Category Archives: spain

el puente

07 Friday Dec 2007

Posted by in culture, holidays, home, life stuff, sevilla, spain, tapas

≈ 5 Comments

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Today is the ‘puente’, or bridge day, between two public holidays: Día de la Constitución (December 6th) and Inmaculada Concepción (December 8th). Lots of people also take today as a holiday in order to have an extra long weekend, and many businesses choose to remain closed as well (like my gym, fer instance, grrr…).

Until a few years ago the night of the Inmaculada was traditionally when the Christmas street lights were turned on but this been changing, so that anytime after December 1st you’ll see lights on (though they still all get turned off on January 5th – Epiphany – which I think is a good thing).

The madrugada of the Inmaculada (that’s tonight from midnight till dawn) is also the night when the various tunas get together and sing & play to the Virgin statue in one of the squares next to the cathedral. Tunas are groups of traditional minstrels belonging to the different university faculties and on this night there is something of a competition as they all take turns out-tuna-ing themselves for the Virgin. The last time I went out to see this spectacle was a few years ago (going out after midnight has becoming a rarity) so Nog & I had been planning to go tonight, as he has never seen them in this setting. But since we are both feeling ‘coldy’ we might not make it. It’s not a huge deal if we don’t go because there are often tunas playing at the bar across the street so we actually get to hear them a lot. But this night is actually quite special and apparently it’s also the 25th anniversary for the Biology tuna, so big things are expected . . .

Can we stay up long enough to go out tonight? Eep!

The bridge pic came from here … played with it a bit.

potato salad

01 Saturday Dec 2007

Posted by in food & drink, home, sevilla, spain, tapas

≈ 2 Comments

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Well, it’s not just any potato salad. . .

For years now I’ve been going to Bodequita Romero and one of the very lovely things they do is give you a complementary tapa of fabulously garlicky marinated potatoes as a starter. And I have tried copying this very simple dish at home, time and time again, yet it never turns out just how Pedro Romero makes it.

And so today Nog & I stopped at Bodeguita Romero for our usual Saturday pre-shopping snack (around 1pm) and it turned out that Pedro was just about to mix up the potato salad and I asked if I could watch … you can see the pics here (photos 8-11).

It was very simple, yet also methodical … not at all how I’d tried doing it at home, which was mixing up all the marinade together first. Clearly I’d been doing it all wrong! And so, this is how you do it right. . .

First you sprinkle on some coarse sea salt and toss the potatoes. Then some more salt and toss some more. Then you add finely chopped garlic and do a bit more tossing, likewise after adding very finely chopped spring onion bit by bit. And toss, toss, toss – by toss I actually mean flipping the pot outwards and upwards. No spoons, no stirring – I reckon this is also where I was going wrong.

Then pour over some dry sherry vinegar, once, twice, three times, and after each time flip the potatoes so it’s all mixed up together. Finally pour a whole whack of very green virgin olive oil over the salad, let it sit for a few minutes and then tip the entire mixture into a large bowl. Then gently mix with a large spoon, backside of the spoon up … and then serve to extremely appreciative customers who have been watching you and taking photos. f_drool.gif

az’s travelblog

07 Wednesday Nov 2007

Posted by in blogging, nablopomo, photos, spain, trips

≈ 11 Comments

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Yeah yeah, I know . . . another blog!!!

But I was looking at my sadly abandoned and neglected trips page this afternoon and thought it might be more interesting to have everything together in one place, kind of like I did with the sevilla tapas page, moving it all over here.

The main ‘problemita’ is that the travelblog is going to have way more photos than the tapa blog – and there is no way of doing bulk uploading of photos on WordPress. Which turns uploading a photo album into a most tedious and arduous task (especially like earlier today when I uploaded and posted 58 photos !!! and then found out they were all the wrong size and had to do it all over again!) f_wah.gif

Anyhow, there is only one category even somewhat set up so far – the Barcelona one. I’ve transferred the Barcelona blog post over from here, which talks about the trip – though it still needs to be edited. And there will also be different ‘albums’ (much like how I set them up on Fotki) on separate posts. The only Barcelona album up at the moment is my favourite one, with photos of Casa Batlló. But Nog says 58 photos on a blog post is maybe too much and I should think about editing them down. What do you think?

~ Viajando ~

todos los santos

01 Thursday Nov 2007

Posted by in holidays, nablopomo, religion, sevilla, spain

≈ 8 Comments

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Today is Todos Los Santos (All Saints Day), which is a public holiday in Spain.

Traditionally, people visit the cemetary and decorate the graves of their loved ones with flowers. Apparently this Christian holiday was moved from its original date in May more than ten centuries ago to offset the pagan autumn festivals.

Here at casa az it’ll be just a pleasant day off, with plans to go out for lunch and finally my swap summer/winter wardrobes. It also means I get a four-day long weekend! f_wow.gif

Nog isn’t so lucky as he has to work on Friday. He says that in England they always move bank holidays (other than Christmas, New Year and Good Friday) to the nearest Monday in order to avoid long weekend ‘bridges’. Is it the same where you are?

It’s just after midnight so this is my first NaBloPoMo post. Off to sleep now and looking forward to checking in from my cosy bed in the morning . . . f_zzz.gif

the iberian lynx

11 Tuesday Sep 2007

Posted by in animals & pets, politics, sevilla, spain

≈ 3 Comments

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How the EU saves, and kills, the lynx

So maybe Europe is giving money for preserving the lynx – it’s given 26m euros (£18m) – but the agricultural funds give money that helps destroy the lynx’s habitat.

The same institution is protecting and destroying habitat at the same time.

Fuck golf courses and fuck fake-tasting strawberries … there isn’t enough water here. And how awful it would be to see such a gorgeous creature become extinct. Yes, the dunes are spreading, but the water that exists at the moment could be put to better use.

Doñana Park is about an hour’s drive from where I live. I know a couple of people who work there – biologists mostly working with rabbits, birds and bats. But the lynx is the symbol of Doñana and I guess, being a cat person myself, their plight moves me. But not just me. A few years ago a student of mine (mid-twenties, well-educated) came up for his class and could barely speak when he came into the room. His face was all red, he was actually sputtering! I asked him what was wrong and after he sat down and had a drink of water he told me … “You know your neighbour on the first floor? Her door was open when I walked past just now and I saw she had a lynx pelt nailed to the entrance wall!”

It was actually a traumatic experience for him. I’ve since seen it myself. But these neighbours are disgusting people on so many levels that nailing the skin of an endangered species to their wall is actually not terribly surprising to me.

I’m certainly no big-time environmental activist, but fuck man – golf courses in Andalucía??? One golf course uses more water in a day than a village of 10,000 people. And tasteless strawberries that are sold for export … huh? Nice to see the world has its priorities straight, as usual.

The mind reels . . .