corazón de España, familias y gastronomía). El libro recibió el premio Nacional de Excelencia Indie en la categoría de viajes en 2011. La obra de Harris fue esencial para el lanzamiento en 2012 de una web educativa gratuita, Learning @ La Tienda, que está directamente inspirada en sus escritos y en su amor por España.
“La autoridad de Don Harris se apoya en una extraordinaria experiencia. Dudo que haya otro americano o europeo procedente que tenga un conocimiento tan vasto de las muchas zonas geográficas y de las diferentes variantes de la gastronomía de España”, dijo James W. Fernández, profesor emérito de antropología de la universidad de Chicago.
Beyond The Paper Parasol
An afterthought no longer, cocktail garnishes are bringing new dimensions to drinking
Kathleen Squires
La Tienda's best selling anchovy-stuffed olives are featured in the Wall Street Journal Off-Duty Edition as an inspired garnish for Vodka Martini, "The double-punch of brine throws the spirit's subtle sweetness and silky mouth feel into sharp relief."
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Kathleen Squires
La Tienda's best selling anchovy-stuffed olives are featured in the Wall Street Journal Off-Duty Edition as an inspired garnish for Vodka Martini, "The double-punch of brine throws the spirit's subtle sweetness and silky mouth feel into sharp relief."
CFL's Ultimate Family and Friends Holiday Gift Guide
Niria Portella
Niria Portella, Senior Editor of Cosmopolitan For Latinas, shares gift guide recommendations including our delicious Discover Spain Sampler and decadent Maja Beauty Soaps.
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Niria Portella, Senior Editor of Cosmopolitan For Latinas, shares gift guide recommendations including our delicious Discover Spain Sampler and decadent Maja Beauty Soaps.
Schmidt from 'New Girl' on Gifts for Guys
Free-Range, Acorn-Fed, Bone-in Iberico Ham
Free-Range, Acorn-Fed, Bone-in Iberico Ham
“The best thing to come out of Spain since Jesús Del Pozo.” $1,225; tienda.com
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Free-Range, Acorn-Fed, Bone-in Iberico Ham
“The best thing to come out of Spain since Jesús Del Pozo.” $1,225; tienda.com
Spain's Power Paprika
Pimentón de la Vera
Adam Baer
Paprika could be the most useless colorful spice in the pantry – that is, the traditional flavorless product we know of as the dried red-pepper powder grandma used on her bland, if ruddy, chicken. But one secret that chefs and better cooks are only still starting to divulge is that there's a power paprika that will change your cooking in unfathomably positive ways: pimentón de la vera, smoked Spanish paprika from Spain's rainy La Vera Tietar River valley, the secret spice that gives Spanish chorizo its inimitable kick.
The deep-red, stone-ground powder comes from peppers Columbus delivered from the New World that have been pulled taut and left to hang over oakwood fires until dry. The powder comes in three versions: dulce (sweet), agridulce (bittersweet with a medium heat level), or picante (hot). The important thing is not to buy "smoked paprika" from Trader Joe's and think you're getting the same thing. You want La Vera pimentón, and you want one of two brands: La Chinata or La Dalia. You can buy it in some brick-and-mortar gourmet stores or for about $7 for a seven-gram tin (sometimes less for multiple packages) from online gourmet stores like Zingermans.com and Tienda.com.
We prefer the La Chinata picante product, perhaps because of the insidious heat that it adds to any food whose flavor we also wish to deepen: broths, paella, Spanish "garlic" bread, any protein (especially lighter seafood). Our favorite home recipe, however, is the simplest: We make a paste out of it with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and good olive oil, and then we roast coated chicken parts as we normally would for what turns into a smoked, moist, and crispy alternative to unhealthful and often bland deep-fried fowl.
For an elevated application, Chef Manuel Trevino of New York's Marble Lane uses pimentón de la vera to create a flavor-packed aioli served along with tempura'd deviled eggs. Pimentón goes a long way, so don't overdo it," he cautions. We've sadly been on the wrong end of that culinary spice equation, so we appreciate the advice, although the highest crime to commit with pimentón is use it so sparingly that it hardly makes an impact. If you're an overspicer, then buy the dulce version and really give that chicken, fish, or shrimp some moderate coverage with our aforementioned paste. The coating should not be so thick that the meat itself is no longer visible, but don't just sprinkle a pinch into the mix – unless you want quixotic dinner party guests to leave with new, grand spice ideas of their own.
Read more
Adam Baer
Paprika could be the most useless colorful spice in the pantry – that is, the traditional flavorless product we know of as the dried red-pepper powder grandma used on her bland, if ruddy, chicken. But one secret that chefs and better cooks are only still starting to divulge is that there's a power paprika that will change your cooking in unfathomably positive ways: pimentón de la vera, smoked Spanish paprika from Spain's rainy La Vera Tietar River valley, the secret spice that gives Spanish chorizo its inimitable kick.
The deep-red, stone-ground powder comes from peppers Columbus delivered from the New World that have been pulled taut and left to hang over oakwood fires until dry. The powder comes in three versions: dulce (sweet), agridulce (bittersweet with a medium heat level), or picante (hot). The important thing is not to buy "smoked paprika" from Trader Joe's and think you're getting the same thing. You want La Vera pimentón, and you want one of two brands: La Chinata or La Dalia. You can buy it in some brick-and-mortar gourmet stores or for about $7 for a seven-gram tin (sometimes less for multiple packages) from online gourmet stores like Zingermans.com and Tienda.com.
