Category Archives: food & drink

mary & sunday

16 Monday May 2016

Posted by in animals & pets, blogging, food & drink, friends, sevilla, websites

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mary and sundayToday I FINALLY got to meet fellow-blogger Mary Biles and her lovely pup Sunday. We met for lunch at a bar neither of us had been to before (and probably won’t visit again) but mediocre food was saved by good company and LOTS of chat. Mary has been writing I Know A Little Place In Sevilla – one of the best blogs about the city – for about three years. As the title suggests, it focuses on hidden corners and lesser-know spots, many of which I’ve never heard of. Very happy to have met another kindred spirit and – I hope – another Tapas Research cohort.

sevilla tapas instagram

11 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by in food & drink, instagram, sevilla, social media, spain, tapas, tapas tours

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st instagram

When I first started using Instagram I made sure I didn’t make the same “mistake” I had made with Twitter… having too many accounts. So I started using my @azahar Instagram account for everything: personal, travel, sherry, tapas, food tours. I didn’t realise back then that I would end up using Instagram so much, but decided to leave things as they were. Of course this ended up with some confusion with linking, and people who knew me as Sevilla Tapas would use @sevillatapas on Instagram, which linked to nothing. So I created a @sevillatapas account as a placeholder, which directed people to my @azahar account. I also created a @sevillatapastours placeholder account, mostly so that b*tch who stole my name couldn’t start using it, but also because that’s how many people know me.

Then this week I decided to add social media links to the @sevillatapas account so that, say, if someone used that on Instagram, it would link to my Sevilla Tapas twitter and facebook. Confused yet? Anyhow, by doing that suddenly I started getting all kinds of new followers as this automatically sent out notices, and I wondered whether I should have just changed the name of the @azahar account. Too late now!

Meanwhile, I did set up a separate @WeLoveTapas Instagram last year, which made sense as it is a separate business and brand. But, for now at least, I will keep using the @azahar account for everything. Phew!

josé & pedro

07 Saturday May 2016

Posted by in food & drink, gastronomy, sevilla, sherry, twitter, twitter friends

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jose pedro (1)It was Saturday morning, a rare weekend day off, and so I posted on Twitter… “what to do today…?” About an hour later I got a text from the most wonderful José Pizarro saying that he and his partner Peter Meades were still in Jerez and thinking about heading to Sevilla. And then it happened.jose pedro (2)José called to say they’d be arriving at their hotel around 2 pm, so I met them there and we embarked on a Tapeo Extremo, starting off at Bodeguita Romero, where José and Peter had their first ever pringá. We had a lot more than that, actually, with José saying I should order the food and then he would order the sherry to go with it. Talk about matches made in heaven.

jose pedro (5)It must be said that Bodeguita Romero has a new – and amazing – sherry list. We finished off with a 20 year old VOR Cream from Bodegas Traditción, and even though I’m not crazy about creams I totally fell in love with this one, perfectly paired with aged manchego in manteca.

jose pedro (3)Then it was time to wander a bit. So we wandered into Barrio Santa Cruz and I showed José and Peter where I used to live, and P snapped this photo of us outside my old house. I think this set a personal record for the number of photos ever posted of me on the internet… EVER. This one and the one above. But somehow Peter has a very gentle eye and a knack for catching the spirit of the moment, not just faces. Love this pic of me and José. jose pedro (4)During our stroll around Barrio Santa Cruz we stopped into another of my favourite places, Las Teresas. And I got a pic of these gorgeous guys “hamming it up”. Then it was off to Gourmet Experience atop the central Corte Inglés in Plaza del Duque. I can’t actually remember why we did this, but we ended up eating oysters and drinking pink champagne.

jose pedro (6)

And then like Cinderella I returned home after my magical lunch with these two wonderful guys, while they went off to finally check into their hotel and later on go out for dinner. Meanwhile I was happily in PJs by 8 pm and Netflixing with Morcilla. But what a wonderful day!

we want plates

29 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in food & drink, gastronomy

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jamon jamon

For those of you who don’t follow the wonderful @WeWantPlates on Twitter, it features (as the name suggests) photos of weird and, sometimes frankly disgusting, ways of serving food that leave you seriously wishing for a plate. Everything from the almost standard roof slates and mini frying baskets, to various shoes, hats, toys, etc. Always good for a laugh (or sometimes a retch).

Anyhow, at the wine awards this week we were served a few snacks afterwards and suddenly THIS thing came around. I don’t know what it’s supposed to be. A jamón volcano with bread stick lava spewing out the top? It didn’t do anything to harm the wonderful jamón attached to it, but it also didn’t do anything to inhance it. So you know… why not just use a plate?