Category Archives: food & drink

at the market

09 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in food & drink, sevilla, spain

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rubio

The other day I posted this photo on my Instagram/Twitter/FB and omg… the response has been wild. At the time of posting I didn’t even know what kind of fish this was, just saw it at the market and thought “wow! now that’s a FISH!” I have since found out that it’s known as a rubia in Spanish (gurnard in English, perlón, golondro, alingorri in other parts of Spain) but nobody, including experienced seafood chefs, had ever seen one this big. Apparently it’s especially good in stews or fried, with a white sweet meat from feeding mostly on prawns.

Of course there were plenty of other comments wondering if this was a dragon, a dinosaur, the Loch Ness monster or even Jar Jar Binks. You just never know what’s going to catch the public’s interest.

super serranito

29 Friday Sep 2023

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serranito

For those who don’t know a serranito is the most sevillano of all sevillano montaditos. It’s a crusty bread roll filled with grilled pork, jamón and grilled green peppers.  Mesones del Serranito has been keeping this local montadito going for 40 years now and today celebrated their anniversary by making the WORLD’S LONGEST SERRANITO spanning the length of the Triana Bridge (approx 150 metres).

Slices were then sold with proceeds going to social works carried out by the hermandades in the barrio Arenal. I didn’t stick around for that as I’m no fan of LARGE FOOD, and even less so when said food has been hanging around in the hot sun for a couple of hours. But apparently a good time was had by all, with an outdoor concert and cold beer accompanying the super serranito.

katie & paul

08 Friday Sep 2023

Posted by in food & drink, friends, instagram, social media, twitter, twitter friends

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katie me (3)

So this was lovely! The other day a mutual Twitter/Instagram pal hooked Katie @bowlandandbay and me up as she and her partner Paul were in town for a few days. We met today – their last day – for a quick sherry at Manolo Cateca, which ended up segueing into a fun sherry filled afternoon, finishing up at Palo Cortao for lunch. Another great social media connection (I still love Twitter for this!) and new foodie friends.

katie me

Katie runs food adventures in Lancashire UK so if you’re in the area look her up.

Bowland & Bay

balbuena y huertas

07 Thursday Sep 2023

Posted by in food & drink, gastronomy, instagram, restaurants, sevilla

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balbuena huertas (1)

Not my usual Wednesday! José Luis Pastrana, chef at brand new Balbuena y Huertas in the soon to be opened Cavalta Boutique Hotel (5 Star GL), got in touch on Instagram to ask if I would like to try their tasting menu. And so after the usual clarification that I don’t accept invitations in exchange for publicity (fine by José Luis, he said he preferred it that way) I asked pal Fiona Flores if she wanted to join me. Lately we’ve become quite a good team when it comes to visiting new restaurants, hotels, etc.

The meal, as you can see below, was quite spectacular and lunch lasted until almost 6 pm, after which we were given a tour of the hotel, which is set to open in a couple of weeks. The six-course tasting menu is actually very good value at 38€ (53€ with wine pairing). The meat course was swapped with tuna for pescatarian Fiona and were given a few cocktails too, with and without alcohol. It was a fabulous experience and so I am happy to do a review for them soon on my website. Have a look…

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pizza party

21 Monday Aug 2023

Posted by in casa azahar, food & drink, friends

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pizza paul (1)

The last time Paul was here we got to talking about the HOT MESS that is my website setup. I mean, it’s ridiculous really but, in my defence, when I first started building self-hosted websites I was learning as I went. But at this point anyone looking at my FTP file manager would just shake their head (as Paul did) and say “what the fuck?”. So, as this is actually his work, I asked him if he could help me with, ahem, tidying things up a bit. At first we tried this via WhatsApp but then decided it would be better to wait until he was back in Sevilla. Which is now!

We decided the best time would be on a Sunday afternoon (yesterday) when things are pretty quiet around here and, as it’s also back up to 42º, nobody really wants to be outside. To make it feel less like work for Paul I said that after we finished we could get some takeaway pizzas and he could help me with one or two of these lovely red wines from Mallorca and Valencia that have been hanging around for a couple of years. I’m more a white wine girl, so having company – the first time having someone over who wasn’t a handyman since 2019! – seemed a good time to crack these babies open.

pizza paul

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