We prefer the La Chinata picante product, perhaps because of the insidious heat that it adds to any food whose flavor we also wish to deepen: broths, paella, Spanish "garlic" bread, any protein (especially lighter seafood). Our favorite home recipe, however, is the simplest: We make a paste out of it with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and good olive oil, and then we roast coated chicken parts as we normally would for what turns into a smoked, moist, and crispy alternative to unhealthful and often bland deep-fried fowl.
For an elevated application, Chef Manuel Trevino of New York's Marble Lane uses pimentón de la vera to create a flavor-packed aioli served along with tempura'd deviled eggs. Pimentón goes a long way, so don't overdo it," he cautions. We've sadly been on the wrong end of that culinary spice equation, so we appreciate the advice, although the highest crime to commit with pimentón is use it so sparingly that it hardly makes an impact. If you're an overspicer, then buy the dulce version and really give that chicken, fish, or shrimp some moderate coverage with our aforementioned paste. The coating should not be so thick that the meat itself is no longer visible, but don't just sprinkle a pinch into the mix – unless you want quixotic dinner party guests to leave with new, grand spice ideas of their own.
How to Make: Classic Paella
Betty Cortina
The arguments are often heated. Ask a group of Spaniards, large or small, what makes a classic paella and you’ll get as many impassioned answers as there are Spaniards. You’ll hear it’s not paella if it doesn’t contain seafood. Or rabbit. Or chorizo. Or lima beans. That it’s not paella if it’s not cooked over an opened flame. Or in a paella pan. Some insist that unless the rice is imported from Spain you shouldn’t dare use as sacred a term as paella to refer to it. There are opinions on whether you can combine seafood and poultry (marriages have broken up over that one!) and on the kind of saffron used. And rest assured, everyone’s mother is the creator of the definitive version of Spain’s most famous contribution to the culinary world. “It’s a controversial question,” says Jesus “Lolo” Manso, a Spanish ex-pat who owns Socarrat, a highly-acclaimed New York City paella bar named after the crust of rice that forms on the bottom of the paella pan (akin to raspao, if you’re from anywhere in the Caribbean). “It’s like asking Americanos: What is an authentic hamburger? There are many answers and it can get a little philosophical.”
Yet there is one thing everyone agrees on: that paella is all about the rice—it must be short grain, never long—and that other ingredients (shrimp, chicken, chorizo, vegetables or anything else that finds its way in) are mere supporting characters. It makes sense when you realize the original paella was peasant food for farmers from Valencia, Spain’s great rice-growing region. (Indeed Spanish food writer Luis Antonio de Vega decades ago commented: “Valencia took rice and with it created one of the best dishes of world cookery. Imagine—with rice! That white grain on which the impoverished of the world depend for sustenance.”) Not surprisingly, the earliest paella dishes were humble efforts, typically including land snails, eel, rabbit and lima beans—ingredients that were easy and cheap to find at the time. “The farmers would take a pan into the fields and take some rice and cook it with whatever was around,” says Jonathon Harris, whose family has run LaTienda.com, one of the largest US importers of Spanish ingredients and cooking equipment, for more than 15 years.
It’s certainly come a long way, with chefs from around the world now experimenting with it, paella bars like New York’s Socarrat popping up coast to coast, and one of Spain’s most famous culinary ex-pats, Chef Jose Andrés, hosting an annual Paella Festival in Washington DC. (This year’s runs September 15 to 30.)
Considered a summer dish because it’s often cooked outside over an open flame in Spain, it’s just as easy (and effective) to make it at home on your stove any time of the year. And while the debates about ingredients that should or should not be included rage on, here are a few more tips everyone agrees on. First, use short grain Valencia or Bomba rice rather than long-grain rice, which changes the flavor and texture. Second, if you’re not using a true paella pan cook in a vessel that’s wide and shallow; the rice should only come up about one inch, and once cooked it should be dry, not soupy or creamy like Italian risotto. Once the rice is in, don’t stir it. “This is one of the most important things,” says Manso, “it helps make sure there is socarrat at the end.” Last, splurge on saffron. Yes, it’s the world’s most expensive spice but a little goes a long way. And paella made with colorings like annatto or turmeric just isn’t nearly as tasty.
Below is a recipe for classic paella from LaTienda.com.
La Tienda’s Paella Recipe
6 cups clam or seafood broth
1 tsp thread saffron
1 1/2 pounds firm-fleshed fish, cut in bite-sized pieces
1 dozen mussels
1 dozen small clams
12 large shrimp in shells
Sea salt
2 tbsp parsley, minced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh thyme
2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
8 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
6 scallions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
2 cups Bomba paella rice or Calasparra paella rice
Lemon wedges
Alioli (garlic mayonnaise)
1. Heat the broth in a large pot. Stir in saffron. Pat fish and shrimp dry between paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and let sit 10 minutes. With a mortar and pestle mash parsley, garlic, thyme and 1/8 tsp salt into a paste. Stir in paprika; add water if necessary to form a paste.
