25 Friday Mar 2022
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, sevilla, spain, wine
So this was fun! I was invited to a cheese, bread and wine tasting at Sevilla’s new international hospitality school Gastromiun. My friend Rafa Bellido presented five Spanish wines which we later paired with national cheeses and local bread and, as always, I learned a lot. Still hoping to find a good accredited Spanish wine course. Perhaps I could persuade the school directors?
24 Thursday Mar 2022
Posted in food & drink, restaurants, sevilla
A few weeks ago Twitter pal (and imo one of the best food writers ever) Marina O’Loughlin posted her somewhat sweary article in Noble Rot mag railing against the nonsense that is brunch. And of course the comments flooded in by like-minded (right-minded!) folks who chimed in with their own (sometimes also sweary) opinions about brunch. Which basically boiled down to: fuck brunch.
And then the other day I saw this. By definition all day brunch should not be possible. Or even allowed. Frankly it sounds more like a threat. ALL DAY BRUNCH. I shudder just thinking about it.
10 Thursday Mar 2022
Posted in casa azahar, food & drink, home
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I used to only occasionally order in from the supermarket, mostly heavy bulky stuff like cat food and cat sand, bottles of wine, water and olive oil, etc and I would save it up until I had enough in my virtual basket to get FREE DELIVERY. But then my old flat mate moved back in and it turns out that now I can get a minimum order in about once a week. I mean, it only costs 8€ to have it all delivered, which also means I don’t have to go there and spend an hour shopping (though I actually like going to the supermarket). And so it becomes a kind of game to see how much I can order without going more than a euro or two over the minimum amount, so I still get free delivery but can save up other stuff for the next (free) delivery next week. Yeah I know, but I get my fun where I can these days.
04 Friday Mar 2022
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla
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A few weeks ago I got an email from Mary, who was going to be doing a road trip through Spain and was interested in a tour with me, even though she saw that I have a two-person minimum (since now all my tours are private and so I can’t add others to existing groups). And THEN she wrote…
Special pleading as follows: I’m 78 and have been to Spain three times before. This will be my last. I’ve always wanted to see Flamenco in a Peña-type setting but have not felt comfortable on my own. I’ve seen more touristy ones but not great. I speak Spanish. I am very interested in food though I avoid the label “foodie.” I am a retired lawyer and in the process of retiring as the guiding teacher of a Zen Center. I hasten to add that I eat and drink most anything.
And well… how could I say no to such excellent pleading? So I said we could probably work something out and I checked out peñas for her. Meanwhile she wrote back saying that instead of a tour she would like to invite me out for lunch while she was here. Which happened today! Somehow we avoided the usual “how did you get from _______ to _______ ?” question, which both of us have answered more times than we can remember. Anyhow, we had a fabulous lunch and I have set Mary up with a list of places to go and, of course, great places to eat. We will try to meet up again before she leaves but as this weekend is actually quite a busy one for me (figures, all the other weekends this month are quiet) it may end up being just lots of WhatsApp chats. Still, what a lovely encounter.
03 Thursday Mar 2022
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, instagram, photography
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casa azahar 