So yeah, it all turned out to be a piece of cake, in more ways than one.
Let me explain. . .
a piece of cake
20 Sunday Jan 2008
Posted in food & drink, friends, language, life stuff, sevilla, teaching, work
Category Archives: food & drink
second birthday!
12 Saturday Jan 2008
It might have appeared to some of you that Nog was conspicuously absent from my birthday post the other day. That’s because he was actually absent or, to be more precise, he was being a grumpy old git. But I wasn’t about to not have a happy birthday just because I was being ignored. And you guys all really helped with that – thanks again for all the good wishes and making me feel special and cared for.
So anyhow, Mr Grumpy finally came out of his slump this week and said that he wanted to make up for the ‘lost birthday’ and so I’m having a second birthday today. Started off with Nog bringing me arabic pastries in bed with hot coffee. Then he had to go out and give a class so I went to the gym and we both got home around the same time. We had a bit of shopping to do and while we were in the supermarket Nog asked me what we were going to have for lunch. I just looked at him like he’d suddenly sprouted four heads and went off to get some cava. When he caught up with me he said – “Let me rephrase that… where would you like me to take you for lunch?” Yay! 🙂
I suggested we try the dining room at Enrique Becerra (we’ve only ever had tapas at the bar there) but as it was already 2 o’clock and we didn’t have a reservation I wasn’t very hopeful about getting a table. And sure enough, when we turned up the bar was totally packed and we were told the dining room was fully booked. In desperation I said to the maître de … ” oh no! But it’s my birthday!” – and one of the waiters standing nearby stage whispered to him “but it’s her birthday!!!” – and so it was suggested that we be taken up to ‘the office’, which in fact is a small private dining room for two, and totally charming. It really couldn’t have been lovelier. We were very well taken care of by Pablo and Rafa. Pablo even said we could have one of our favourite starters from the tapa menu (the dining room menu is a bit different). And well, the meal was just fabulous!
You can see the pics here … Enrique Becerra (scroll down to photos 18-22)
Not sure if Nog has anything else planned for this second birthday, but if not I’ll happily rewatch the first episode of House (season 4) at 8.30, drink some more cava and maybe enjoy my last packet of Orville’s. Anyhow, I’m glad he’s stopped being an old grumpy boots… and it was very nice being taken out for a birthday lunch. So I guess I can take the ‘looking for a new flatmate’ ad out of the paper now. 😉
who invents stuff like…
10 Thursday Jan 2008
Posted in food & drink, home, weird
… slipper genies & tatermitts? 
And that’s not all – Amazon offers a special deal if you buy both the slipper genie cleaning slippers and (are you ready?) dust mop plaid dusting slippers. I mean honestly, why plaid? According to the customer reviews they work quite well, the main downside being that if you pick up any sort of sharp object you’ll end up scratching the shit out of your floors. Considering the amount of stray bits of cat sand flung about casa az I don’t reckon these are going to be a future purchase.
The tatermitts looked rather interesting – check out cheezy 50’s style ad here (my favourite line is “the possibilities are endless!” 🙂 ) – but then a quick googling turned up some very unsatisfied customers. And the “peel a potato in 8 seconds!” claim is pretty misleading as you have to boil the potatoes for five minutes and let them cool before using the scary nubbly gloves on them (which are basically rubber gloves covered with bits of sharp stone – maybe cat sand?) . Too bad they don’t work because it’s really a good idea.
Awhile back Lori wrote a post about inventions she’d like to see. How about you? What would you like to see invented?
~ tatermitts first seen on Boobs Radley ~
saturday at the saffron bar
29 Saturday Dec 2007
And a new tapa experience…
For ages my friend and student iskenderum has been telling me that I MUST go to Taberna del Azafrán (azafrán means saffron) and today was the day. Kind of impromptu as it was around 12 o’clock and I was still in my pj’s so we decided some serious motivation was required to get me dressed and out the door. Being a gorgeous sunny day I suggested we hop on a couple of Sevici rental bikes and finally try out this place. And so that’s what we did, arriving just before 2 and getting the last free table in front of the bar.
So okay, it ended up being a lot more expensive than we’d planned on since at the tables you have to order raciones (you can only get tapas at the bar, which was jam-packed) but we decided what the heck. Especially as we didn’t go to Lisbon. And so we ended up having quite a substantial and delicious lunch. Which would have been really lovely had the waiters been even remotely friendly, which they were not (according to iskenderum this is always the case with the waiters there, but he says the owner is very friendly and pleasant). Anyhow, the food was very nice so maybe we’ll go back sometime and give the tapas a try … and hopefully the bar staff will be friendlier than the waiters.
The best part was the monogrammed plates with a stylized AZ on them. 🙂
Check it out on the Sevilla Tapas blog…
christmas open house! (2007)
25 Tuesday Dec 2007
Posted in christmas, food & drink, friends, holidays, home
For anyone who would like to drop by. . .
Nog & I will be out mid-late afternoon, having lunch at Casa Robles and then stopping by our friend Eric’s place for a drink, but other than that it’ll be a quiet day at home (famous last words – last time we stopped by Eric’s for a drink we ended up lurching home around 6am!). We were actually invited to Eric’s ‘Christmas orphan’s’ lunch out on his huge rooftop terrace, but somehow we feel more like a quiet meal together this year, and then joining in on the party ‘ambientation’ later, picking up our friend Maria Paz on the way, who will be working.
Anyhow, all the puters will be on in case anyone wants to say hello by IM or Skype:
Yahoo IM – azaharh2g2
Skype – azahar.sevilla
And look! Matt has made it possible to snow in Sevilla! 🙂
casa azahar 