For those of you who don’t follow azahar’s Sevilla blog, this is the post I wrote there about my fabulous birthday tapeo. As you know, Monday was my birthday and, wanting to do something a bit special, I thought I would go and have a meal at a very special seafood restaurant that I haven’t visited here yet. But then after getting a bit of feedback from friends I wondered if I really ought to spend so much on lunch for me and my best friend/flatmate/biz partner Peter (aka Seville Concierge). And so almost last minute I decided to ditch the too expensive plan and opt for – what else? – a special tapeo. After all, it’s what I do. Except that when I do it for others I’m actually working and don’t partake other than a couple of drinks and a tapa or two throughout the evening.
But this was MY tapeo and so I decided what I really wanted first of all was a gorgeous plate of jamón Ibérico. So we went to Flores Jamones y Vinos and I got chatting to Federico about the different jamones. Well, turns out Federico has been cutting jamón for 30 years and his father still keeps pata negra pigs in the Huelva mountains and cures his own, so I was very pleased to have this guy cutting my birthday jamón for me. As a treat he made a plate from two different legs, both from Huelva. One he cut open fresh for me, the other he took from another leg closer to the bone. And both were exquisite. A perfect start to my birthday tapeo. Especially the bit when they all sang “Cumpleaños Feliz” to me.
Next it was off to the Alameda to have a couple of special snacks at Al Aljibe. You know how some places have that one special dish that keeps you going back for more time and time again? Well, Al Aljibe has about half a dozen such dishes for me. We settled on the secreto Ibérico confitado with polenta and their amazing langoustine burger with huancaina sauce and poached quail egg. And it was especially nice to enjoy this snack outside on the terrace on a sunny January 7th afternoon.
Last stop was supposed to be at the absolutely fabulous La Azotea but, as it was a bank holiday, the place was packed to bursting even more than usual. So after a bit of a wait we decided to move on and ended up at the spectactular Restaurante Cuna 2. One of the things I love best about this beautifully restored old mansion is that it’s so unstuffy, so don’t let it intimidate you. You can just as easily pop in for a quick beer or a full meal. And the staff are terrific. You can get tapas at any of the three bar areas on the main floor so for my last tapeo stop we ordered delicious plump and garlicky langoustines al ajillo, and also a tapa of salt cod with garlic confit and plum tomatoes. By this time we were fit to bursting and had spent less than half of what we’d have spent at the original choice. Plus we got to walk around between tapas stops.
No wonder people love tapas tours so much! And although I’m always doing them, this was the first time in a while that it was my very own tapas tour. We had a great time. How about you? Do you prefer going out to restaurants or tapas bars?
This is food writer Kalyan, who at lunchtime today was the happiest man in Sevilla, and I am pretty sure that he is about to become even happier. You see, tonight I’ll be meeting Kalyan and his wife Kainaz, who are travelling around Spain and are in town for a few days, and I’ll be taking them out for a tapeo.
casa azahar 