Category Archives: restaurants

palomas

26 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by in food & drink, friends, restaurants, sevilla, spain, summer, wine

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Remember my evening strolls? Well, yesterday evening I went out and see if I could find a place that would clean my camera lens (yes, I know, but the lens cleaning pack thing costs 20 euros) and, after that was accomplished, it seemed like a very good idea to stop off somewhere for a Cold Beer before heading home. I decided it would be nice to go to Casa Morales, which has become one of my favourite starting points on the Sevilla Tapas Tours. So Nog & I bellied up to the bar to order drinks and – as I wasn’t working – thought it would be better to just hang out there instead of getting a table. I’m so glad we did because it ended up being a wonderful evening.

I’ve known Diego (on the left) for years, as he used to work at the Horno San Buenaventura, and back in the day I would stop in there almost every morning for coffee and toast. So we got to chatting and one tapita led to another… they are so simple, so good and so cheap it was hard to resist. Then Diego started topping up our drinks on the house, and also brought us a couple of other snacks (not shown – a bit of chicharrones and some tuna mojama). At one point an elderly couple who had been sitting behind us – you can just about make them out in the photo – came up to pay and they gave the guys a little puzzle that they said could be made into both a square and a cross. Well, doing the square was no problem, but nobody could make the cross, so we said we’d have a go. At which point Diego said he’d bet us double or nothing on our bar tab that we couldn’t do it. Too bad we didn’t take him up on that as Nog eventually worked it out while Diego showed me an origami “flying” dove, which he said he’d made. When I looked sceptical he took a piece of paper and made one in front of me. I’d grabbed my iPhone to make a video of it but when he was finished I saw that I hadn’t turned the video on properly, so asked him to do it again. Only I stupidly held the iPhone the wrong way, which ended up with a rather odd looking video, but I didn’t think I could ask for a third performance. Anyhow, below you can watch Diego making palomas.

So what was just going to be a quick beer stop on the way home turned out to be a couple of very pleasant hours spent at this totally charming bar with great people. I love it when stuff like that happens.

weekend plans and other stuff…

16 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by in food & drink, friends, restaurants, spain, summer, tapas, travel, trips, work

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So what the heck.

Have been invited to Vejer to participate in a cooking class headed by the fabulous Annie B, and I am to stay over in the “yellow guest suite”, which sounds delightful. The next day Annie is going to drive me down to Zahara de los Atunes where we will have a delicious lunch in the village before she drops me off in Atlanterra so I can get down to work.

Said work involves taking photos and lots of notes about my Seville client’s sister restaurant in Zahara, which I already know well from my visit there two years ago. You may recall the time my friend Agustín asked me to look after their old pup Mini while they were away in Mexico. Not sure if this time I’ll be able to stay over at Agustín’s because he’s having work done on the place, but if not my client Charo says she can put me up. So why not?

And since you’re probably wondering… no, it never occurs to anyone to pay me extra for going out of town or spending days at events with them. At least, not so far. And so far I am more or less okay with that because I am trying to prove myself to them, that I really am a valuable asset. And, it must be said, a lot of the extra work is actually quite fun. But it doesn’t pay the rent.

There will be another trip to Zahara in early July – just overnight again – to make a video of a wine and food pairing evening with two of my clients. Which I think is going to be amazing. Stay tuned…

tapas galore!

30 Monday May 2011

Posted by in cats, food & drink, friends, restaurants, sevilla, tapas, twitter, work

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It was a very full day, in every sense of the word. First twitter friends @annalibera and @jorgeguitian came over to see the new place and we had a cold Galician beer and a tortilla snack up on the rooftop. As you can see, Loki was being his usual shy self (ha). Then we went out to a neighbourhood favourite – Casa Antonio – for some lunch…


Then after a quick late afternoon meeting with Victoria about her new website and store I was off on another tapas tour. This time we went over the bridge to Triana, which I think is going to become a nice option, especially in the summer as it’s always a bit cooler down by the river. Rick and Michelle were very happy with their tapas …

It was great fun but I’ll have to do a double session at the gym mañana!

impromptu

19 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in food & drink, restaurants, sevilla, tapas, twitter, wine, work

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It’s been a bit of a crazy week, especially with me thinking I was quite mad to have taken on five – FIVE! – tapas tours during Semana Santa. The logistics of trying to organise the tours so as to avoid crowds and processions has been challenging to say the least. And so, having just finished three days in a row of evening tours – which all went very well I am happy to report – I was looking forward to making a nice meal at home and putting my feet up this evening.

