I love living in Sevilla. This evening was just one example of why.

Nog was out teaching so I went out to do a bit of shopping, then met him after his class. We decided it was such a lovely evening that we didn’t want to go home yet and convinced each other that we should go out for tapas (even though we should be saving money right now).

So off to one of our favourite local places, Modesto, for a ‘fritura’ – a kind of tempura-style dish of breaded and fried onion, red & green pepper with several fat fried prawns on top. After that we ordered some sizzling garlic prawns, just cos we’d never tried them there before (we usually have those at Bar Las Teresas).

Meanwhile, a guy came in who looked like he was perhaps a lottery ticket seller – also obviously a regular though we’d never seen him before. And after a bit of bantering the barmen brought him a huge plate of various fried things – clearly a special order – and I asked Manolo (who I call Cheyanne, but that’s another story) what the big round things were, cos I’d never seen them before either. And Sebastian the chef called out from the kitchen – nice open kitchen in front of the bar where we usually sit – that they were battered lettuce. I said ‘get outta here’. He said ‘hang on a sec’.

Five minutes later we were handed a complementary dish of battered & fried lettuce (the long thick crispy stuff, similar to romaine lettuce) as well as some delicately breaded aubergine with alioli on top. 😯

And it was wonderful!!! I asked Sebastian if it was on the menu and he said no – that sometimes they make up the lettuce thing to serve as a garnish with certain dishes . . .

It was just ever-so-slightly unfortunate that we were already quite stuffed after the fritura and garlic prawns to finish off the lettuce fritters . . . but it was just one of the many, many lovely and really human and really nice things that keep happening here.

Not sure how well I managed to get that feeling across. Also, after three glasses of rioja I’m feeling a bit squiffy and so should probably toddle off to bed. Might edit this a bit mañana . . .