Category Archives: sevilla

a taste of portugal

19 Sunday Jul 2009

Posted by in culture, food & drink, photos, portugal, sevilla, wine

≈ 5 Comments

portugal

I came across this wonderful Portuguese food shop quite by accident the other day when Nog & I were out for a walk and made a special trip back on Friday because I was told they have fresh Portuguese bread brought in that day. Memories of Lisbon and Tavira came flooding back after making a simple lunch of crusty bread, a selection of cheeses, black olive paste and salad.

Actually, that’s the typical starter in most Portuguese restaurants. I swear I could almost live on bread & cheese alone. Well, with a nice wine and some sort of fresh veg.  But they just don’t have good bread in Sevilla. I can’t remember what it was like when I lived in Salamanca, but in Barcelona the bread has a lot more character and flavour. Maybe it’s an Andalusian thing? White “cotton wool” tasteless pap with a pale and very uncrusty crust.  Bleh.

You can see more photos below (including lunch!) …

[also posted on azahar’s Sevilla]

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summer events

12 Sunday Jul 2009

Posted by in culture, dance, sevilla, summer

≈ 14 Comments

sara baras

While out for a walk this afternoon I spotted a poster announcing a Leonard Cohen concert in Granada in September! And I thought – hey, I should be working by then so maybe I’ll be able to go. Just checked out a couple of ticket sales websites … 150-200€ ! Sorry Leonard. I shall just add this to the list of summer events I won’t be attending.

My dear friend Lizzie insists that Bruce Springsteen is good for both the soul and the red blood cells (she’s just seen him at Glastonbury) and for some bizarre reason da Boss will be performing in Sevilla at the end of July … but again, outrageous prices.

Meanwhile, the concert I had really wanted to see was the amazing flamenco artist Sara Baras at the Italica International Dance Festival, being held in its original setting – Italica’s roman amphitheatre – for the first time since 1993. I was sure it was going to cost a small fortune and put it out of my mind after seeing this wonderful poster the other day,  but when I was checking out Leonard Cohen tickets just now I decided to have a look at the Italica prices … and I almost wept. They were only 15 euros and, of course, are now sold out. Well, unless you’re headless (at least, I assume that’s what discapacitado means…)

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garbage

11 Saturday Jul 2009

Posted by in photohunt, photos, rants, sevilla, spain, wtf?

≈ 26 Comments

garbage

Today’s Photohunter theme is “garbage”.

I ask you … have you ever seen anything so ugly? These are the garbage disposal receptacles that were installed a few years ago in the centre of Seville – the city with the largest preserved old centre in Europe. They are part of an underground “suck it up” disposal system that works okay most of the time, but could they not have designed a receptacle that didn’t look like R2D2 on a bad day? They are just so jarring to the eye in comparison to the beautiful architecture here. Ironically, newer receptacles that have been installed in other less pretty parts of town are much more pleasing to look at. Go figure.

photohunter

twitter lunch

10 Friday Jul 2009

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

≈ 4 Comments

anna & pedro

The other day I met the lovely Anna on Twitter via a mutual acquaintance and, after tweeting back and forth a bit, I asked if she would like to meet up for a cold beer one day. And yesterday was the day. The plan was to meet for a pre-lunch beer and so I suggested Zaragoza 64 because they serve excellent Galician beer there, far superior to the pale and tasteless Cruz Campo, which is the bog standard lager sold in bars here. I’m not much of a beer drinker but I really like the taste of Galicia Estrella.

At the last minute Anna also invited her very charming Twitter friend Pedro to join us and – you guessed it – we ended up having lunch. A wonderful time was had by all. Very pleasant company, lots of laughs, including the very satisfying discovery that we are all “strong and bossy” types, which led to a few good anecdotes about those who feel the need to label decisive people “bossy”. We are also all a bit gadget crazy (who me?) and I couldn’t help but smile when Pedro took out his iPhone to send a few tweets. And also all expats – from Italy, Venezuela & Canada.

So, it was my first ever twitter lunch – hopefully the first of many.

(food pics below…)

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food porn

06 Monday Jul 2009

Posted by in cancer, food & drink, health & happiness, photos, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas

≈ 15 Comments

romero prawn nests

I don’t know how many calories these babies have and I don’t care.

After doing some Saturday morning errands and a bit of grocery shopping the other day, Nog & I stopped in for a tapa at one of our favourite bars, Bodeguita Romero. Everyone there knows about the cancer so, as I hadn’t been there in a few months, a full health update was required by the bar staff and Pedro Romero, the owner. After that was taken care of we tried something new on the menu – these really fabulous prawns wrapped in crispy fried potato threads. Then Pedro gave us a free sample of another new tapa they are trying out (see below). Little brie-filled pastries, kind of like spring rolls. The one on the left has spinach and the other one leeks. Also very nice.

All of this reminded me that I have been neglecting my Sevilla Tapas site, which still needs a lot of work done on it. So that is going to be one of my projects this week. In between yoga and breathing and walking and healing…

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