Category Archives: spain

steph

12 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by in food & drink, friends, sevilla, spain

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The other day I got an email from Steph, an Australian woman who is travelling around Spain this month. She had just spent some time with my friend Gabriella @tenedor in San Sebastián and asked if I had any tours available for her to join while she was in Sevilla. Well, the only possibility was for her to join another couple on a Flamenco & Tapas tour on her last night in town (yesterday), which she happily did, but we also got together for lunch on Sunday – that’s Steph up there happily chowing down on some fried blood and onions – and I also gave her my handy tapas bar “short list” for her to use before the tour.

It was so much fun meeting her, and then last night going out with Diana & Peter, who were also lovely. I honestly feel so blessed that my work (including social media stuff) puts me in touch with so many amazing people.

lunch on the beach

28 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by in andalucia, food & drink, gastronomy, getaways, Malaga, malaga getaway, spain

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I had planned to do sea walks every morning while I was here… ha. Finally ended up doing ONE yesterday, out to Pedregalejo to have lunch at Andrés Maricuchi. It was like going home. As soon as Andrés saw me he came rushing out to give me a big kiss and Julián set up a nice table for us that caught a refreshing sea breeze. As the afternoon began to cloud over we walked back to the centre of Málaga for rooftop cocktails. An excellent final full day in Málaga.

Today is rainy – actually the forecast is for thunderstorms all day – so it will be a morning of museums before a final lunch and then HOME to the gatitos. I can’t wait to see them again.

beach boat barbecue

sardines, breaded rosada, tomato salad, boquerones al limón
sundowners at the rooftop bar of Roommate Valeria

just trying to help…

25 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by in andalucia, food & drink, getaways, Malaga, malaga getaway, spain, travel, trips

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So I was in the Atarazanas Market yesterday and saw a couple of tourists looking over the display of various meats in manteca, which for those of you who don’t know are meats preserved in pork lard, often (but not always) coloured and flavoured with paprika. The man even leaned over to smell one of them at which point the vendor came over and said in his best English, “That is pork meat in butter!”.

Trying to be helpful I said to the couple that it was actually lard, not butter. Then I explained to the vendor that he was telling them it was pork in mantequilla (butter), not manteca (lard), and we all helped him with pronouncing this new word. The couple went away happy and the vendor said to me, “So what are you, a teacher?” And then he said, “I always say butter to them and they always understand me perfectly.” Well, I tried…

la monumental

19 Saturday Aug 2017

Posted by in culture, history, sevilla, spain

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It’s been a good week, being on “staycation” in Sevilla, though an inordinate amount of time has been spent looking for ceiling and wall lamps for the new Casa Azahar. Which led to not one, but two, visits to El Corte Inglés in Nervión. The first time finished with a fab lunch at Casa Paco “El Buen Comer”, making the trip worthwhile (even though I came home empty handed). But a couple of days later I decided to go back for the two wall lamps I’d seen there, which ended with an early evening walk home down Eduardo Dato (totally beat the 10,000 steps record that day!). And along the way we passed what is left of Sevilla’s second, and short-lived, bullring, La Monumental.

I’d first learned about its existence back in 2009, after visiting La Monumental tapas bar, located on the old site and filled with bullfighting memorabilia, including framed contemporary news clippings about Sevilla’s almost forgotten bullring.

This ill-fated second Plaza de Toros was first opened to the public in 1918, closed in 1921, and finally demolished in 1930. The driving force behind its construction was the famous bullfighter José Gómez Ortega, known as Joselito el Gallo, whose death in the ring on May 16, 1920 was a contributory factor in its closing. In 1915, when construction started, this was a ‘greenfield’ site a short way outside the city. Its demolition made way for the new suburbs that now spread out to Nervión and beyond.

The architects were José Espiau y Muñoz and Francisco Urcola Lazcanotegui, whose other works include the splendid Hotel Alfonso XIII, and the Edificio Adriática at the end of Avenida de la Constitución.

