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Category Archives: welcome

london getaway 2017 | day 1

31 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by azahar in food & drink, getaways, london, travel, trips, welcome

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getaways, london, london getaway, travel

This most recent London Getaway came about when I was invited to be a judge at the World Sherry Awards, being held on April 4th. At first I was going to just go for a couple of nights and stay with Jo & Mark, but then it turned out that they were going to be away and, like on a couple of other occasions, I would have their lovely apartment to myself. So then I asked if it would be okay to stay a few extra days and have Peter come along, and it turned out that was fine.

There were two reasons for asking Peter along. One was that he hadn’t been back to London in something like 30 years, and I knew he would love seeing the city again. But also, when I was there last summer I was plagued by my old nemesis Panic Attack, which actually surprised me as I hadn’t been bothered by them since the Cancer Thing. I don’t know why they started happening again, but in the end they became quite debilitating, so having a companion with me this trip seemed like a good idea. And it was!

Anyhow, after saying goodbye to sandal weather at Sevilla airport we arrived in chilly London in time to get the express train to Liverpool Street Station, then an Uber to the Wapping apartment, and then make it over to local wine bar Victualler before it closed. It was a nice way to start off the trip, with a light snack and a glass of wine, and a bit of a walk, before heading back “home”.

the lovely Wapping apartment

vinos de españa 2017

30 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by azahar in sevilla, sherry, welcome, wine, work

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sevilla, sherry, vinos de espana

vinos espana

Last year I attended the first edition of Vinos de España – Una Pasión that was held in Sevilla and had a lovely time. I mean really, who can resist the prospect of being able to “visit” over 45 bodegas in one day? This time I did my best to branch out and try some new stuff, starting off with white wines (before hitting the reds), and was pleasantly surprised by wines from different regions that I wasn’t familiar with. THEN I bumped into Alex, another sherry educator, and after that we kind of gravitated to the sherry room and got stuck in there. Ah well… it was a wonderful afternoon. And as always great meeting up with sherry friends.

bacalao galore!

29 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by azahar in food & drink, gastronomy, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars, welcome

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el bacalao, sevilla, tapas

bacalao galore
I usually cringe when someone refers to me as an “influencer”, but it this case the reference was in an invitation to El Bacalao, to try their new menu in their freshly renovated location in Plaza Ponce de León. So well, okay then. I decided that you can call me an influencer if it means attending a lovely event such as this, and off I went with Peter, where we joined a dozen or so other influencers for lunch.

The meal was served in a dining room in the back of the restaurant, and took the form of a tasting of thirteen menu items – four starters, seven main courses and two desserts, with either manzanilla sherry or white wine (even in small portions that’s a lot of food, but one has to be thorough).

As one might expect given the name of the restaurant, bacalao (salt cod) figured prominently in the menu, from the signature bacalao al ajo confitado, through pavias and croquetas to an excellent tartare. Other personal favourites included a lovely fresh spinach salad and the milhojas de cola de toro (oxtail). Many thanks to everyone at El Bacalao for making it such an enjoyable afternoon. I’ll be updating this on my Sevilla Tapas site asap so look for more pics there.

eating cádiz

27 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by azahar in gastronomy, getaways, travel, trips, welcome

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cadiz, cadiz getaway, gastronomy, getaways, tapas, travel

eating-cadizFrom new discoveries (thanks to Pilar & Antonio) to revisiting old favourites, as you can see, it was a very FULL three days. But my favourite foodie moment was meeting Paco, who’s been running the Mini Bar in Cádiz for 45 years. It’s impossible to spend money here, the seafood is fast, fab and fresh, with friendly service and nice wines too.

mini-barNew reviews and updates will (hopefully) be up on Azahar Tapas soon.

cádiz sights – the highs and lows

25 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by azahar in andalucia, getaways, spain, travel, trips, welcome

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Andalucia, cadiz, cadiz getaway, spain, travel

cadiz-heights-1Looking up at the Cathedral from the square. From being either high above the city to being on the beach at low tide, I went from giddy to almost giddier, but it was all very enjoyable, and I got LOTS of extra FitBit steps in  😉cadiz-heights-3Looking out from the clock tower – very windy (eek!)

cadiz-heights-2Looking down from Tavira Tower
cadiz-lows-1Looking out at the sparkly sea from La Caleta beachcadiz-lows-2Looking at the sea from the San Sebastián Castle.

cadiz-lows-3

You can’t see them but there were some (crazy) people out there, walking along the bits of land still above water at low tide, on a very blustery day.cadiz-lows-4

View from La Caleta beach at low tide

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