20 Friday Oct 2023
Posted in gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla
It’s International Chefs Day! 👩🏻🍳👨🏻🍳 And so here are some fabulous #Sevilla chefs, many of whom I am happy to also count as friends, who have made my life delicious over the years. Today a chef asked me why there isn’t also a day for cooks, and so let’s include them too. A chef, indeed any bar or restaurant, is only as good as its team. Thanks for all your hard work everyone!
19 Thursday Oct 2023
At last!!! l finally got to meet Ruben @sherrynotes with his friend Joeri @thewhiskyjury at La Azotea when they passed through town this evening. I’ve “known” Ruben for years online due to our mutual love of sherry – he is a fellow Sherry Educator, as well as the author an amazing sherry blog – so it was a real treat to meet up and have a chat in person. Thanks for a lovely evening guys! 😘
18 Wednesday Oct 2023
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars
These two! 💛 Susie & James first came out on a tapas tour with me in November 2016, and were back in town for a quick visit so we met up to reconnect and reminisce. Fabulous afternoon out at Bodeguita Romero and Salmedina. Now that they are (mostly) living in Portugal perhaps I’ll see them more often?
17 Tuesday Oct 2023
I mean, it was gaaaahh and aaarrghh and loads of swear words too. Yesterday morning I bent over to look at something on the floor and suddenly lightning bolts of pain shot through my lower back. I mean, seriously? AGAIN?? My back just fucked me over last May and I don’t usually get a serious back incident like this more than maybe once a year. But of course it’s like how my right knee is now hurting more than the recently MRI’d left knee… all that shit is connected. And even though I’m being careful with my posture while walking, and using my new bastón for support, it seems the various fucked up parts of my body are getting even more out of whack by compensating for each other on a daily basis. And so… now what?
Well I guess I have to go back to my GP and have her refer me to an orthopaedic doctor to see what the next step is after the MRI. Will I need surgery? Injections? Physiotherapy? I don’t know. But it feels like everything is falling apart and there’s just pain all over the place now. I have a blood test on Friday morning so I will also see about making a GP appointment then and – I hope – also book my Covid and Flu booster jabs for next week. Phew!
16 Monday Oct 2023
Posted in welcome
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Eight years ago today I became a Certified Sherry Educator. Since then I have been spreading the sherry gospel far and wide via my Sherry & Tapas Tours and Sherry Tastings and, well, basically anytime anyone wants to listen (and taste). So even on my tapas tours that aren’t specifically focused on sherry, somehow I always manage to slip in a glass or two and some background info. Because while almost everyone has heard of sherry, very few actually know much about it.
It’s been a long and delicious journey since first falling down the “sherry rabbit hole” one day in May 2013 when I asked Rafa, my favourite barman at Las Teresas, for a sherry to pair with my tapa and he hauled out a bottle of VORS Palo Cortado by Bodegas Tradición from behind the bar and said… “have you tried this???”… and then my life changed. Because I had no idea that sherry could be THAT and from that moment on I vowed to find out more about this amazing wine.
That summer I went to the three towns in the Triangle (Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, El Puerto de Santa María) and visited as many bodegas as I could, I lost count after fifteen. And omg, the welcome I received was amazing. When I got in touch and said I wanted to expand my Sevilla Tapas Tours to include a Sherry & Tapas Tour people were so generous and helpful. I found myself invited on private tours with the owners of small boutique wineries as well as being given the VIP treatment at the larger producers.
Because this is the thing. The sherry community is like a family and I think remains so even these days, even after last year’s expansion of the “Triangle” to include six more sherry making towns. What still exists is the passion and pride in what they are producing, sometimes going back many generations. And even now, with the expansion and with younger producers coming up with their own take on what sherry used to be, and introducing still wines from the same grapes that are totally terroir driven. It’s really an exciting time right now and I can’t wait to see what is going to happen next.
casa azahar 