Since the first time I visited this remaining gate to the bullring a plaque has been put up. Can you believe that for all these years it just stood there without anybody knowing what it was? Anyhow, the plaque reads…

“Here was the monumental one of Seville (1918 – 1921) driven by Joselito El Gallo, King of Los Toreros”. September 2012, centenary of the alternative of Joselito, his supporters.

sunday times travel mag

16 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in media, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars, tapas tours, travel

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VERY happy with this nice mention in the September edition of the Sunday Times Travel Magazine’s special Foodie Spain & Portugal issue. It’s out now (print only) in case you’d like to pick up a copy too. Lots of great tips on where to eat well on the Iberian peninsula. Thanks ST!

blasts from the past

12 Saturday Aug 2017

Posted by in casa azahar, life stuff, sevilla, spain, tapas tours, work

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The other day I was wrapped up in all the IKEA nonsense, feeling abused by corporate bullshit, and then I happened to see that – once again! – one of the new corporate tapas tour companies in town had copied another of my tours. So I mentioned on Twitter how disheartening this is, to not only have people copy things I have created, but they even use the same bars FFS, as if nobody will notice that the bars no longer have actual clients in them, just food tour groups. As if bars don’t have their own eco-systems. Grrrrr…

Then the next day I got a mention on Twitter linking to this photo taken almost exactly 6 years ago (Sept 2011), with a great comment from Tim being very supportive. And I remember this tour! I almost didn’t do it because I was still getting over that emergency op but at that point I also really wanted to get out of the house. So I arranged it that I would meet them with Peter at the first stop, just to say hola, and that Peter would take it from there, since I didn’t think I could manage a whole evening out. But I actually made it to the second stop (this photo was taken at Bodeguita Romero) and I remember not only having a great time before leaving Tim and his friends in Peter’s capable hands, but also enjoying my first glass of wine in over a month.

Anyhow, what a great memory to be reminded of, and curiously this was my second “blast from the past” from 2011 this month, since Ross & Annie are also back in town. All of which is reminding me to enjoy what I have and embrace all the GOOD. Because sometimes I forget.

market targetting

02 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in home, retail therapy, sevilla, spain

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This was not a good day. And not JUST because I had to go back to IKEA 😉 , but because things got off to a weird start and then got positively exhausting.

Woke up with tons of things to do in the new Casa Azahar, and also had errands to run before a lunchtime biz meeting. Errands such as going back to Emasesa (the water company) to change the contract to my name… FOR THE THIRD TIME. I had kept forgetting this or that document, but finally I was all prepared and got the deed done. While I was there I was told that there was a last-minute opening to “empadronar” (register for the census) which is necessary to prove how many people live at my home, and which is also important because the more people living at a dwelling means you get a cheaper water rate. BUT, I had the biz meeting planned so had to forfeit the appointment – next opportunity won’t be until September, and so until then I’ll be paying a higher water rate.

Got to the meeting point early and – not having had breakfast – ordered a tapita to keep myself going. But when the person I was meeting arrived, I was told our meeting was cancelled. So I not only didn’t get the meeting, I lost a chance to “empadronar” (and save money on my water bill!), and also ended up on a bus to IKEA at the worst possible time of day (for taking a bus – HOT).

Finally got to IKEA and somehow it took ages, even longer than my previous visit, when I bought half the store. I think I was just so disheartened about how the day had been going that everything felt like like a massive chore. There was no joy in any of it. In fact, I ended up forgetting a couple of the things I’d gone there to buy, but at least I got the most important thing – a nice storage unit to act as a pantry for the extra stuff that won’t fit in the kitchen cupboards.

Then home again… blazing heat… long wait at the bus stop… was EXHAUSTED when we finally got back to Sevilla. And so on the way home we stopped in for a snack at a place near the new house that I hadn’t been to in years, and that cheered me up. The guys were so friendly, the food was nice, we had some wine…

Anyhow, I also took this photo while at IKEA, which I found amusing. A dressing room display replete with feria flamenco dresses. So very Sevillano that it made me smile. They say that moving house is right up there STRESSWISE with having a death in the family. God knows it’s been a crazy few weeks, and at times I’ve felt stressed beyond what I thought I could handle. So it’s important to find those little things that make you smile.