The other day I mentioned taking an afternoon walk in order to check out an area of town called the Alameda (previously dodgy, now up & coming trendy) because I wanted to include some restaurants there on Sevilla Tapas. I chose about half a dozen that I thought looked quite good, got names and addresses, business cards where they had them, and felt like I’d done a good job of researching the neighbourhood. One of the places on my list was called Jan El Jalily, specialising in middle Eastern food, so I told Susan about it (ever since Morocco we are all about the couscous) and we decided to check it out last Tuesday for lunch. But it was not to be…
In fact, out of the six restaurants on my list only one of them was open! It was beginning to feel like some sort of conspiracy and we were about to opt for what looked like a rather mediocre Italian joint when we saw people sitting out on the terrace of the al Aljibe “market kitchen” restaurant. Saved! And we even got to have couscous. It was more “nouvelle cuisine” than typical Spanish fare, but it was all very pretty and also quite delicious (thanks Sis!).
complementary hummous starter
goat cheese & sundried tomato salad
grilled baby veg with soya vinagrette
grilled pork tenderloin with couscous
(you can see more al Aljibe photos here)
On our way home we passed Jan El Jalily again and saw the owner outside, so we stopped and asked him about opening hours. Turns out he is only open for lunch at weekends, but is open for dinner 7 days a week. And so the plan is to have another girls’ night out this Saturday – couscous and Slumdog Millionaire – which sounds pretty good to me.
More restaurant research will soon be provided by my friend Pablo. We have decided to have weekly lunchtime classes in order to improve each other’s “other language” level. So one week I’ll make lunch at home and the next Pablo will take me out, and so on. So I will not only be having a nice lunch out every two weeks, I’ll be improving my Spanish, helping Pablo fine tune his English … and I’ll be getting new reviews for Sevilla Tapas. Win-win. 🙂
casa azahar 
lovely food presentation
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Couscous! Win win!
Looks fantastic. You know, if I DO buy the place I’m looking at this weekend, I won’t be visiting Spain again for a couple of years. And quite seriously that’s one of the deciding factors against buying. 😦
But if it’s a really, really good deal I may just have to find better restaurants here and get you bunch to visit! 🙂
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Considering that the best place to eat in our town is a franchise restaurant called Country Kitchen, you can imagine my envy. If we want decent food, we have to prepare it ourselves.
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Great idea…
Have you thought of making a little club for English and Spanish speakers to get together and “improve their language skills” as well as partake in some nice food. Word could get around and you might be able to market it to the various tapas bars and restaurants as a way of promoting them?
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You could add that as a feature of your blog….
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You know, I’ve never been a fan of couscous… possibly I need a trip to Morocco to convert me?! 😉
The Market Kitchen place looks lovely, though. Nice to be able to sit outside in the sunshine, too, I bet.
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