Always in my heart, always missed… 🐈 🧡 🐾
caturday january 11th 2024
11 Saturday Jan 2025
Posted in casa azahar, cats, caturday, home
beirutina birthday
10 Friday Jan 2025
Posted in birthdays, bitesize sevilla, friends, gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla, spain
My third (and final) birthday lunch. Well, you never know, but at least this is the last one during Birthday Week. I need to take some time off celebrating to get some work done on Bitesize Sevilla, which has turned into quite a time-consuming project (with a steep learning curve!). But I love doing it and of course the hope is that it will eventually start becoming a new source of income (I actually have three paid subscribers now!!!).
Anyhow, I had mentioned Beirutina as one of my top new openings for 2024 (both here and on the Bitesize Substack) and so Fourat got in touch to thank me and said she’d love me to come over and try some of their new dishes. Great! I’ve known Fourat for about fifteen years and we are neighbours as well as good friends. I was thrilled when she opened her little Lebanese brunch-lunch spot just three months ago, literally a stones throw from my house (I can see it from my balcony).
We got there early to find a little window table reserved for us and, well, it was fabulous. Although I’ve been here several times now this was the first time I got to try both Lebanese beer and wine and I loved them both. Fourat knows I’m not keen on sweets so for a birthday treat at the end of our meal she brought us a couple of her nutty Lebanese biscuits (also new on the menu) one with pistachio and orange, the other with peanuts, with a small bag of them to take home as well.
We had…
- Almaza pilsener 🍺
- Muhammara
- Ksara Blanc de Blancs 🥂
- Fatté Berenjena (aubergine)
- Shawerma (marinated beef)
- Lebanese cookies: pistachio and peanut
1992
09 Thursday Jan 2025
Posted in sevilla, television
This could have… should have… been better. Directed by award-winning director Alex de la Iglesia and shot mostly in Madrid and Sevilla, with a very good cast, this slow-burn serial killer mystery series ran into trouble in the first episode. Well, it did for every Sevillano watching. The first major faux-pas was when the main characters emerge from the Santa Justa train station and there’s a tourist horse carriage parked outside. Like, wtf? Has never happened ever. Later on it shows a pre-Semana Santa costalero practice session, where 30 burly guys carry the “paso” frame (parihuela) through the streets late at night, loaded down with bricks and sandbags to replicate the weight of the sacred images that will be placed on top during the processions. Well they got that bit right, except they were accompanied by a band and a parade of nazarenos (penitents) in full gear, long tunics and pointy hats… another thing that has never happened ever. When the costaleros practice at best they have a boom box on top of the bare bones parihuela playing a few marches. These were the most glaring (and insulting) misrepresentations, but it did feel like de la Iglesia has a very narrow-minded opinion of Sevilla and sevillanos and decided to go with straight up caricatures.
This may have been saved by a gripping story but it actually started fizzling out early on. I finished the series just because I love watching Sevilla on film, and it wasn’t awful. Just a bit disappointing.
lunch with reyes
08 Wednesday Jan 2025
Posted in birthdays, food & drink, friends, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas bars
It’s always a great time with Reyes. It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to meet up sometime during Birthday Week so today we met at her iconic bar Casa Morales, founded by her great grandfather in 1850. We started things off with a glass of Codorníu rosé cava and a bit of exquisite jamón Ibérico de Bellota from renowned producers Sierra Mayor before heading out to our lunch destination.
This was to be La Barra de Inchausti just around the corner. Another family-owned spot, now run by siblings Isidro, Concha and Jorge Inchausti. MORE fish and seafood and that was totally fine by me. We got there early enough to get “my” table next to the window and it was perfect. Afterwards Reyes suggested we have a penúltima at Morales as that was also on my way home. So a little more cava rosé, a bit more jamón and I think I got home from lunch about 8.00 pm. One more birthday lunch planned this week. Stay tuned!
We had…
- Codorníu Ars Collecta Blanc de Noirs Cava 🥂
- Tortillita de camarones
- Bodegas Santa Marta Godello Viñaredo 🥂
- Albóndigas de choco
- Alubias with prawns
- Breaded monkfish liver
- Garlicky grilled monkfish
- Torelló Special Edition Costa Brava Corpinnat 🥂
birthday 2025!
07 Tuesday Jan 2025
Posted in birthdays, friends, restaurants, sevilla
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As everyone who knows me knows… I love birthdays! This Birthday Week started off with a bang by returning to the fabulous Jaylu Restaurante in Triana. My first ever visit there was on my birthday two years ago… it’s not an every day kind of place. Since that visit I’ve been back a couple of times and discovered the joy of sitting at the bar there rather than the posh dining room. I mean, same eye-watering prices, but a much more casual and friendly experience. So this time I called ahead and Ana said she would have my usual spot at the end of the bar ready for me.
Peter very generously invited me out, as on the first visit, but this was his first time at the prized bar location and he agreed it was a lot more fun. Fabulous food, amazing wines and a chupito of orujo blanco to finish us off. There’s more to say about this but I’m playing blog post catch up so will either write more here or do a long Jaylu birthday post on my Substack. Have I mentioned I have a new Substack?
We had…
- Raventós i Blanc Brut Cava
- Breaded king prawns
- Ossian Verdejo
- Morillo de bacalao
- Grilled tuna belly with garlic sauce
- Zamorano cheese
- Orujo blanco
There’s more coming up this week, stay tuned…
casa azahar 