2. Heat 6 tbsp of oil in 15″ paella pan over medium high heat and quickly brown the fish 1-2 minutes. Do not fully cook. Remove to warm platter. Add remaining 2 tbsp of oil, onion, scallions and bell pepper to paella pan and cook until the vegetables are slightly softened. Raise heat, add tomato and cook until it becomes sauce-like, 2 to 5 minutes. Pour in the hot broth and bring to a boil. Sprinkle the rice evenly across the pan. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring rice and rotating pan occasionally. Add all reserved fish (but not shrimp). Stir in parsley paste. Taste for salt. Do not stir after this point. Lower the heat, continue to simmer until rice is no longer soupy but enough liquid remains to continue cooking the rice (about 10 min.). Add extra liquid if necessary.
3. Arrange shrimp, clams and mussels over rice, placing edges of mussel and clam shells so they open facing up. Cook, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes until rice is almost done. Remove pan from the heat and cover with foil. Let sit 10 minutes. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve with fresh alioli. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
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The arguments are often heated. Ask a group of Spaniards, large or small, what makes a classic paella and you’ll get as many impassioned answers as there are Spaniards. You’ll hear it’s not paella if it doesn’t contain seafood. Or rabbit. Or chorizo. Or lima beans. That it’s not paella if it’s not cooked over an opened flame. Or in a paella pan. Some insist that unless the rice is imported from Spain you shouldn’t dare use as sacred a term as paella to refer to it. There are opinions on whether you can combine seafood and poultry (marriages have broken up over that one!) and on the kind of saffron used. And rest assured, everyone’s mother is the creator of the definitive version of Spain’s most famous contribution to the culinary world. “It’s a controversial question,” says Jesus “Lolo” Manso, a Spanish ex-pat who owns Socarrat, a highly-acclaimed New York City paella bar named after the crust of rice that forms on the bottom of the paella pan (akin to raspao, if you’re from anywhere in the Caribbean). “It’s like asking Americanos: What is an authentic hamburger? There are many answers and it can get a little philosophical.”
Yet there is one thing everyone agrees on: that paella is all about the rice—it must be short grain, never long—and that other ingredients (shrimp, chicken, chorizo, vegetables or anything else that finds its way in) are mere supporting characters. It makes sense when you realize the original paella was peasant food for farmers from Valencia, Spain’s great rice-growing region. (Indeed Spanish food writer Luis Antonio de Vega decades ago commented: “Valencia took rice and with it created one of the best dishes of world cookery. Imagine—with rice! That white grain on which the impoverished of the world depend for sustenance.”) Not surprisingly, the earliest paella dishes were humble efforts, typically including land snails, eel, rabbit and lima beans—ingredients that were easy and cheap to find at the time. “The farmers would take a pan into the fields and take some rice and cook it with whatever was around,” says Jonathon Harris, whose family has run LaTienda.com, one of the largest US importers of Spanish ingredients and cooking equipment, for more than 15 years.
It’s certainly come a long way, with chefs from around the world now experimenting with it, paella bars like New York’s Socarrat popping up coast to coast, and one of Spain’s most famous culinary ex-pats, Chef Jose Andrés, hosting an annual Paella Festival in Washington DC. (This year’s runs September 15 to 30.)
Considered a summer dish because it’s often cooked outside over an open flame in Spain, it’s just as easy (and effective) to make it at home on your stove any time of the year. And while the debates about ingredients that should or should not be included rage on, here are a few more tips everyone agrees on. First, use short grain Valencia or Bomba rice rather than long-grain rice, which changes the flavor and texture. Second, if you’re not using a true paella pan cook in a vessel that’s wide and shallow; the rice should only come up about one inch, and once cooked it should be dry, not soupy or creamy like Italian risotto. Once the rice is in, don’t stir it. “This is one of the most important things,” says Manso, “it helps make sure there is socarrat at the end.” Last, splurge on saffron. Yes, it’s the world’s most expensive spice but a little goes a long way. And paella made with colorings like annatto or turmeric just isn’t nearly as tasty.
Below is a recipe for classic paella from LaTienda.com.
La Tienda’s Paella Recipe
6 cups clam or seafood broth
1 tsp thread saffron
1 1/2 pounds firm-fleshed fish, cut in bite-sized pieces
1 dozen mussels
1 dozen small clams
12 large shrimp in shells
Sea salt
2 tbsp parsley, minced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh thyme
2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
8 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
6 scallions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
2 cups Bomba paella rice or Calasparra paella rice
Lemon wedges
Alioli (garlic mayonnaise)
1. Heat the broth in a large pot. Stir in saffron. Pat fish and shrimp dry between paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and let sit 10 minutes. With a mortar and pestle mash parsley, garlic, thyme and 1/8 tsp salt into a paste. Stir in paprika; add water if necessary to form a paste.
2. Heat 6 tbsp of oil in 15″ paella pan over medium high heat and quickly brown the fish 1-2 minutes. Do not fully cook. Remove to warm platter. Add remaining 2 tbsp of oil, onion, scallions and bell pepper to paella pan and cook until the vegetables are slightly softened. Raise heat, add tomato and cook until it becomes sauce-like, 2 to 5 minutes. Pour in the hot broth and bring to a boil. Sprinkle the rice evenly across the pan. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring rice and rotating pan occasionally. Add all reserved fish (but not shrimp). Stir in parsley paste. Taste for salt. Do not stir after this point. Lower the heat, continue to simmer until rice is no longer soupy but enough liquid remains to continue cooking the rice (about 10 min.). Add extra liquid if necessary.
