04 Saturday Aug 2018
Posted in food & drink, sevilla, tapas, tapas bars
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Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. 😉 Actually this was more like “brunch beer” as it was after 12.00. I haven’t yet graduated to having brandy at 9 am, think you have to be at least 85 to do that.
18 Wednesday Jul 2018
Posted in food & drink, friends, getaways, tapas, tapas bars, travel, trips
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John, Peter & Finn
Unlike our first two action packed days in Granada, our final day there was entirely unplanned, other than we wanted to go back to a tapas bar that we had always loved, Taberna Gamboa. Which we did, after a nice pre-lunch walk down from the Alhambra, but we were sadly disappointed. The food wasn’t as good as we remembered and the service was worse. Gayle told us it had recently changed hands, so perhaps that’s the reason. Oh well.
Our friend John and his nephew Finn joined us for lunch, finishing with a penúltima at Alameda. In fact, Alameda was our penúltima stop each of the three days we were in Granada – somehow we never got around to actually having a meal there. But I have to say that the complimentary tapas there were some of the best we had.
Peter and I left Granada at the same time but in different directions. I headed to Málaga to continue my little holiday, and he returned to Sevilla to cat and house sit. It was a really good visit and, thanks to Peter’s planning, we got to do a few things there we had never done before.
disappointing food at Taberna Gamboa
excellent complimentary tapas at Restaurante Alameda
14 Saturday Jul 2018
Posted in sevilla, tapas, tapas bars
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Most tapas bars open at 1 pm for lunch service, though some also open for breakfast, with a short break between tostadas and tapas. But Casa Morales is a bit different, opening each day at 12 o’clock. This is always my favourite time to go, usually for a quick beer and a tortilla, which I like to think of as “brunch”. 😉
It’s also an interesting time because there are a few groups of regulars that come in between 12-1.00 for a beer, a snack or two, and a chinwag. Meanwhile the bar staff are still setting up, the kitchen is doing final prep stuff, so it’s both active and quiet at the same time. These gentlemen are some of the 12-1.00 regulars and I love them. They can get quite boisterous at times, and I find myself wondering about their lives, what they are doing when they’re not here. The spell is broken a bit before 1 pm when the first round of tourists show up (still too early for Sevillanos to come out for lunch). By then it’s also time for me to move on and get on with my morning.
13 Friday Jul 2018
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla, sherry, tapas, tapas bars
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abc sevilla, cañabota, gastronomika, gastronomy, la azotea, madrid fusion, sevilla, tourism, tradevo
On Thursday (July 12) I was fortunate enough to be one of the invitees to the Hi Southern Tourism Meeting session on Tourism and Gastronomy (quite an honour, as I was, as far as I know, the only non-Spanish person present), a recognition of the growing importance of food tourism to both these sectors.
The venue was in what is now the Carriage Museum (since 1999), which was built during the 16-17th centuries as a Carmelite convent, and later served as the seat of the Spanish-Cuban Institute of History. Once a landmark, it was overshadowed by the apartment blocks of Los Remedios in the 1940s.
The event was hosted by local newspaper, the ABC, and introductions were made by editor Javier Rubio. The first presentation was given by Marcos Tarancón, of the Fundación Cruzcampo, showing their project to convert the old Cruzcampo factory in Nervión into a new tourist attraction for the city with cafés, restaurants and a large open garden space. The second was by Irene de Castro for Gonzalez Byass and the V Tio Pepe Festival, coming up in August at their bodega in Jerez.
This was followed by two round table discussions chaired by Isabel Aguilar of GURME.es, the first featuring local restauranteurs Juanlu Dorado (Cañabota), Juan Gómez (La Azotea), and Gonzalo Jurado (Tradevo) on the challenges of operating in a city with large numbers of tourists, and the second with Benjamin Lana of Madrid Fusión and Iñigo Iribarnegaray of San Sebastián Gastronómika, two cities that have become well known for food tourism.
Afterwards there was an opportunity to meet some of the participants, and other friends in the hospitality industry, over snacks and coffee.
Thanks as always to ABC Sevilla and sponsors of the event (CaixaBank, City Expert, CitySightseeing, Fundación Cruzcampo, MA Abogados) for a useful and interesting morning.
Also posted on Azahar Sevilla
07 Saturday Jul 2018
Posted in andalucia, sevilla, tapas, tapas tours
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Heading home after my evening tapas tours I get to see stuff like this.
Love Sevilla. Love my life here.
casa azahar 