So Nog & I went out to the Encarnación market (under Las Setas) to see what looked good and I decided to check out the little café/bar inside the market that Agustín had told me about. A bit like La Cantina in the Feria market, La Encarnación has a short list of daily fish on offer which they will fry or grill for you. Super fresh and very tasty.

Then along came a couple who asked if we spoke English and Spanish and said they needed our help. Turns out they wanted to find out if “huevas” were the same as shad roe and I suggested that they should try a tapa of it right then and there. Which they did. Verdict: almost the same but shad roe wasn’t quite so dry.

So after chatting a while and tweeting this photo of Philip with his huevas (which Fiona said came so near to being a naughty comment!) I mentioned my tapas blog and the tours and it turns out that I won’t be putting my feet up tonight. Instead I’ll be meeting Philip and Mary from New York at their hotel and going out on an impromptu tapas tour! They even invited Nog along.

As it’s been raining off and on all afternoon I don’t expect there to be many (if any) processions tonight, but that doesn’t mean that the bars won’t be crazy busy. Anyhooo… I just love it when stuff like this happens. And I’m quite looking forward to doing something a bit different tour-wise tonight as Philip & Mary have expressed an interest in trying out Flores Jamones & Vinos, which isn’t usually on my list as they don’t do tapas per se. They also told me that they didn’t mind if we had to get a taxi to go somewhere special – cool!

Stay tuned to my Sevilla Tapas twitter feed later if you’d like to come along…

a day in the country

27 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by in culture, food & drink, friends, photos, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas, wine, work

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[click to enlarge]

One of the reasons I occasionally wish I had a car (and a valid driving licence) is to take day trips to the many little villages near Sevilla. So I was delighted the other day when my Twitter buddy Eduardo got in touch to ask if I wanted to go with him and his girlfriend Mercedes to an olive oil & wine tasting in El Viso del Alcor. The tasting was held at the magnificent Basilippo hacienda in the countryside amongst their olive groves, and the snacks we enjoyed during the event were catered by Más Que Tapas. I was keen to go not only to learn more about olive oil (and, as it turned out, caviar!) but also to meet Aurore and Eduardo, who run Más Que Tapas, as they have often asked me to come out and see their place.

After a presentation on the different types of olives oils (we sampled three) inside the museum, we went out to the gardens to sample five different wines, paired with delicious snacks prepared with the olive oils we had just tasted.  But first we were in for a special treat – some local caviar and sparkling wine. We had a great time and I got to meet some new people, as well as a small pregnant cat which I ended up feeding chunks of bread dipped in my carrillada gravy. By the time the tasting finished we were informed that Más Que Tapas was offering a special “after hours” lunch menu (it was way past lunch time) and so we made our way over for something a bit more substantial.

[only click to enlarge if you’re not hungry]

In the end we didn’t go for the fixed menu and just (just!) ordered three dishes to share. Above you can see owners Eduardo & Aurore in the top corner, and at the bottom that’s Aurore again with Eduardo & Mercedes. In between some fabulous food: risotto with mushrooms, cashews & raisins, a burger of goat cheese, a slice of apple and foie, and some grilled scallops and chorizo on puff pastry with carrot purée. As if that weren’t enough we were given a couple of hot desserts to sample and I found myself wondering how on earth I was going to manage to eat anything on my tapas tour that evening…

It was a fabulous day in the country with lovely people. We got back to Sevilla around 6.30 and so later I wasn’t too concerned to discover that my clients were delayed getting into town from Lisbon which meant the tapas tour was rescheduled for today. In fact, I have to leave in a few minutes – see ya!