3. Arrange shrimp, clams and mussels over rice, placing edges of mussel and clam shells so they open facing up. Cook, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes until rice is almost done. Remove pan from the heat and cover with foil. Let sit 10 minutes. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve with fresh alioli. Makes 4 to 6 servings.
La Tienda, a Family of Passion and Foods from Spain
A myriad of Spanish foods on the web
Rosa María González Lamas/©ICEX
In 1996, Bill Clinton was re-elected President of the United States and José María Aznar initiated his first period as Spain’s Prime Minister. That same year, Dolly the cloned sheep was born, and American consumers were for the first time able to purchase jamón serrano in the United States. It all began with a simple clever question: whether anyone might be interested in ordering a Serrano ham. That is what LaTienda.com asked on its first website, a location in cyberspace they quickly began to fill with the flavors of the foods from Spain. Internet was just beginning to blossom those days and La Tienda.com was keen enough to get on a vehicle that soon attained the speed of Formula 1.
I wished La Tienda had existed in the late eighties when I lived in Washington, DC and a recently-opened La Taberna del Alabardero was one of the rare temples of Spanish cuisine in the city. Back then, when there was very little Spanish jaleo in the US capital, Internet was a rather unknown communications instrument, and there hardly were any other means of getting a paellera than bringing one straight from Spain. It did not take long before that began to change.
Some years later, Internet made its incursion in our lives and soon transformed the business scenario, becoming an ideal solution to reach consumers across the continental United States. La Tienda’s founders were smart to envision these possibilities, taking good advantage of a platform that opened the door not only to that cherished Serrano ham, but also to an untapped universe of other Spanish foods.
Tim Harris, co-owner of La Tienda.com, says to www.foodsfromspain.com that his primary interest when founding the store in 1996 was to find a way to work collaboratively as a family, focusing on something they loved, which happened to be Spain.
“We actually began as a brick and mortar retail store selling Moorish tiles from Spain. I was working with a furniture company at the time and was integrally involved in launching their presence as the first furniture store on the Internet. It seemed to be a natural fit for me to apply that knowledge to our family’s business and to develop an Internet presence for products from Spain, because we really launched La Tienda to share our passion for the country,” he remembers.
In 1996 food from Spain was virtually unknown in the United States. Spanish chefs were just arriving onto the food scene, and only some mass-produced dry goods could be found in grocery stores in few metropolises with a strong Hispanic population. Labeling was also a challenge for the American consumer.
Luckily, Spanish nationals who lived in the United States quickly reaffirmed their interest in being able to purchase Serrano ham. “Respondents were mostly men with Internet access in their respective places of employment because at that time, Internet access was uncommon at home”, Harris adds on. Starting with that consumer base, La Tienda established a relationship with an importer in New York who brought in the Navidul and then the Redondo Iglesias ham brands. This is how La Tienda became the first store in the United States to bring Serrano ham directly to consumers. A great achievement considering it only was later that Spanish Ibérico ham and chorizo were first allowed in the United States.
The best of Spain
La Tienda began as a small shop staffed by only family members. Joining Serrano were some other dry goods as olive oil, piquillo peppers, or classical Cola Cao, along with some very traditional bath products. Today, La Tienda has significantly enlarged “family” and business, with a separate retail store, two warehouses -one of them in the Spanish city of Alicante (southeast Spain)- corporate offices in Spain and the United States with a crew of approximately 30 employees, and a product selection of dozens of dry and fresh goods, as well as specialized cooking and serving ware.
The store’s catalog is a path of pleasure that purveys a route of food directions to fulfill the delight of devouring a fascinating country. From the finest cured hams as Serrano and Ibérico, to other cured and fresh pork meats, sausages, authentic pre-baked breads from Galicia, an impressive display of extra virgin olive oils, a carefully chosen offer of favorite Spanish cheeses with designations of origin, plain and stuffed olives, traditional nougat and sweets, canned seafood, rice, spices as saffron and pimentón, fava beans, wines, almonds, peppers, asparagus or artichokes, there is an almost endless dimension of delectable Spanish pleasures that allow discriminating food lovers to embark on an imaginary journey through the sea and green lands along the Cantabrian Sea coast, the windmills of La Mancha, the bountiful rías gallegas famed for their sea flavors, the rice fields in the Mediterranean, the vineyards in Rioja, the olive groves in Andalusia, or the dehesas in Salamanca and Extremadura.
“Our mission is to support artisan producers in Spain and to help them preserve their traditional way of life. We are always on the lookout for authentic products made by small family companies, and also very interested in meats from humanely raised animals, so we look closely at the ethics involved in the production of goods,” declares Harris.
Ninety percent of the product portfolio is purchased directly from the producer, while the remaining ten percent is secured through US distributors. This year, La Tienda.com expects to ship approximately 100,000 orders. The store delivers products to the continental United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and even Europe. Florida, Texas, New York, California as well as the cities of Minneapolis and Chicago are La Tienda.com’s top markets.
