21 Wednesday Nov 2018
Posted in friends, instagram, sevilla, social media, tapas, tapas tours
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I’ve said it before but, man, my life would be so much poorer without Twitter and (more recently) Instagram. Last night I finally got to meet Donna & Dave, who I met via Victor @welovemalaga, another friend I also met on Twitter many years ago. D & D have been to Málaga several times but this was their first visit to Sevilla and they came out on a tapas tour with me. Hopefully we will meet up in Málaga next time!
15 Thursday Nov 2018
Posted in food & drink, friends, instagram, sevilla, social media, tapas, tapas bars
I’ve only recently started playing with Instagram stories. I’ve never really understood the point of uploading content that disappears after 24 hours. But then I noticed that mostly people were uploading stuff to their stories that they also put in their regular feed, so I decided to try it. This one comes from the other day when Peter and I met up again with Claudia & Paul. They had previously been to Eslava and were disappointed (!!!) with their famous honey ribs, so we decided to go back with them. Then Claudia had said she’d seen fried rabbit ribs at La Azotea on my Instagram, and thus the Battle of the Ribs was born.
Here are screenshots of the “event” taken from Instagram stories. You can write on the photos, add emojis, gifs, etc, and you can also have people vote (or take surveys). In this case you can see that pork ribs were the clear winner. And yes, I know, I really ought to GET A LIFE. 😉
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19 Friday Oct 2018
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla, social media, tapas, tapas bars, twitter, welcome
I have been Twitter pals with @GreatOil (Callum & Anne-Marie) for many years and so it was great to finally meet up in person. We went for lunch at La Azotea and I was given a bottle of their premium evoo, which we sampled with some lovely sourdough bread. It’s unfiltered evoo (40% Picudo 60% Hojiblanca) and has quite a nice peppery kick to it. Very nice.
Lunch was great too!
23 Monday Jul 2018
Posted in blogging, social media
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I had to open a personal Facebook page a few years ago in order to have FB Pages for my business(es). But I never used the personal page because, well, I just don’t like Facebook. Then a while back I noticed that I could publish my Casa Azahar blog post links on other platforms (FB, Twitter, Tumblr) and so I started doing that. Then I started getting occasional comments on my FB, even though to see the entire blog post you have to click through to WordPress. And so it became just another way of connecting with people, especially those whose only social media is FB.
But that’s all about to end. As of August 1st Facebook will no longer allow third party publishing on personal pages. Why? Who the fuck knows. So my FB personal page is soon to go dark. Apparently you will still be able to third party publish on FB business pages, so my option is to either change my personal FB page to a business one (and why would I do that?) or else start publishing directly on my personal page. But you know what? I simply don’t have time. I don’t use FB, rarely scroll through the timeline, etc. Even on my business pages (Sevilla Tapas & We Love Tapas) pretty much everything published there comes from my Instagram accounts.
I was actually surprised when I started getting all kinds of new FB friend requests on the personal page, since it’s just links to my blog (making it probably the most boring FB page out there). Because my blog, now more than 12 years old, went through a change starting in 2008, while recuperating from various cancer operations and going through chemo twice. It took on another meaning for me, and became almost like a daily “therapy session” when I gave myself the challenge to post something every day, no matter how sick or scared or lost I felt, so that at least each morning I had something to get out of bed for and to work towards. Which meant it turned it into a “daily scrapbook” (dear diary?) kind of blog, and I’ve kept it going that way ever since, mostly because if I ever stopped posting something every day I would feel pressure that the NEXT post will have to be about something interesting or important. 😉
I’ve never been sure how that translated on the FB format, to be honest, or if anyone actually clicked through to read entire blog posts on WordPress, but as of next week I won’t have to think about that anymore. This will be good news for those of you who friended me on FB only to discover that – eek – I just posted a bunch of crap all the time. And for those of you who enjoy reading my stuff, well, you can still find me on the Casa Azahar blog and chat with me here. You can even subscribe (link in the footer) so a wee notice pops in your email when something is posted, in case you forget to look. Well, I guess that’s it. Back to work now…
09 Monday Apr 2018
Posted in food & drink, sevilla, social media, spain, tapas, tapas bars, wine
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The other day someone got in touch with me by email. I didn’t know this person, but it turns out they come to Sevilla every spring and spend a month in Triana… and they often check my tapas bar info against their perceptions. Fair enough! This time they wanted to tell me about a new discovery of theirs, a new vermutería that just happens to be in my barrio. So of course I had to check it out.
It’s called Yo Soy Tu Padre (I Am Your Father) and the name stems from what Venezuela born owner Esteban’s grandfather always liked to say to his father, and also is in no small part a reflection of Esteban’s obsession with Star Wars. Below you can see a photo of Esteban’s grandfather, who also became the image for his logo. This is the third location and the newest. I am thrilled! Because not only does Esteban create all his vermouths from sherry wines, but they also do breakfast at this bar … with bagels! Did I mention it’s just down the street from my house? Will be breakfasting there soon, I think.
Meanwhile, how cool that someone I have never met went out of their way to put me in touch with this wonderful place. Thanks Sally!
casa azahar 