Tag Archives: friends

more birthday fun!

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by in birthdays, food & drink, friends, tapas

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 more birthday
Yeah, yeah … I know my birthday was over a month ago. But the thing is, when I had my birthday feast at Vineria San Telmo with Ang & Ryan @JetsLikeTaxis, Eduardo @differentspain and Peter @SevilleConcierge, my friend Pilar couldn’t make it due to health reasons. But now she is feeling better and so we arranged to meet up today and CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY again. 🙂

I’ve known Pili for years and she has been with me through thick and thin – in fact she once gave me a month back when I was too sick on chemo to work. Just because she could. Amazing, right? But Pilar also lives in Los Bermejales… way the fuck far away from the centre of Sevilla, where I live. So it’s always – let’s face it – a pain in the butt to have to go all the way out there. Also, Los Bermejales is not pretty. There’s almost no reason to ever go there except to visit Pilar. Well, almost. There are actually a few very good tapas bars out there. And today we hit up three of them! That hadn’t been the plan, but as we were at our second stop (which was actually kinda mediocre) a tweet from The KilomEATers came through saying we HAD to go to La Doma. And so we did. What a fabulous place. It specialises in MEAT but as Pilar can’t handle meat and cheese these days we opted for some very meaty grilled setas, which were stunning (Sled, you would have loved them). I haven’t put all our tapas in the photo collage, but you can see some of what we enjoyed (the anchovies were sublime). And you can also see my birthday present from Pili… a 30-year-old VORS cream sherry from Gonzalez Byass. OMG.

All in all, quite a fabulous Tuesday. Gonna lie down now…

meat!

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by in birthdays, food & drink, friends, restaurants, sevilla

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sahumo[click to enbiggen]

My friends Ang & Ryan (aka @JetsLikeTaxis) told me after my birthday feast with them, Peter and Eduardo that they also wanted to treat me to a birthday lunch sometime. I’d seen this new place called Sahumo that sounded intriguing, but it was a restaurant, not a tapas bar. “Never fear!” said A & R, saying they were also up for anything, and so off we went. “Sahumo” is the first person singular in Spanish for “to scent with smoke” and the place features a wood grill and oven. As well as a menu that largely features MEAT. After a lovely amuse-bouche of potato parmentier with smoked cod, we started off sensibly with some gorgeous wood-grilled assorted veggies. This was followed by another sensible choice – some beautifully grilled presa Ibérica with papas arrugá (wrinkles potatoes) and fabulous mojo pijón. But what to have next?

Well, the Galician beef caught my eye, as it’s probably the best beef in Europe, and I saw that it was priced by the kilo on the menu. So we ordered it but somewhere along the line I either missed hearing, or it just didn’t register, the waiter saying it would be a KILO of meat. Until it came. And holy fuck, there it was, an ENTIRE KILO OF MEAT. It was also pretty much bleeding all over the plate even though we’d ordered it “medium”. Luckily A & R were also happy about sending it back for a bit more time on the fire, and when it came back it was perfect and delicious. Still pink, with a gorgeous texture and smoky flavour… heaven. Seriously one of the best meals I’ve had in years. There will be a review up soon on Sevilla Tapas.

So that probably wraps up Birthday Celebrations for 2015. Well maybe… 😉

the kilomEATers

31 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in friends, sevilla, spain, travel

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kilomeaters

My friends Anna & Jorge (aka @thekilomeaters) were in town again this past week and came out one night on a @WeLoveTapasTour. It was great seeing them again and also getting their invaluable feedback about the tour (and the tapas!). We even visited one bar they didn’t know, so that was a bonus, and ended up having a nightcap until way too late at one of our favourite places. If you are looking for some fabulous food experiences in northern Spain get in touch with… The KilomEATers.

birthday cakes

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by in birthdays, food & drink, friends

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birthday cakes

Pink wouldn’t have been my candle colour of choice, but then I got sung Happy Birthday to in Portuguese and was given a complimentary bottle of cava, so what the hell. This was the end of a perfect birthday lunch, and I am now too stuffed to say any more but to thank my friends who joined me today. And also to the Vineria San Telmo for such a fabulous feast. It was all lovely. Off to lie down now… 🙂

birthday eve

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by in christmas, friends, holidays, Malaga, malaga getaway

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malaga christmas lunch friends (1)the usual suspects: Fred, Victor, Andrew & Arpy

It’s Birthday Eve! Plans have been made for fun stuff to do with Sevilla friends mañana. But today I thought I’d feature some of my Málaga friends, who also happen to be some of my favourite people in the whole world: Fred @fredshively, Victor @welovemalaga, Andrew @andrewaforbes and Arpy @andalucinda. This is a photo taken at our “official” Christmas Lunch.

Most of you probably know that a couple of weeks ago I arranged a last-minute Málaga Getaway, specifically so I could see the amazing “cathedral” Christmas lights in calle Larios with my own eyes. And of course to see my Málaga friends. I met up with Fred & Arpy, and Victor, on different occasions, and also met David @irlandesnmalaga for lunch one day with his lovely wife Kasha and baby Kira (officially the prettiest baby in the world!), which led to us meeting some new friends thanks to the fabulous Annie @anniebennett. After lunch we stopped by brand new Cafe Estraperlo @cafeestraperlo for “coffee” (really more drinks) and even ended up in one of José’s infamous Instagram selfies…

estraperloJosé, Mark, me, Kasha, baby Kira, David

But back to the Christmas Lunch. This took place my last afternoon in Málaga and came together all very last minute (for a change!) with Andrew, bless him, being able to make it after all (wouldn’t have been the same without him). The venue was Bar Nerva (that post needs updating!), a favourite family-run bar with delicious homestyle Andalucian cooking at its best. Here’s what we had for lunch. Nice touch was getting a frozen grape in each glass of wine to keep it chilled.

malaga christmas lunch food
Anyhow, during that lunch I sat back and watched these guys, all of them so smart and witty and charming and fun and lovely, and suddenly I had tears in my eyes thinking how lucky I was, especially as they had all come together that afternoon on my account. It was definitely a “George Baily moment” and I totally felt like the richest girl in town.

malaga christmas lunch friends (2)

Thanks guys. This was my best Christmas in a very long time.

Also… the next time anyone disses Twitter. I’ve included everyone’s Twitter handle here because that is where I met all these lovely lovely people.  xx