To reach as many different consumer audiences as possible, La Tienda has launched various retail and wholesale marketing programs addressing specific needs of these market groups.
The Affiliate Program allows companies who own web sites to bring their visitors the highest quality Spanish goods through a link to La Tienda.com Once registered, all purchases made on La Tienda.com that were referred from affiliate sales will receive an 8% commission of the sales price.
Club Tienda is a free-of-cost program that offers very best deals to La Tienda.com’s most loyal customers. These may include new items the store considers adding to its portfolio or special prices on products not normally carried by the store.
La Tienda.com also has a wholesale program for culinary professionals. “We love working with chefs. Culinary professionals have purchasing habits and demands that differ from our typical customer. Chefs are keenly aware of food product trends and are wonderfully inquisitive about new products. They are a great way for us to find new products. They can either place bulk orders or purchase small quantities that we can ship overnight, to ensure freshness,” explained Harris.
The company also sustains continued communications efforts with its clients and prospect customers with regular e-mails, a Flavors of Spain monthly newsletter, a printed catalog, seasonal promotions, and a presence on social networks, which Harris considers vital, as they are a predominantly online business.
Further Expansion
In addition to its online market, La Tienda.com has a La Tienda, a retail store in Williamsburg, Virginia which opens Monday through Saturday. To foster a closer consumer contact, La Tienda.com organizes an annual Paella Photo Contest on Facebook and hosts a huge paella celebration at their retail store, where it regularly also conducts complimentary food and wine tastings, in great demand by prospect customers and central to La Tienda’s retail business.
After pioneering the sales of Spanish breads, Serrano ham and Ibéricos to the American consumer, and also leading the way in popularizing other products as Spanish saffron, Pimentón de la Vera PDO or Bomba Calasparra Rice PDO, La Tienda is now interested in Spanish mushrooms and a wider variety of pastry and bakery products, as well as in exploring the possibilities of importing game offerings as duck and venison, not yet legally allowed. Harris considers the interest for Spanish food will continue to grow because of an American interest in returning to authentic cooking with fresh ingredients, and deriving from farms that use sustainable and ethical growing and raising methods.
What are Spanish foods still missing in North America? Harris believes Spain’s café culture. “Because our population is spread out, especially in the suburbs, and is not town-centered, as in Spain, we are missing those local cafés where people gather to meet with friends and family. With more Spanish restaurants serving tapas, pinchos, and with jamón hanging from the ceiling, this could really help increase exposure to Spanish products,” he asserts.
To keep promoting Spanish foods, the establishment is launching Learning@La Tienda an online resource designed to explore and appreciate Spanish cuisine and culture. Community involvement is strong and active.
Expansion plans? Harris admits they are so often approached about the possibility of franchising La Tienda’s retail store that they are actively considering franchising the retail concept throughout the United States.
Read more
Rosa María González Lamas/©ICEX
In 1996, Bill Clinton was re-elected President of the United States and José María Aznar initiated his first period as Spain’s Prime Minister. That same year, Dolly the cloned sheep was born, and American consumers were for the first time able to purchase jamón serrano in the United States. It all began with a simple clever question: whether anyone might be interested in ordering a Serrano ham. That is what LaTienda.com asked on its first website, a location in cyberspace they quickly began to fill with the flavors of the foods from Spain. Internet was just beginning to blossom those days and La Tienda.com was keen enough to get on a vehicle that soon attained the speed of Formula 1.
I wished La Tienda had existed in the late eighties when I lived in Washington, DC and a recently-opened La Taberna del Alabardero was one of the rare temples of Spanish cuisine in the city. Back then, when there was very little Spanish jaleo in the US capital, Internet was a rather unknown communications instrument, and there hardly were any other means of getting a paellera than bringing one straight from Spain. It did not take long before that began to change.
Some years later, Internet made its incursion in our lives and soon transformed the business scenario, becoming an ideal solution to reach consumers across the continental United States. La Tienda’s founders were smart to envision these possibilities, taking good advantage of a platform that opened the door not only to that cherished Serrano ham, but also to an untapped universe of other Spanish foods.
Tim Harris, co-owner of La Tienda.com, says to www.foodsfromspain.com that his primary interest when founding the store in 1996 was to find a way to work collaboratively as a family, focusing on something they loved, which happened to be Spain.
“We actually began as a brick and mortar retail store selling Moorish tiles from Spain. I was working with a furniture company at the time and was integrally involved in launching their presence as the first furniture store on the Internet. It seemed to be a natural fit for me to apply that knowledge to our family’s business and to develop an Internet presence for products from Spain, because we really launched La Tienda to share our passion for the country,” he remembers.
In 1996 food from Spain was virtually unknown in the United States. Spanish chefs were just arriving onto the food scene, and only some mass-produced dry goods could be found in grocery stores in few metropolises with a strong Hispanic population. Labeling was also a challenge for the American consumer.
Luckily, Spanish nationals who lived in the United States quickly reaffirmed their interest in being able to purchase Serrano ham. “Respondents were mostly men with Internet access in their respective places of employment because at that time, Internet access was uncommon at home”, Harris adds on. Starting with that consumer base, La Tienda established a relationship with an importer in New York who brought in the Navidul and then the Redondo Iglesias ham brands. This is how La Tienda became the first store in the United States to bring Serrano ham directly to consumers. A great achievement considering it only was later that Spanish Ibérico ham and chorizo were first allowed in the United States.
