lush
23 Wednesday Jan 2019
Category Archives: spain
january skies
04 Friday Jan 2019
It’s damn fine here in January.sometimes I despair…
31 Wednesday Oct 2018
Tags
bars, friends, sevilla, tapas, vermouth, vermuteria, wine, yo soy tu padre
Last week my friend and neighbour Esteban’s fabulous bar Vermutería Yo Soy Tu Padre was broken into in the middle of the night. The bastards made off with thousands of euros worth of wines, computers and other equipment. But Esteban and his family rallied and were up and running again in very short order.
So if you live in, or are visiting, Sevilla, stop by to show your support- and also to have some amazing house made vermouths and delicious tapas.
Esteban
bar rioja
24 Wednesday Oct 2018
Posted in sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars
Tags
A positive outcome of yesterday’s duvet disaster was that I revisited a very unique bar that, although in my neighbourhood, I’d only been to once before. I mean, it’s tiny, and so I always supposed it was just a place for a quick beer. Which was why I was there this time, while waiting for my duvet to finish washing at the laundrette just up the street. But then I saw they did a lot of fresh fish tapas, as well as some traditional stews and other meat dishes. We opted for a dish of chicharrones to go with the beer, but I will definitely be back.
ispal – new chef, new menu
04 Thursday Oct 2018
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla, spain
This week (on October 4) I was invited, along with other journalists, bloggers and regular commentators, to the presentation of this season’s tasting menu at Restaurante Ispal. Ispal has been the dream of Pedro Sánchez-Cuerda Rodríguez (director of Grupo La Raza) for the past 15 years, and together with Antonio Bort (his executive chef), and Ispal’s new head chef Rubén García Chacón, Pedro’s dream has now been realised.
The objective of Ispal, which opened a year ago, is to showcase the traditional cooking of Sevilla, using indigenous products and providing support for local family businesses, and then reinterpreting these popular dishes by elevating them to haute cuisine. This, by definition, involves the use of the highest quality ingredients, meticulously prepared and presented.
The local ingredients include salt from the salt flats of Utrera, cheeses from Castilblanco de los Arroyos, the famous tomatoes of Los Palacios, goat kid from Los Corrales, fish from La Puebla del Río, wines from Sierra Norte de Sevilla, Ronda, and sherry wines from Jerez.
The tasting menu, which you can see below, was spectacular. Many thanks to Fernando Huibrodo for the invitation, and to the entire Ispal team, including maître Alonso Reche and sommelier Cisco Nuñez.
Pedro Sanchez-Cuerda Rodriguez – director of Grupo La Raza
Antonio Bort – executive chef of Grupo La Raza
Rubén Chacón – head chef at Ispal
Fernando Huidobro – president of Andalucía Academy of Gastronomy & Tourism
casa azahar 