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03 Thursday Mar 2022
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, instagram, photography
Category Archives: food & drink
69
02 Wednesday Mar 2022
Posted in birthdays, food & drink, friends, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars
Guess how old Peter is today? 😉 For his birthday he said he wanted to do a tapeo visiting some of his favourite bars so we ended up going to Bodeguita Romero, Casa Moreno, Casa Morales, Casa Román and Las Teresas. Ran out of time to have birthday cheesecake at Salmedina as they were closed by the time we left Teresas, but…
… on the way home we ran into my fab five star “sherry students” from Monday’s Sherry & Tapas tour and, when they found out it was Peter’s birthday, invited us to have a drink with them. Found a spot open in the Plaza Alfalfa and ended up having lovely cava in lovely company, a perfect way to end a fun birthday afternoon 🥂
anna & kids
28 Monday Feb 2022
Posted in food & drink, friends
It was exactly two years ago that I was out with these guys, when Anna @annalibera was down from Galicia to visit her kids and we went out to Alimentari. Because who better to go to an Italian restaurant with than an Italian? And today we repeated the experience, but at Alimentari’s new location in my barrio. So strange to think that two weeks after that last lunch together we were all locked down and our whole world changed. So it was lovely finally getting together again, sitting out on the side walk terrace under the orange blossom, and enjoying pizzas galore in good company. 💙
Linus, Anna & Lea
la calçotada
18 Friday Feb 2022
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla
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It’s that time of year again. From December to March calçots are in season and during this time La Quinta Brasserie brings the Catalan calçotada to Sevilla. Over the years it’s become a bit of a tradition here at Casa Azahar. You can either order the full menu or just a “teja” (roof tile) of calçots to share and then order a la carte.
The calçots are similar to a large spring onion and are roasted over coals, then wrapped up in newspaper and served with a wonderfully nutty romesco sauce. Delicious and also messy as hell (La Quinta provided us with a paper bib and also black latex gloves for this procedure). The trick is getting the non-charred soft delicate centre out. First you peel away a bit of the charred bit at the end until you see the green part of the onion. Hold onto that! Then tightly grip the tip of the calçot with your other hand and pull.
After that you dip the calçot into romesco sauce, another Catalan dish made with tomatoes and roasted red peppers, puréed and thickened with toasted crushed almonds and bread. Heaven. After dipping the calçot into the romesco you are meant to tip your head back, hold it high over your mouth and slowly lower it in. So good, and also lots of fun.
noor by paco morales
07 Monday Feb 2022
Posted in andalucia, culture, food & drink, gastronomy, getaways, michelin star, restaurants
This truly was a dream come true. I mentioned last week that my friends Xavier and Nina were coming to town with their friends Wade and Ginny, and that Xavier had seen my interview in Bon Viveur where they asked which one restaurant I was dying to go to… and my answer was NOOR! So as the gang had already planned to go there Xavier very generously invited me to go with them.
NOOR, which means “light” in Arabic, was opened in 2016 by Cordobés chef Paco Morales. His concept is all about tasting the history of al-Andaluz (the moorish name for Andalucía) and for his first season he began in the 10th century, using ingredients that were available to the people of that time. With the help of documentarians, historians, archaeologists and designers, Paco has told the culinary story of the times with skill and imagination, which has earned him two well-deserved michelin stars. Each season he has moved up a century (with a retrospective in year 4) and so, for this visit, we found ourselves in the late 16th century. And for the first time at NOOR new world comestibles have been introduced into the menu.
I won’t say too much about what happens there because there are some lovely surprises, but the space is simply gorgeous, all light and open and elegantly minimalist. The tables all have a clear view of the open kitchen and the service is beautifully choreographed without being pretentious or stuffy. Maître/Sommelier Pilar Vargas keeps everything running smoothly and is charming and helpful, as are all the staff.
The food. I’m not going to go into detail here because it would take all day. So much detail, so much care, so much going on. And so just go have a look at the photos and, yes, they were all as delicious as they look. Not a wrong step, though I will say that a couple of personal favourites were the cured meat starter with pickled onion and albaqdunis, the almond curd with tuna, and the grilled sea bass. But honestly, I loved every bite.
The wines. In the end we did the wine pairing and omg it was fabulous. While there was an emphasis on Montilla Moriles (of course) Pilar also surprised us with some international choices and then a special 2014 Moscatel de Alejandria by Pérez Barquero made exclusively for NOOR and served from a gorgeous green damajuana.
There are three menus available. Xavier chose the middle one “rihla” with the wine pairing option, but you could also order a bottle of wine and have Pilar “fill in” with a couple of special tastes during the menu tasting.
At the end of our meal we huddled together with Paco for a group photo and asked him what he was planning for the upcoming season. He made a show of asking one of the team, Josef, to come over so he could translate Paco’s answer to our group into English… and the answer was IT’S A SURPRISE. Honestly, if you can, go. Pics below…
casa azahar 