The best of Spain
La Tienda began as a small shop staffed by only family members. Joining Serrano were some other dry goods as olive oil, piquillo peppers, or classical Cola Cao, along with some very traditional bath products. Today, La Tienda has significantly enlarged “family” and business, with a separate retail store, two warehouses -one of them in the Spanish city of Alicante (southeast Spain)- corporate offices in Spain and the United States with a crew of approximately 30 employees, and a product selection of dozens of dry and fresh goods, as well as specialized cooking and serving ware.
The store’s catalog is a path of pleasure that purveys a route of food directions to fulfill the delight of devouring a fascinating country. From the finest cured hams as Serrano and Ibérico, to other cured and fresh pork meats, sausages, authentic pre-baked breads from Galicia, an impressive display of extra virgin olive oils, a carefully chosen offer of favorite Spanish cheeses with designations of origin, plain and stuffed olives, traditional nougat and sweets, canned seafood, rice, spices as saffron and pimentón, fava beans, wines, almonds, peppers, asparagus or artichokes, there is an almost endless dimension of delectable Spanish pleasures that allow discriminating food lovers to embark on an imaginary journey through the sea and green lands along the Cantabrian Sea coast, the windmills of La Mancha, the bountiful rías gallegas famed for their sea flavors, the rice fields in the Mediterranean, the vineyards in Rioja, the olive groves in Andalusia, or the dehesas in Salamanca and Extremadura.
“Our mission is to support artisan producers in Spain and to help them preserve their traditional way of life. We are always on the lookout for authentic products made by small family companies, and also very interested in meats from humanely raised animals, so we look closely at the ethics involved in the production of goods,” declares Harris.
Ninety percent of the product portfolio is purchased directly from the producer, while the remaining ten percent is secured through US distributors. This year, La Tienda.com expects to ship approximately 100,000 orders. The store delivers products to the continental United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and even Europe. Florida, Texas, New York, California as well as the cities of Minneapolis and Chicago are La Tienda.com’s top markets.
To reach as many different consumer audiences as possible, La Tienda has launched various retail and wholesale marketing programs addressing specific needs of these market groups.
The Affiliate Program allows companies who own web sites to bring their visitors the highest quality Spanish goods through a link to La Tienda.com Once registered, all purchases made on La Tienda.com that were referred from affiliate sales will receive an 8% commission of the sales price.
Club Tienda is a free-of-cost program that offers very best deals to La Tienda.com’s most loyal customers. These may include new items the store considers adding to its portfolio or special prices on products not normally carried by the store.
La Tienda.com also has a wholesale program for culinary professionals. “We love working with chefs. Culinary professionals have purchasing habits and demands that differ from our typical customer. Chefs are keenly aware of food product trends and are wonderfully inquisitive about new products. They are a great way for us to find new products. They can either place bulk orders or purchase small quantities that we can ship overnight, to ensure freshness,” explained Harris.
The company also sustains continued communications efforts with its clients and prospect customers with regular e-mails, a Flavors of Spain monthly newsletter, a printed catalog, seasonal promotions, and a presence on social networks, which Harris considers vital, as they are a predominantly online business.
Further Expansion
In addition to its online market, La Tienda.com has a La Tienda, a retail store in Williamsburg, Virginia which opens Monday through Saturday. To foster a closer consumer contact, La Tienda.com organizes an annual Paella Photo Contest on Facebook and hosts a huge paella celebration at their retail store, where it regularly also conducts complimentary food and wine tastings, in great demand by prospect customers and central to La Tienda’s retail business.
After pioneering the sales of Spanish breads, Serrano ham and Ibéricos to the American consumer, and also leading the way in popularizing other products as Spanish saffron, Pimentón de la Vera PDO or Bomba Calasparra Rice PDO, La Tienda is now interested in Spanish mushrooms and a wider variety of pastry and bakery products, as well as in exploring the possibilities of importing game offerings as duck and venison, not yet legally allowed. Harris considers the interest for Spanish food will continue to grow because of an American interest in returning to authentic cooking with fresh ingredients, and deriving from farms that use sustainable and ethical growing and raising methods.
What are Spanish foods still missing in North America? Harris believes Spain’s café culture. “Because our population is spread out, especially in the suburbs, and is not town-centered, as in Spain, we are missing those local cafés where people gather to meet with friends and family. With more Spanish restaurants serving tapas, pinchos, and with jamón hanging from the ceiling, this could really help increase exposure to Spanish products,” he asserts.
To keep promoting Spanish foods, the establishment is launching Learning@La Tienda an online resource designed to explore and appreciate Spanish cuisine and culture. Community involvement is strong and active.
Expansion plans? Harris admits they are so often approached about the possibility of franchising La Tienda’s retail store that they are actively considering franchising the retail concept throughout the United States.
Gold-Standard Jamón
Owen Dugan
Jamón Ibérico is a magical name among ham lovers. It is uniquely Spanish, based primarily on the Ibérico breed of pig (also known as pata negra) used to make it, as well as on feeding and curing techniques. It's a must-have for food lovers, and there was fanfare when it became available in the United States five years ago.
