Category Archives: gastronomy

luís

09 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in gastronomy, tapas tours, work

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Peter & Luís at La Azotea

I’ve known Luís (and his biz partner David) from Really Discover for many years. So it was great to run into Luís at The Office (AKA La Azotea Santa Cruz) during a meeting there with the We Love Tapas team. After the meeting Peter and I ended up having lunch with Luís and “talking shop”, which proved both interesting and illuminating. We may also end up collaborating as our tour companies are complementary rather than being in direct competition. Love chance meetings like this…

my first big group sherry tasting!

04 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in food & drink, gastronomy

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I got a call from my friend Juan from Vineria San Telmo the other day asking me if I’d be interested in giving a sherry tasting to a group of 15 people from Australia and New Zealand and so of course I said YES. Though I was also a bit nervous as it would be the first time I’d be doing this with a larger group, and also as a “presentation” rather than as part of a tapas tour. My Sherry & Tapas Tours are just as much about the food pairings as they are about sherry, so this would be something quite different.

As you can see, it was very nicely set up by Juan and we also included snacks (olives, cheese, almonds, chocolate) and some printed material for the guests to take home. And they were a great group. Not total “sherry virgins” and clearly quite knowledgeable about wines, so they asked a lot of good questions.

We tried 5 different sherries, talking about each one along with the history of the region and the sherry making process. I soon forgot about being nervous and the time flew by. Hoping to do it again now!

mehrunnisa & omair

17 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in andalucia, flamenco, food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla, work

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Alternative title… When Sevilla Tapas Tour Guests Become Friends.

Last night I met up with Mehrunnisa & Omair from London, who had come my way via mutual Twitter and Instagram pals. They had actually arrived in Sevilla couple of days previously but, due to Semana Santa and other obligations, it was only possible to take them out on their penultimate night in town for a flamenco & tapas tour. But we made the most of it!

I knew things were off to a great start when conversation started flowing fast and furious even before we got to the flamenco venue. And by the time we got into the sherry and tapas after the show it was clear that we were kindred spirits. It was a great night out and the time passed far too quickly, but I will look forward to getting together with M & O again on my next London Getaway – I have been promised a Pakistani food tour (yay!).

fran & kaz

11 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, home, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, wine

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I kind of hit the ground running after getting back from my London Getaway. I had already planned to get together with Jane & John and Sue & Monty, but before those meet ups took place I had the pleasure of being introduced (via email by Annie Manson) to Fran & Kaz Kuzui. Fran & Kaz were travelling around Andalucía, doing some research on Japanese influence on southern Spanish cuisine, and would also be spending a couple of days in Sevilla, so we arranged to meet the evening after I got home from London. They had also tried to meet up with my friend Tomoko in Jerez, but there had been an email glitch, and so I invited Tomoko to come and stay over so we could all go out together.

It was a fabulous evening. Fran is a native New Yorker who now lives in Tokyo with her husband Kaz. Aside from being film producers and art lovers, they are both also food & wine lovers, and as usual Sevilla worked its magic on them. By the end of the evening we had all become fast friends and F & K were already talking about planning a return visit to Andalucía. Come back soon! xx

sue & monty

10 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in andalucia, food & drink, friends, gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours

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I have “known” travel and food writer Sue Style on Twitter for a few years now, and we’ve even collaborated on a couple of articles about Sevilla and Andalucía. So I was thrilled to find out we were finally going to have a chance to meet in person.

Sue and her husband Monty were travelling with friends in Jerez and said they would have a free day in Sevilla before their flight left on the evening of lunes santo (Holy Monday) at the start of Semana Santa. This turned out to be a bit trickier than I had considered, with traffic issues and whatnot, but in the end we managed to get together for a lovely afternoon tapeo.

After a plate of perfectly sliced jamón Ibérico and some fabulous Goya manzanilla pasada at Las Teresas we headed over to La Azotea Santa Cruz for our “main course”. One of our favourite dishes was the courgette and anchovy salad with frozen grated goat cheese. Sue loved it so much she was inspired to create her own version of it when she got home to Alsace.

As we have a mutual friend in San Sebastián – the lovely Gabriella Ranelli of Tenedor Tours (aka Shawn of the North 😉 ) – I’m thinking it would be fun to organize a San Sebastián meetup that would half-way for Sue and me.

Stay tuned…