Category Archives: food & drink

favourite brekky

13 Wednesday Sep 2006

Posted by in food & drink, miscellany, musings

≈ 41 Comments

brekky.jpg On Ivan’s recent posting which is Absolutely Not About Prunes 😉 , the question was raised about why certain foods are considered proper breakfast food and others not. So I got curious as to why it’s somehow okay to eat bacon & eggs for breakfast but not, say, spaghetti and meatballs. Like, how did that happen?

Why corn flakes and not deep-fried spicy prawns?

Perhaps it’s because most breakfast food nowadays is quite fast and simple to prepare – bowl of cereal, toast, yoghurt & fruit, etc… Is it just because we tend to be so rushed and bleary-eyed in the morning that we can’t put together anything more interesting or more complicated than those few options? Or are there specific foods that are actually better (healthier) to eat first thing in the morning…to break one’s fast?

What’s your favourite brekky and why?

magical mystery tour

06 Thursday Jul 2006

Posted by in food & drink, holidays, photos, sevilla, trips

≈ 15 Comments

As mentioned earlier and elsewhere, our friend Craig (aka zoomer on h2g2) has been visiting this past week – and we’ve been having a wonderful time. And we almost went to Gibraltar too! (see M&S especially the original post and comment 24).

Anyhoodle, once we ended up with Plan E , I decided to make it a bit special and so, although Craig knew we’d be spending the night in Bolonia, we simply gave him directions as he drove along so he seldom knew what our actual destinations were going to be . . . a magical mystery tour! f_magic.gif

It was basically a tour of Los Pueblos Blancos and La Costa de la Luz

We started off in Arcos de la Frontera and then ended up in my favourite beach village Conil and had lunch in a chiringuito on the beach. Later we followed a small coastal road to Trafalgar and Los Caños de Meca and then spent the night in Bolonia

I’ve lived in Spain for 14 years now and have never had better chiperones a la plancha like the ones at my favourite restaurant in Bolonia.

Next morning after seeing the Roman ruins we went off to Tarifa for a bit of shopping, then zipped right past the-place-that-shall-not-be-mentioned though we did stop in a very pretty village called San Roque for a much needed beer break, which boasted a wonderful view of you-know-what.

Then we headed north to Ronda , had a fabulous lunch there, saw the amazing gorge, visited Spain’s oldest bullring and then after a short stop-off in Grazalema we passed through a few more white villages before finally getting home around 10pm . . . very tired but very very happy.

And so here are some photos I took of the magical mystery tour

Should be more added as soon as Craig gets his pics organized.

Isn’t it fabulous when friends visit and you get to be ‘on holiday’ with them? 🙂

serigraph serendipity

01 Saturday Jul 2006

Posted by in art, food & drink, friends, photos, sevilla

≈ 9 Comments

It was a magical evening.

Our friend Craig (aka zoomer) from Vancouver is visiting and we are having the loveliest time. Far too much eating and drinking going on, but what the hell – one week is one week. We are also going to Gibraltar on Monday, which for Craig will fulfill a long time desire and which will allow me to pick up some knickers at Marks & Spencer. 🙂

Last night we went out to the oldest bar in Sevilla, which dates back to 1670. On the way we passed a very small but well-lit workshop and I wondered aloud what it might be. Nog thought it might be a butcher’s, Craig thought he saw some sort of pastry rolling machine, but we only caught a glimpse of it as we walked past and then went on talking about other things.

And then we had a wonderful time at El Rinconcillo. Fabulous tapas, good beer and wine, wonderful ‘ambientation’ … so it was quite some time before we decided to lurch home again. And we saw that the workshop was still open even though it was almost midnight. But this time when we walked past my curiousity got the better of me and I popped my head inside the open door and said – ‘hey, what are you guys doing here?’. And the younger of the two men looked up from his work, smiled and said – ‘we’re here having fun.’ And then he invited us in to have a look around.

Turned out he was running a printing press and he showed us a small sepia print of one of his drawings ‘hot off the press’. It was gorgeous. And then he showed us more of his work and Craig decided to buy one of his smaller prints, signed and numbered – the small pic shown here (a view of the Giralda from my street!) – as a gift to take home to his daughter.

His website Norler is still ‘under construction’ but the catalogue bit is working.

Apparently Norberto also sells his art in the street but somehow, coming across him by chance as we did, hard at work in his studio on a hot summer Friday night, made the experience feel a bit magical and serendipitous.

A few days later we found Norberto at his usual spot next to the cathedral. You can click on the pictures to see a larger image.

norberto1.jpg norberto2.jpg norberto3.jpg

tapitas

05 Monday Jun 2006

Posted by in food & drink, sevilla

≈ 11 Comments

I love living in Sevilla. This evening was just one example of why.

Nog was out teaching so I went out to do a bit of shopping, then met him after his class. We decided it was such a lovely evening that we didn’t want to go home yet and convinced each other that we should go out for tapas (even though we should be saving money right now).

So off to one of our favourite local places, Modesto, for a ‘fritura’ – a kind of tempura-style dish of breaded and fried onion, red & green pepper with several fat fried prawns on top. After that we ordered some sizzling garlic prawns, just cos we’d never tried them there before (we usually have those at Bar Las Teresas).

Meanwhile, a guy came in who looked like he was perhaps a lottery ticket seller – also obviously a regular though we’d never seen him before. And after a bit of bantering the barmen brought him a huge plate of various fried things – clearly a special order – and I asked Manolo (who I call Cheyanne, but that’s another story) what the big round things were, cos I’d never seen them before either. And Sebastian the chef called out from the kitchen – nice open kitchen in front of the bar where we usually sit – that they were battered lettuce. I said ‘get outta here’. He said ‘hang on a sec’.

Five minutes later we were handed a complementary dish of battered & fried lettuce (the long thick crispy stuff, similar to romaine lettuce) as well as some delicately breaded aubergine with alioli on top. 😯

And it was wonderful!!! I asked Sebastian if it was on the menu and he said no – that sometimes they make up the lettuce thing to serve as a garnish with certain dishes . . .

It was just ever-so-slightly unfortunate that we were already quite stuffed after the fritura and garlic prawns to finish off the lettuce fritters . . . but it was just one of the many, many lovely and really human and really nice things that keep happening here.

Not sure how well I managed to get that feeling across. Also, after three glasses of rioja I’m feeling a bit squiffy and so should probably toddle off to bed. Might edit this a bit mañana . . .