Now there is reason to rejoice once more. The brand Cinco Jotas ("five j's"), owned by the Osborne wine family, has long been considered a benchmark in Spain and is now available here.
The pigs are raised in Jabugo, a town in southwest Spain near the Portuguese border. The climate is believed to be perfect for raising the pigs, and for the acorns responsible for the hams' flavor. Most important of all, however, is the purity of the breed. The producers ensure that the pigs are 100 percent Ibérico; this distinction is considerable because a pig need only be 75 percent to get the storied label.
All of these factors conspire to deliver the best Ibérico legally available in this country. The meat is rosy and the fat shiny. It has nutty and complex aromas and is simultaneously earthy and tangy on the palate. The flavors persist long after. This is a must-try for ham lovers. Pour a sherry if you want to pretend you're in Spain, but a really great sparkling wine is better. www.tienda.com - whole bone-in paleta (front leg, about 10 pounds), $750; whole bone-in jamón (hind leg, about 15 pounds), $1,600
The Off Duty 50: Summer 2012
Cooking & Eating - Mail-Order a Sausage
F. Martin Ramin
A banger from a great butcher can be a hosts secret weapon—robust, succulent and, best of all, forgiving. Here are some of America's best wursts.
From top: Peregrino cooking chorizo: semi-cured to stay juicy on the grill, $27 for 24 ounces, tienda.com.
F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Monica Pierini, Set Styling by DSM.
Read more
F. Martin Ramin
A banger from a great butcher can be a hosts secret weapon—robust, succulent and, best of all, forgiving. Here are some of America's best wursts.
From top: Peregrino cooking chorizo: semi-cured to stay juicy on the grill, $27 for 24 ounces, tienda.com.
F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Monica Pierini, Set Styling by DSM.
La Tienda Launches Spanish Food and Culture Learning Site
I is for Idiazábal
Garrett Snyder
Do you ever find yourself having this reccurring nightmare in which you're hanging out with Ferran Adriá in San Sebastián and he starts showing you these crazy ingredients but you can't understand a word of his thick, heavily accented Catalan?
Uh, yeah, us neither.
But on the off-chance you want to learn more about the culinary vocabulary of Spain, which might prove handy when perusing menus these days, online Spanish food store La Tienda has launched Learning@LaTienda, an interactive website to help España neophytes familiarize themselves with cuisine and culture by using flash cards, regional bios and "hablo" images.
You can learn everything from what makes a proper jamon iberico to how to judge the quality of wheel of manchego. If you're planning a Spanish dream vacation, or just interested in learning more about one of Europe's most influential culinary capitals, the site aims to be a lot more informative than watching Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow feed each other olives for an hour on PBS.
Read more
Garrett Snyder
Do you ever find yourself having this reccurring nightmare in which you're hanging out with Ferran Adriá in San Sebastián and he starts showing you these crazy ingredients but you can't understand a word of his thick, heavily accented Catalan?
Uh, yeah, us neither.
But on the off-chance you want to learn more about the culinary vocabulary of Spain, which might prove handy when perusing menus these days, online Spanish food store La Tienda has launched Learning@LaTienda, an interactive website to help España neophytes familiarize themselves with cuisine and culture by using flash cards, regional bios and "hablo" images.
You can learn everything from what makes a proper jamon iberico to how to judge the quality of wheel of manchego. If you're planning a Spanish dream vacation, or just interested in learning more about one of Europe's most influential culinary capitals, the site aims to be a lot more informative than watching Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow feed each other olives for an hour on PBS.
Spain's Luxury Ham
Jamón Ibérico de Bellota
Adam Baer
Bacon-of-the month clubs; pork belly at corner bistros. It's never been a finer time for pig-loving gourmands, even if some say the "bacon revolution" is over. Luckily, a few years ago,stateside devotees of Spanish delicacies finally received a gift that they have desired for centuries: jamón ibérico de bellota. The rarest form of Spain's best cured ham, bellota ("acorn," in Spanish), which is oak-y in color, complex in flavor, and lined with silky fat, comes from the acorn-fed, black-footed pigs whose ancestors have roamed the Iberian peninsula's oak-tree pastures since pre-Roman times. It's so good we only blink a few times when we see this stuff's $180-per-pound price, and we often prefer it to Parma prosciutto, at least on special occasions.
How'd it make its way to our tables? In 1995, Spanish company Embutidos Fermín finally built a slaughterhouse to meet tough USDA specs, and the first marbleized, three-year-aged bellotas hit our shores around the year-end holidays in 2008. Since then, the jamón's become more popular in high-end Spanish restaurants, but it remains under the radar, especially for the 99 percent.
"Think of it as a luxury, like caviar," says tapas godfather Jose Andres, who serves the product on hollow "air bread" at his jamón bar in Beverly Hills's The Bazaar at the SLS Hotel. "Initially, people didn't think there was interest," Andres adds. "Plus this jamón requires an investment of time and money to open new markets." And to meet U.S. import requirements.
