• about azahar (that’s me!)
  • my cancer story
  • azahar’s kitchen
  • azahar’s sevilla
  • sevilla tapas
  • personal trip planning

casa azahar

~ my life in sevilla

casa azahar

Category Archives: birthdays

meat!

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by azahar in birthdays, food & drink, friends, restaurants, sevilla

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birthday, friends, jetsliketaxis, meat, sahumo, sevilla

sahumo[click to enbiggen]

My friends Ang & Ryan (aka @JetsLikeTaxis) told me after my birthday feast with them, Peter and Eduardo that they also wanted to treat me to a birthday lunch sometime. I’d seen this new place called Sahumo that sounded intriguing, but it was a restaurant, not a tapas bar. “Never fear!” said A & R, saying they were also up for anything, and so off we went. “Sahumo” is the first person singular in Spanish for “to scent with smoke” and the place features a wood grill and oven. As well as a menu that largely features MEAT. After a lovely amuse-bouche of potato parmentier with smoked cod, we started off sensibly with some gorgeous wood-grilled assorted veggies. This was followed by another sensible choice – some beautifully grilled presa Ibérica with papas arrugá (wrinkles potatoes) and fabulous mojo pijón. But what to have next?

Well, the Galician beef caught my eye, as it’s probably the best beef in Europe, and I saw that it was priced by the kilo on the menu. So we ordered it but somewhere along the line I either missed hearing, or it just didn’t register, the waiter saying it would be a KILO of meat. Until it came. And holy fuck, there it was, an ENTIRE KILO OF MEAT. It was also pretty much bleeding all over the plate even though we’d ordered it “medium”. Luckily A & R were also happy about sending it back for a bit more time on the fire, and when it came back it was perfect and delicious. Still pink, with a gorgeous texture and smoky flavour… heaven. Seriously one of the best meals I’ve had in years. There will be a review up soon on Sevilla Tapas.

So that probably wraps up Birthday Celebrations for 2015. Well maybe… 😉

birthday cakes

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by azahar in birthdays, food & drink, friends

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

birthday, friends, sevilla, vineria san telmo

birthday cakes

Pink wouldn’t have been my candle colour of choice, but then I got sung Happy Birthday to in Portuguese and was given a complimentary bottle of cava, so what the hell. This was the end of a perfect birthday lunch, and I am now too stuffed to say any more but to thank my friends who joined me today. And also to the Vineria San Telmo for such a fabulous feast. It was all lovely. Off to lie down now… 🙂

pressies!

05 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by azahar in birthdays, christmas, friends

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birthday, christmas, friends, presents

loot (1)
Got some lovely loot for Christmas and also an early birthday present, both from the lovely Sledpress. Always a surprise and always a thrill to open. Since I live with a “humbug” I’ve learned not to ever expect presents at home, so it’s extra special when something arrives at my door like this. Thanks Sled. xx
loot (2)

a sherry dream come true

08 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by azahar in birthdays, friends, wine

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

birthdays, bodegas, friends, gutierrez colosia, jerez, lustau, sherry, wine

sled's sherryphotos by Sledpress

They say it’s better to give than to receive, and all I can say about that is that I had so much fun putting this together, frustrating glitches notwithstanding, especially as several people ended up ensuring a very happy ending. Some background…

Ever since my Sherry Epiphany on the first World Sherry Day I’ve become intent (obsessed?) about sharing the sherry love in the way I discovered that day was really the best way to learn about sherry… poco á poco, with friends and with a few tapas. And I know that my friend Kate (sledpress) has been intrigued by my now popular Introduction to Sherry tours and also by my many tweets and blog posts about sherry events I end up at and the bodegas that I visit. So when I realised it was going to be Kate’s big 6-Oh birthday in November I decided to send her a selection of my favourites, one bottle for each decade, to begin her sherry education. Which turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.

I contacted some of my favourite bodegas, finally settling on the one (which shall remain nameless) that promised me the full range I wanted with no problem of the delivery being made in time for the big day. Well, the big day came and went. I had been constantly checking up on this and each time was told that the order was being processed and there was nothing to worry about. Until the umpteenth email informed me that the order hadn’t actually been placed in the States and instead I would have to send the six bottles from Spain with a shipping cost of 120 euros. WTF?  Meanwhile, I had been back in touch with other bodegas and two of them came through big time, giving me the names of their distributors near Kate. BUT, then it turned out that neither had the full range I wanted to send, and one was actually a wholesaler so it didn’t seem like this was going to work out after all as I obviously wasn’t going to buy a case of each sherry. And then a wonderful thing happened. The wholesaler and retail outlet got together and, with their help, this is what Kate received just two days later…

sherry for sledBodegas Lustau: Manzanilla Papirusa, Palo Cortado Península, Pedro Ximénez San Emilio
Bodegas Gutiérrez Colosia: Fino, Amontillado and Oloroso

These two bodegas couldn’t be more different. Lustau is one of the largest wineries in the sherry triangle, comprising several bodegas in Jerez and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Gutiérrez Colosia is family run – and I mean run by the four family members and a couple of employees – in El Puerto de Santa María (remember the video?). But when I got in touch with the people I know at both bodegas they were quick to respond and help me out, as were their fabulous distributors, Elite Wines and UnwinedVA. Special thanks goes to Vanessa at Unwined who – countless emails later – patiently put all this together is that cute green bottle carrier and got it over to Kate’s in time for the weekend. Mil gracias a todos! And now it’s time for me to start educating Kate. This is going to be fun!  🙂

If you want to know more about the wonderful world of sherry, follow me on Twitter @SevillaTapas and also on my AzaharTravels and AzaharSevilla blogs. You know you want to…

loki is 5!

07 Sunday Dec 2014

Posted by azahar in birthdays, cats, family, home

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

birthdays, cats, home, loki

loki 5 years oldSo this is what five years old looks like. My big handsome Loki on his birthday.

Shortly after I took that photo he decided it was time for a snooze, so here’s another photo of Loki being ROUND, just like in last year’s birthday photo! This could become a tradition…

loki ballHappy Birthday my large & lovable galoot!

← Older posts
Newer posts →

patreon (1)

OR

comments

Unknown's avatarmini co2 detector |… on baby hepa
Unknown's avatarmini co2 detector |… on hepa filter
Unknown's avatarmini co2 detector |… on lockdown
Unknown's avatarmini co2 detector |… on covid day 6
Unknown's avatarmini co2 detector |… on new kipling
sledpress's avatarsledpress on lego semana santa
Unknown's avatarsunday song –… on kalé
Unknown's avatarsilence is… we… on tools of the trade
earnestlydebra's avatarearnestlydebra on end of an era
Unknown's avatarkalé | casa azahar on end of an era

meta

  • Create account
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

visitations

  • 973,493 peeks

categories

archives

Enter your email address to subscribe to casa az and get email notices of new posts.

Join 2,235 other subscribers

azahar on Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • casa azahar
    • Join 1,968 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • casa azahar
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...