
It’s been a good week for tomatoes!

07 Wednesday Feb 2024
Posted in andalucia, food & drink, seasons, sevilla
06 Tuesday Feb 2024

The inaugural ASGT conference for el Año del AOVE de Sevilla took place this week at the rather splendid Casa de la Provincia. The guest speaker was Rosa Vañó, member of the Royal Gastronomy Academy and co-founder of Castillo de Canina in Jaén (where this deliciousness is produced), introduced by our president Julio Moreno Ventas. It’s going to be an exciting year… stay tuned!
This time I was reminded to stick around for the group pic afterwards (forgot during the Año del Arroz closing event last June…oops).

05 Monday Feb 2024
Posted in art, sevilla, tapas bars
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If I’ve learned one thing during my countless visits to Casa Moreno over the years it’s that for Emilio nothing is ever urgent, there is no such thing as being in a hurry, and I love him for this. So the other day when I went to ask for my bill he said “ok, it’ll be ready in about 20 minutes”. Ha. The two guys at the bar across from him shot me a look and I said to them “it’s fine, the artist always takes his time”… in the end it didn’t actually take 20 minutes and I was given this personalised bill for La Reina de las Tapas.

I have so many of Emilio’s little works of art at home, but it was this one that ended up framed and in the bookcase next to my desk. ❤️
02 Friday Feb 2024

This weekend (Feb 2-4) the Festival de los Guisos y Arroces takes place down by the river in Paseo de Colón. Another delicious collaboration between the Academia Sevillana de Gastronomía y Turismo and Hosteleros de Sevilla, with 13 bars and restaurants from the province of Sevilla offering their best stews and rice dishes, with music, cooking demos and other fun stuff. I won’t be able to make it until Sunday afternoon, but am looking forward to it.

01 Thursday Feb 2024

What a day. I went out in search of a Sexy Gay Jesus poster (as you do) because I heard they were available at city hall and reckoned it was about to become a collector’s item, especially if it gets banned (it won’t) so I should get one. The guy at city hall told me I’d have to go to the office of Fiestas Mayores up the road, so off I went. Well, the very nice lady there told me that they only had posters of Fiestas de Primavera, not Semana Santa, for that I’d have to go to the Hermandad office around the corner. Then it occurred to me to ask if they had old posters too because there is ONE POSTER that I’ve been looking for since I first saw it in 2017 by local artist Nuria Barrera. She showed me the ones they had on offer, nope not there. Then I said… it was the one with the closet, you remember? And she was all like OH THE CLOSET ONE, nipped behind her desk, opened a drawer and handed me two of them. I was almost in shock. After all this time I couldn’t believe my luck and felt totally silly-happy.
BUT I still had to find Jesus (so to speak). Over at the Hermandad office they told me the posters wouldn’t be available until mid-February. So okay fine. I really didn’t care at that point, all I wanted to do is get home and put my gorgeous poster somewhere so I could look at it every day. Except I needed a frame! Quick stop at El Corte Inglés and I was home with this simple wooden frame, a perfect fit, which I put together in a snap and only then noticed that – aaaargh – the left bottom corner was fucked. Whatever, I’ll deal with that later, change it, maybe.
I don’t know why this poster got to me the way it did. It is sooooooooo Sevilla though, the imagery, so many details, the colours, taking us from Semana Santa into Feria, as happens every spring. It probably won’t mean much to non-sevillanos but I just love it. And now I have one! Even with a busted frame. I’m still happy.
