Category Archives: food & drink

so what do you do when it’s 51º…?

11 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by in food & drink, sevilla, spain, summer, tapas, weather

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Well, if you are completely mad like me, and an Englishman like Peter, you go out in the midday sun!

Of course we didn’t know it was going to be 51º. The official weather forecast was much more conservative and said the high would be 42º, but you know, who lives at the airport? In the centre of Sevilla with the sun blazing down on narrow cobbled streets with very little air-flow it soon turned into a blast furnace. But I was determined to go and visit a little abacería I’ve been meaning to go to for years. Finally did go on a Saturday at the end of June only to see a sign posted outside saying they were closed for holidays – starting that day! I later found out that this was the first time in 15 years they’ve closed for holiday.

Anyhoo… when I saw an article in the local paper about the post-holiday re-opening party yesterday at La Antigua Abacería de San Lorenzo (on San Lorenzo day!) I knew I had to get over there. And I’m really glad I did. What a little curiosity shop of tasty delights! An abacería is a combination of provisions store, take-away delicatessen and tapas bar, and the best ones have been around forever and have a loyal and local clientelle. In fact, we were not only the only foreigners in there but also the only non-neighbours. Everyone was clearly on a first-name basis and the old guys hanging around the bar area made me feel like I was in a small village rather than in Spain’s fourth largest city.

After trying a couple of tapas I got to talking with the owner Ramón who was charming as heck and really keen to tell me all about the place and even about future plans, including cooking classes that will be starting up in September. I loved how he’d take an occasional trip through the bar with a tray of complementary snacks, and I also loved how they served the bottled beer in tiny ice buckets. And the tapas were very good! So all in all, a very worthwhile reason to go out in the very intense HEAT.

dinosaur toes

26 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by in computers, food & drink, sevilla, spain, tapas

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They really do look like dinosaur toes, don’t they? They are actually goose barnacles, called percebes in Spanish, and I have been dying to try them ever since I first heard about them. Why? Well, why the hell not? Recently I heard that one of my favourite seafood tapas bars – La Moneda – has been serving percebes and I asked them if they could let me know the next time they got some in. Turned out that was today! Not the best timing as Peter and I had just stopped off for a couple of tapitas with my familia at Bodeguita Romero – celebrating my shiny new laptop purchase (more on that later!) – and after our second tapa I got a Twitter message from Isidro that the percebes had landed.

So we high-tailed it out of the Bodeguita and headed over to La Moneda, with new laptop slung over shoulder – luckily it was only about a five-minute walk away – and upon arrival a plate of steaming percebes were placed in front of us. My first reaction was “eep! now what?” but Isidro quickly instructed us on how to eat them. You grab them at each end and then give them a sharp twist and a yank, after which the “claw” of the toe pulls away with a delectible morsel of deliciousness dangling off the end of it. What Isidro failed to mention was how squirty they are! At the first twist water shot out everywhere (usually all over me!) and I never did manage to get as clean a severing between claw and toe as Isidro did. But man! These guys are very tasty – not to mention prohibitively expensive! – but Isidro gave me a deal since it was my first time.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

trial run tapas & market tour

25 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by in food & drink, tapas, tapas tours, work

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So remember how I came up with the idea to start doing Market & Tapas Tours? This actually came about a couple of weeks ago after getting together with Lauren from Madrid who has just started doing food tours there. We spent an afternoon going out for tapas here in Sevilla and talking about our tours and various foodie projects, and that’s when I started thinking about doing something similar here, but as a combination of a market and tapas tour.

Last week Kathy came out with me to do some “market research” (heh) and it was after we finished and were out having tapas together that the Ronda weekend plan was hatched. Anyhow, even though I had figured out where I wanted to take people I still needed to do a “trial run” to work out timing and pricing. But of course I needed guineapigs volunteers who would be interested in doing a tour at cost price (just paying for what was consumed). But as almost everyone I know in Sevilla is away on holidays at the moment I reckoned I’d just do a trial run at the beginning of September, since so many market stalls are closed for summer holidays in August.

Then I got a request for a Market & Tapas Tour from someone who’d seen them mentioned on my website. Well, duh!  I had forgotten to say they’d be starting in September. And I was about to write Lauren back and tell her it wouldn’t be possible and then I thought… hey! Maybe they’d like to take the very first Market & Tapas Tour at “cost price” with me and Peter? And it turned out they thought this was a great idea and so off we went this morning. Kathy was also able to meet us briefly for a snack and a chat before leaving us at our second market stop.

I think it went really well, though of course there are things I want to fine-tune, and going out with visitors rather than residents was also a real bonus. Lauren and Peter were great company and were also very interested in the food culture here, and so asked loads of questions. So I think it was a win-win thing for everyone concerned, and I also realised that this new tour is going to be a LOT of fun!

market & tapas tours

17 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in food & drink, sevilla, tapas, tapas tours

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 Are there no limits to my talents?  😉

Take a look at my latest venture… Market & Tapas Tours! I was out doing research on this today with a friend and plan on a “trial run” soon with a few willing “guinea pig” friends. Really very excited about this as it’s something that can be done in the morning and won’t leave me wasted so I could still do an evening tapas tour. And it’s also something fun and different. Whaddaya think?

my granada apartment

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in culture, fiestas, food & drink, social media, spain, travel, trips, twitter, work

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So tomorrow I’m going to Granada and this is where I’ll be staying!

As with my recent day trip to Córdoba this trip to Granada will be part of my 20th anniversary celebrations but will include doing some research for my own websites and also for my friends at veoapartment.com. Markus very generously offered to split the cost with me by providing the accommodation, and well, just look at it! Small and perfect and in a dead-centre-of-town and easy-to-get-to-everywhere location. I couldn’t be happier.

At first the plan was to just stay overnight but it turns out that not only is it Feria in Granada this week, but also Corpus Christi, which is apparently a huge deal over there. Seriously, even more than here where they spend weeks erecting a couple of elaborate arches for a 3-hour procession…

Anyhow, I now have two nights in Granada! So I’ll be leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow (it’s a three-hour train ride) and will spend the day meeting old Twitter buddies John (aka @benzo8) and his wife Gale. I’ll also be meeting a new Twitter friend and travel writer Molly (aka @piccavey) and possibly also with fab photographer Fred Shively during my stay. Peter is also coming but will be taking a later train tomorrow because he has an English class in the morning. He’ll also be leaving earlier, on Wednesday evening, because Azar really can’t be left on his own for more than one night. Still, it will be a nice break for Peter, and he can also help me with some of the research stuff. Win-win!

If you want to feel reallly envious check out the veoapartment “apartment tour” video of my fabulous get-away place here…

Granada Plaza Nueva Studio Apartment