Category Archives: food & drink

girlie afternoon

03 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in food & drink, friends, fun stuff, hair, sevilla

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BIG surprise when I got a text message from Jessica asking if I’d be free for lunch today! Turns out she’s been in town doing research and, with that out of the way, she was free to play for an afternoon. We met early because I had to go to the hospital to get my chemo port flushed out and Jessica offered to come with me – nice! So we taxied there and back and then got caught in a massive downpour, ducking inside a cosy doorway just in time. I have to say it’s not everyone you can actually enjoy being trapped by the rain with. Finally we made it to our lunch destination – a new place called La Brunilda. Very nice kinda gourmet tapas but without the gourmet prices. In fact, I’ll be taking my tapas tour group there this evening for our last stop to see how well it works as another “less traditional” option (Jessica’s suggestion).

After a lovely lunch and lots of catching up we stopped by La Azotea so Jessica could see their new location and we ended up having a nice chat with Juan. Then I stopped by the Bodeguita Romero to take a photo for their blog and reserve a table for the second stop on tonight’s tour. And as Jessica had asked me where I got my hair cut we went by so I could show her where it is and I was surprised to find it open (it was just after 4pm). So we decided on the spot to both get our hair cut . Such a girlie thing to do! I treated myself to a dye job, which I usually do at home, and had a wee trim. But Jessica had about 10 inches cut off! She ended up with a feathery just below chin length bob that looks amazing on her … and I forgot to take her photo! Damn. Because after we were done at the hairdresser we walked a bit until I had to head home and she went to do a few errands before going back to Paris tomorrow, and I got a bit choked up about saying goodbye and so totally forgot about taking a pic. And so you get these cute barrels from La Brunilda instead.

Now I have to quickly change, fluff up my perfectly salon-dyed and blow-dried hair, and go meet my clients for a fun evening out.

Life is good…

supper club

30 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in food & drink, books, friends, cooking

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I blame my iPhone. Used to be that I would polish off at least a book a week, but ever since I got Pippin that number has dwindled to an embarrassing handful a year (!). Which is why it’s taken me a couple of weeks to get around to enjoying Kerstin Rodger’s Supper Club.

You may recall that Kerstin (aka @MsMarmitelover) visited Sevilla awhile back and was my houseguest for a fun & food filled weekend. Well, she also very generously risked going over her RyanAir baggage weight allowance and brought me a copy her fabulous book Supper Club – my own signed copy!

And it is truly a delightful read.

Sandwiched between an extremely useful step-by-step section on how to start up your own underground restaurant and a fun collection of themed dinner ideas are lots and lots of scrumptious recipes with beautiful photos. Being pretty much vegetarian (the occasional bit of fish is becoming even more occasional) Kerstin invited other “secret supper” chefs to share their favourite meat dishes. It’s a book full of heart and humour and I can’t wait to try out some of the recipes. I am also now extremely envious of all those people on Twitter talking about what an amazing time they had at this or that Supper Club evening…

For more foodie fabulousness check out Kerstin’s blogs:
The English Can Cook
The English Can Eat

Supper Club by Kerstin Rodgers

feria horses and hoes

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in culture, dance, fiestas, food & drink, photos, sevilla, spain

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Every year I try to get over to the April spring fair (Feria de abril) at least once to take photos of the horses during the afternoon. This year I also saw what appear to be Feria hoes!

It wasn’t a great day for taking pics, all overcast and grey. But at least it wasn’t raining and so I spent a couple of hours walking around the site after lunch.

When I first moved to Sevilla I was much more interested in Feria and would join the crowds for the opening night “alumbrao” when they lit up the gateway at midnight on the Monday and then stay until the wee hours. Although it’s pretty much an exclusive event for those who can afford their own private caseta, I would always get plenty of invitations so I could avoid the (quite awful) barnlike public ones. But frankly, since I don’t dance sevillanas and don’t enjoy milling about talking trash with a bunch of privileged posers, I eventually stopped going, except to see the horses.

There are more Feria photos – including some of horses for Beth! – over here.

I also quite like this collage of colourful ruffles I made…

[click on image to enlarge]

marmite

22 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in food & drink, sevilla, spain, travel, twitter, twitter friends

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After a whirlwind week I ended up having a whirlwind weekend. And all because of Twitter.

About a month or so ago a Twitter pal suggested to @MsMarmitelover that she get in touch with me about an upcoming visit to Sevilla. So she did, and I tried to help her find accommodation for a couple of nights. But as it was the weekend before Feria there wasn’t much available that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. So I offered her the option of the sofa bed at casa az. And then the fun started!

Turns out that MsMarmitelover (aka Kerstin Rodgers) is one of the pioneers of the whole underground “pop up” restaurant scene in London, and in fact had asked me if I knew of any such “secret suppers” going on in Sevilla. Well, I didn’t at the time. But a few days later I happened to meet Fourat (@Lebanicious) and then a whole lot of magic happened.

Not only did Fourat inspire me to get my upstairs room set up for sewing projects, along with me getting her set up on Twitter and starting a blog, but various other projects started taking shape. And so when I told Fourat about Kirsten looking for a Sevilla “secret supper” she said she would be happy to organise one of her fabulous Lebanese feasts during the weekend Kirsten would be here. As for who else would come, that was kind of up to me.

And so Kirsten arrived around 7 pm on Friday. Of course I had already picked out a few places to try out for that evening’s tapeo, but was also playing it by ear. We ended up stopping at four different tapas bars (Casa Moreno, Enrique Becerra, Bodeguita Romero, Vineria San Telmo) all very traditional other than the last one. The extra challenge for me was that Kirsten doesn’t eat meat (though she does eat some fish and seafood) so obviously I couldn’t do the obvious – jamón, chorizo, pringá, caña de lomo, carrillada…

On Saturday we visited a few specialty shops in town, including Patricia Buffana (hatmaker extraordinaire) and Bazar Victoria (Sevilla’s most eclectic hardware store) and at lunchtime we did go to a non-traditional place which was a total hit – La Azotea – amazing food and service. Then back home to rest up for “Lebaniciousness”. Although a couple of the people invited couldn’t come due to prior commitments we ended up with a fabulous group including restaurant owners Juan Tarquini and Reyes Moreno, bespoke holiday organiser Sam Lister and Sevilla’s Queen of Tapas (that would be me). Along with Fourat’s amazing family. It really was a family affair and the selected guests fit right into the very cosy ambiance as if everyone had known each other forever. And MsMarmitelover had no idea – ooops she does now! – that this whole beautiful evening had been arranged for her visit here.

Next day (today!) I thought it might be possible to take Kerstin to one more fabby tapas bar before she had to catch her afternoon flight home. Of course this morphed into “tapeoexpress” during which we attempted to – and succeeded in – getting to three tapas bars in two hours (Eslava, El Rinconcillo and La Giganta) and having a special snack at each one. Then it was a quick sprint back to the apartment to collect bags and get a taxi to the airport.

In the end we managed to hit eight tapas bars in two days. And four out of my Top Five Tapas Bars in Sevilla.

Seriously? I LOVE Twitter for all the amazing people it has put me in touch with. Makes living as a weirdo semi-recluse in Sevilla *way more interesting*!

What did you do this weekend?

[also posted on the azahar sevilla blog]