Category Archives: food & drink

christmas eve 2018

24 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by in casa azahar, cats, christmas, food & drink, friends

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

This year I was saved from either spending Christmas on my own or – even worse – spending it with Peter the Grinch. Don’t get me wrong, Peter and I are good friends but when it comes to Christmas, well, he really sucks. And by that I mean he pretty much sucks the life out of it.

Last year I actually spent Christmas on my own, at home with the cats, since it was my first year living on my own again. And that was just fine. But it’s always nice to have an excuse to make a nice meal at Christmas time and share it with friends, so I was happy that Pam and Gord were going to be back in town.

I first met P & G in January 2013 when they booked a tapas tour with me. They have been back a couple of times since then, and this year decided to do a road trip between Sevilla and Málaga. In fact, I’ll be joining them for a couple of days in Jerez later in the week.

It was a lovely evening and, as you can see, Peter was also invited (grinchiness is less toxic in a group). And you may also notice that little scamp Morcilla all snuggled up next to El Gordo. I was shocked – she has never done that before. At best she will come into the same room as strangers, but here she was getting all cosy.

Dinner was fab. P & G brought some gorgeous jamón Ibérico and I made my famous carrillada al oloroso. Plus I had found some parsnips while in Málaga last week (!!!) so added those to the roasted veg. First time in YEARS having parsnips. I also made some really good honey-chilli-dijón cocktail sausages that I had come across on my friend Lizzie’s (@hollow_legs) Instagram that morning. So the oven got a serious workout and we all had a great time.

tuesday in fuengirola

19 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by in andalucia, culture, day trips, food & drink, friends, Malaga, malaga getaway

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

Tuesday in Málaga started with a walk around Atarazanas Market with Ania @ania_marchlik, who was leaving at midday to catch her flight to Poland. And we ended up having just enough time for a quick Beer O’clock at Cafe Bar Estraperlo before I met up with Victor @welovemalaga. As you can see, some people clearly don’t know how to do Beer O’clock.  😉

The original plan had been to go to Fuengirola with Victor and meet Janet @janet_mendel for lunch at Los Marinos José, a place that I have been wanting to go to for AGES as a result of seeing so many tantilizing Instagram pics taken there by Fernando H. So imagine my disappointment when I found out they were closed for winter holidays. But Victor said not to worry, he would plan a Day of Surprises for me. 🙂

But first I had to stop in at Victor’s to give Harriet and Gingerbread a cuddle…

This new plan ended up still including Fuengirola, even though my only reason for going there was that one particular restaurant. But Victor said we could go back for that another time and that he had something special to show me after lunch. Well, between us we had a list of recommended places to try in Fuengi. This first one (Casa Colón) was fine, we had a “starter course” there. But the next one on our list, Tánicos (recommended by Fernando), was closed on Tuesdays. Dammit. Third rec turned out to be a dud, so we didn’t stay. Instead we got back in the car and headed to Mesón La Salina, another one recommended by Fernando, and it was fabulous. Definitely want to go back with more of an appetite and at least 2 more (hungry) friends.

Next up… my surprise! But first we stopped off at The Inner Life of the Enlightenment Stupa in Benalmádena along the way. It is the largest Buddhist stupa in the West and quite impressive. Which I reckon counts as a surprise, and a good thing too because when we finally got to the Castillo de Colomares… yep, it was closed. Though we did manage to get a pic through the gates.

But you know what? I didn’t really care because it had been such a lovely day with Victor, going here and there, chatting and enjoying each other’s company. My Málaga Getaways have changed over the past ten years, but meeting up with Victor is always one of the happiest things I do there.

more insta stories

15 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by in food & drink, gastronomy, instagram, sevilla, social media, tapas, tapas bars

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Running three Instagram accounts is a bit challenging at times, especially as I like to put SOMETHING up there every day. Lately I’ve been having fun with the disappearing stories, and will soon put some of them up permanently.

Here are some I did today (what you can’t see is that the little Winnie the Pooh in the middle pic is animated and doing a happy dance along the bar shelf). Click on the image to make it bigger… or you could pop over to the accounts and see the stories while they’re still there…

Sevilla Tapas

Azahar Gourmet Getaways

We Love Tapas

 

if at first you don’t succeed…

12 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by in casa azahar, food & drink, home, homecooking, sevilla

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

… improvise! Last week I tried some nice spinach and garbanzo albóndigas at my friend Ana’s new bar Lama La Uva al Sol, and so the other day I decided I wanted to try making some. I looked up a few recipes for inspiration and then came up with my own. Everything was going fine until I made the fatal flaw of adding an egg to the spinach and garbanzo mixture. I thought it would help it bind, but it had the opposite effect, as you can see below…

I tried a few as “albóndigas”, dipping them in a mayo-greek-yoghurt coriander sauce, and they just kept falling apart. But they were very tasty! So undaunted, the next day I decided to try them in a different way. After reheating I crumbled them over some basmati rice and had them with the sauce on the side and … delicious!

I’ve always been a bit of a reckless cook, basically self-taught since I left home at age 15 and discovered a whole new world of fresh vegetables and other food items that hadn’t been a part of my growing up. And I have always been keen to try making new dishes, without worrying too much about the outcome. I guess that’s what I mean by reckless. I reckon that if you start with great ingredients, and as long as you don’t, say, burn the shit out of something, then the dish will probably turn out just fine, if not perhaps what you’d first envisioned. Anyhow, this new breaded spinach and garbanzo crumble is going into my repertoire. But I still want to ace the albóndigas.  😉