Category Archives: tapas

thursday in málaga

20 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in 20th anniversary, friends, Malaga, tapas, travel, trips, twitter

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The original plan had been to stay in Málaga two nights and return on Thursday. But then I found out that long time Twitter friends Fred @fredshively and Arpi @Andalucinda were actually going to be moving to town that day, so I made arrangements to stay one more night in order to finally meet them in person. But Peter still had to get back to teach a class and then take out a tapas tour, so we spent his last morning here going out to the Automotive Museum. Seriously. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I’m not exactly an old car buff, but it had come highly recommended by several people so off we went. And what fun it was! I especially liked the hat collection. After that we picked up his bag at the apartment and went out for a last drink together before he caught the train back to Sevilla.

By then it was lunchtime and I wasn’t sure what to do as I don’t especially enjoy eating on my own, and I wasn’t sure where to go. So I took a wander around the centre and, after spotting a couple of likely candidates, I finally settled on one called Souvi Tapería because it just had a nice feel to it. And what a good choice that turned out to be. The food was amazing (that tapa in the collage is warm potato & truffle coulante filled with foie, served with boletus icecream) and it turned out that my waiter was not only from Sevilla but also from my barrio! When he found out about my tapas blog he said he’d introduce me to the chef & owner. I also ended up meeting the chef’s mother who was sitting at the bar and we had a great chat about Málaga, and swapped contact info. So it wasn’t a lonley lunch after all.

Then I came home to catch up on emails and do a bit of work and before long it was time to meet up with Fred and Arpi (Arpi is a writer and Fred takes fabulous photos). I really appreciated them coming out at all after spending the whole day moving here from the Alpujarras. And I really really appreciated that, when our first restaurant choice turned out to be a dud, Arpi let us drag her down the street to a cool little tapas bar “for one more” as that ended up being another delightful “discovery” for me. Anyhow, it was great meeting them after knowing them on Twitter for so long, and now I have two more lovely reasons to visit Málaga.

So it ended up being quite a wonderful Thursday. How was yours?

málaga afternoon

19 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by in 20th anniversary, Malaga, tapas, travel, trips

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Walking back from lunch this afternoon I saw this…

Been having a great time in Málaga, but it suddenly seems too short, that there is too much I want to see and do in too little time. I am already thinking of another time I might be able to come back for a whole week and spend at least some of that time doing nothing at all. It would be great to just spend a couple of days hanging out in the apartment, walking on the beach, and making snacky meals at home. But I am very happy and grateful for these few days this week. If you want to see what I’ve been up to there are photo tweets up on both @azaharSevilla and @SevillaTapas.

What have you guys been up to?

new neighbours!

30 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in friends, tapas, twitter

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Today I got to meet more Twitter friends in person – Mark (@inkjockey) and his wife Jo (@missbishopsgate). They were in town celebrating their wedding anniversary and we decided to get together for a drink and a tapita this afternoon before they went home to Estepa. Well, that’s one of their homes, the other is London. And as Estepa is just an hour’s drive from here they are pretty much neighbours. Another cool thing I found out today is that Mark has co-authored a murder mystery called Final de Partido en Córdoba… yes, set in Córdoba! You know, that place I just visited. Anyhow, we had a lovely time and hope to get together next time they come down to their Spanish home. I love Twitter. 🙂

carmona

25 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by in 20th anniversary, friends, spain, tapas, travel, trips

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[click on collage to enlarge]

A few pics from an impromptu day trip to Carmona with Peter (aka Seville Concierge) and Markus (my friend who runs veoapartment.com). We left Sevilla around 11.30 and got to Carmona about half an hour later. Part of the motive for this trip was so Peter could do some research for his new biz, and both Markus and I will also be able to use some of the images and info collected today. But mostly it was just a lovely day out. Well, except for the bit where Peter got us lost and the other bit when the second tapas bar on my list ended up being closed, but otherwise it was lots of fun. We visited the old fortress, stopped in at the market, tried tapas at two places, walked A LOT through charming streets of whitewashed houses and beautiful old churches and palaces, and then finished off having cake, coffee & cava at the splendid Parador Hotel, a restored 14th century Moorish citadel.

I’ll be doing more of a more detailed write up about Carmona on the azahar Sevilla blog.

What did you do today?

el aljarafe

20 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by in 20th anniversary, food & drink, sevilla, spain, summer, tapas, trips

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El Aljarafe is Arabic for “knoll”, and is the name for the cluster of villages dotting the hills just outside Sevilla. I rarely venture out there other than to go to IKEA (in Castilleja de la Cuesta), mostly because it’s a pain to get to by bus. It would actually be fun to do a day trip to some of the little villages out there some time if I can convince someone with a car to do this with me. But I digress…

I’ve only been to Salteras once, about 12 years ago, when I was invited to a special lunch at one of the “parrilla” restaurants there. About thirty years ago the first one – La Bodega – opened in Salteras and was such a great success that soon other places started copying its “formula” of offering a simple menu based on BBQ grilled meats served with “papas arrugás” and “mojo picón”. These are small potatoes boiled in a small amount of very salty water leaving the skins wrinkled and sparkling with salt, which are then dipped in a spicy Canarian sauce. Soon Salteras was full of these establishments and became THE place to go for fabulous meat & potato meals. Since then the menus have become more extensive while the number of restaurants has diminished. Now there are about five left and yesterday I decided to go out there and try one out.

After a bit of online research I chose La Resolana because I liked the look of their website and I especially liked that they had a “tapas corner”, which meant that Peter and I could try more dishes. So we trekked down to the bus station just in time to catch the 1pm to Salteras and when the bus driver pulled out of the station and put on some rock-a-billy music it started to feel like a proper Road Trip. We got held up for awhile in a village just outside of Camas when the main road became blocked by a funeral procession. I’d never seen this before and got one of those odd “I’m living in Spain” moments as I watched a crowd of at least fifty people walking slowly behind a hearse, with half a dozen pallbearers in the lead. It was a sad and beautiful sight.

If you go to Salteras from Sevilla by car it would take you about ten minutes. The bus takes about 25 minutes (or 35 with funeral) and we stopped in places I didn’t even know existed. Luckily we had been told which stop in Salteras to get off at, which ended up being just a few minutes walk to La Resolana. And well, we had a wonderful lunch. As it was a hot afternoon in August the place was pretty quiet, though I’m told it’s always packed out during the rest of the year. I can see why. The service was great, the food excellent, and at one point when a Twitter friend asked me exactly which part of the pig “pluma” comes from (yes, I tweeted the whole lunch) one of the chefs brought me out a book showing me the different pork cuts. After that we got some boozy sorbets on the house and I got to take photos of everyone for Sevilla Tapas. If you want to see all the great stuff we had to eat then have a look here:
La Resolana

It was only after I got home that I realised this had actually been another of my 20th anniversary day trip! And I’m now keen to explore El Aljarafe a bit more. If I can find someone to take me…

[also posted on the azahar sevilla blog]