Tags
It’s been a bit of a crazy week, especially with me thinking I was quite mad to have taken on five – FIVE! – tapas tours during Semana Santa. The logistics of trying to organise the tours so as to avoid crowds and processions has been challenging to say the least. And so, having just finished three days in a row of evening tours – which all went very well I am happy to report – I was looking forward to making a nice meal at home and putting my feet up this evening.
So Nog & I went out to the Encarnación market (under Las Setas) to see what looked good and I decided to check out the little café/bar inside the market that Agustín had told me about. A bit like La Cantina in the Feria market, La Encarnación has a short list of daily fish on offer which they will fry or grill for you. Super fresh and very tasty.
Then along came a couple who asked if we spoke English and Spanish and said they needed our help. Turns out they wanted to find out if “huevas” were the same as shad roe and I suggested that they should try a tapa of it right then and there. Which they did. Verdict: almost the same but shad roe wasn’t quite so dry.
So after chatting a while and tweeting this photo of Philip with his huevas (which Fiona said came so near to being a naughty comment!) I mentioned my tapas blog and the tours and it turns out that I won’t be putting my feet up tonight. Instead I’ll be meeting Philip and Mary from New York at their hotel and going out on an impromptu tapas tour! They even invited Nog along.
As it’s been raining off and on all afternoon I don’t expect there to be many (if any) processions tonight, but that doesn’t mean that the bars won’t be crazy busy. Anyhooo… I just love it when stuff like this happens. And I’m quite looking forward to doing something a bit different tour-wise tonight as Philip & Mary have expressed an interest in trying out Flores Jamones & Vinos, which isn’t usually on my list as they don’t do tapas per se. They also told me that they didn’t mind if we had to get a taxi to go somewhere special – cool!
Stay tuned to my Sevilla Tapas twitter feed later if you’d like to come along…
casa azahar 
Well that was fun! Really had a great time out with Philip and Mary, and Nog also enjoyed being able to come along. Because we were working “outside the package” we got to try some very special dishes and weren’t limited to just tapas. Makes me think that I should start offering this sort of option on my website – a flat fee or hoursly rate for my time (and expertise!) and then the client pays for the cost of the food, taxis, etc.
Don’t get me wrong – I think my tapas tours are great as they are and that people get an excellent selection of food & wine and an authentic tapas experience. But this other option would allow me to be more creative with my choices. I did something like this with a food writer from New York last month (my first ever taxi tapas tour) and she was delighted that she got to go to out of the way places. So hmmm… this could actually be an interesting way of expanding my “product line”.
Anyhow, as we were saying goodnight I told Philip & Mary how wonderful it was that we got together over such a chance encounter and Philip said – “We met in an elevator! This sort of thing happens to us all the time”. 🙂
LikeLike
Sounds like an interesting way forward!
LikeLike
“flat fee or hourly rate for my time (and expertise!) and then the client pays for the cost of the food, taxis, etc.”…. Oh… yes… for TAPAS!
Serendipity! I am a firm believer in it.
I remember a favourite couple from by days as a hotel housekeeper. I met a LOVELY couple (He Canadian, she British) who had met by chance at the 1936 Berlin Games. They were in the stands on opposite sides of the grand entry during the opening ceremonies and liked the look of each other. When the crowds started leaving after the ceremonies, they assumed they would never see each other again. In fact, when the crowd moved into the entryway, there they were side by side. They were married within the week and were celebrating their 50th anniversary!
LikeLike