Meanwhile, La Tienda sells bellota to anyone in combinations as affordable as $29 for slices (four ounces) to $1,250 for whole hams that can serve up to 50 people. The good news? You needn't worry about a recipe. "Let the pure flavors speak for themselves," says Andres. "Thinly sliced on its own, it's perfect. Or, combine it with another luxury, like caviar, rolling the ham into a caviar cigar. Ideal surf and turf." [From $29; tienda.com]
Read more
Adam Baer
Bacon-of-the month clubs; pork belly at corner bistros. It's never been a finer time for pig-loving gourmands, even if some say the "bacon revolution" is over. Luckily, a few years ago,stateside devotees of Spanish delicacies finally received a gift that they have desired for centuries: jamón ibérico de bellota. The rarest form of Spain's best cured ham, bellota ("acorn," in Spanish), which is oak-y in color, complex in flavor, and lined with silky fat, comes from the acorn-fed, black-footed pigs whose ancestors have roamed the Iberian peninsula's oak-tree pastures since pre-Roman times. It's so good we only blink a few times when we see this stuff's $180-per-pound price, and we often prefer it to Parma prosciutto, at least on special occasions.
How'd it make its way to our tables? In 1995, Spanish company Embutidos Fermín finally built a slaughterhouse to meet tough USDA specs, and the first marbleized, three-year-aged bellotas hit our shores around the year-end holidays in 2008. Since then, the jamón's become more popular in high-end Spanish restaurants, but it remains under the radar, especially for the 99 percent.
"Think of it as a luxury, like caviar," says tapas godfather Jose Andres, who serves the product on hollow "air bread" at his jamón bar in Beverly Hills's The Bazaar at the SLS Hotel. "Initially, people didn't think there was interest," Andres adds. "Plus this jamón requires an investment of time and money to open new markets." And to meet U.S. import requirements.
Meanwhile, La Tienda sells bellota to anyone in combinations as affordable as $29 for slices (four ounces) to $1,250 for whole hams that can serve up to 50 people. The good news? You needn't worry about a recipe. "Let the pure flavors speak for themselves," says Andres. "Thinly sliced on its own, it's perfect. Or, combine it with another luxury, like caviar, rolling the ham into a caviar cigar. Ideal surf and turf." [From $29; tienda.com]
Ibérico Pork in the Neighborhood
Florence Fabricant
Call it the other red meat. Uncured cuts of pork from Spanish Ibérico pigs, the same ones that forage for acorns and become some of the finest hams on the planet, are now being sold online in the United States, by Wagshal’s in Washington; La Tienda in Williamsburg, Va.; and Nicky USA in Portland, Ore. Need I say grilling season? The fresh meat is red, beeflike and marbled. Seared medium rare, then sliced, it is silky-tender, with a mildly earthy flavor. It is not as buttery as Wagyu beef, so you are not sated after two bites.
The new Web sources allow home cooks to buy skirt steaks, tenderloins, shoulder steaks and end-loin steaks called pluma, mostly in one-pound portions. Some purveyors also carry cheeks and racks of ribs. The pluma is delicious brushed with Japanese ponzu, a soy-based sauce, before grilling, then sliced and served over a salad of Asian greens. Fajitas made with the skirt steaks are worthy of fine dining.
And for those who prefer to have someone else do the cooking, Chris DeLuna, the chef at La Fonda del Sol in Midtown Manhattan, last week started serving Ibérico skirt steaks, sliced tenderloins and rib-eye chops, some garnished with green sauces.
Ibérico de Bellota pork is shipped frozen in various cuts, including skirt steaks, end loins, tenderloins and shoulders, from tienda.com; $28 to $58. At La Fonda del Sol, 200 Park Avenue (Vanderbilt Avenue at 44th Street), (212) 867-6767, the skirt steak is $14 as a tapa; as an entree, the tenderloin is $32 and the rib-eye is $34.
Read more
Call it the other red meat. Uncured cuts of pork from Spanish Ibérico pigs, the same ones that forage for acorns and become some of the finest hams on the planet, are now being sold online in the United States, by Wagshal’s in Washington; La Tienda in Williamsburg, Va.; and Nicky USA in Portland, Ore. Need I say grilling season? The fresh meat is red, beeflike and marbled. Seared medium rare, then sliced, it is silky-tender, with a mildly earthy flavor. It is not as buttery as Wagyu beef, so you are not sated after two bites.
The new Web sources allow home cooks to buy skirt steaks, tenderloins, shoulder steaks and end-loin steaks called pluma, mostly in one-pound portions. Some purveyors also carry cheeks and racks of ribs. The pluma is delicious brushed with Japanese ponzu, a soy-based sauce, before grilling, then sliced and served over a salad of Asian greens. Fajitas made with the skirt steaks are worthy of fine dining.
And for those who prefer to have someone else do the cooking, Chris DeLuna, the chef at La Fonda del Sol in Midtown Manhattan, last week started serving Ibérico skirt steaks, sliced tenderloins and rib-eye chops, some garnished with green sauces.
Ibérico de Bellota pork is shipped frozen in various cuts, including skirt steaks, end loins, tenderloins and shoulders, from tienda.com; $28 to $58. At La Fonda del Sol, 200 Park Avenue (Vanderbilt Avenue at 44th Street), (212) 867-6767, the skirt steak is $14 as a tapa; as an entree, the tenderloin is $32 and the rib-eye is $34.
