27 Saturday Dec 2014
Posted in christmas, food & drink, friends
Christmas day was extra jolly this year with the addition of “Christmas orphan” pals Angie, Ryan and Markus, who joined the Casa Az gang for a 12-hour Christmas lunch, which included lots of food, drink and even festive films. Thanks for coming guys – you really made my day!
18 Thursday Dec 2014
Almost exactly eight years ago (in January 2006) I spotted Azar sitting on the sofa in front of my flatmate Peter’s laptop and reached for my camera. Later that year the pic became my first internet avatar when I started this blog. Anyhow, on Instagram they have a thing called Throwback Thursday (TBT) and people post old photos of themselves, or past travels, etc. And I remembered this photo as it recently came up on my friend Sledpress’s blog. Turns out it’s not only special because it features the love of my life, but also because it brought Sled over to casa az to check out this woman who had a black cat as an avatar, and thus our friendship began. Thanks Azar, you magical darling boy.
08 Monday Dec 2014
photos by Sledpress
They say it’s better to give than to receive, and all I can say about that is that I had so much fun putting this together, frustrating glitches notwithstanding, especially as several people ended up ensuring a very happy ending. Some background…
Ever since my Sherry Epiphany on the first World Sherry Day I’ve become intent (obsessed?) about sharing the sherry love in the way I discovered that day was really the best way to learn about sherry… poco á poco, with friends and with a few tapas. And I know that my friend Kate (sledpress) has been intrigued by my now popular Introduction to Sherry tours and also by my many tweets and blog posts about sherry events I end up at and the bodegas that I visit. So when I realised it was going to be Kate’s big 6-Oh birthday in November I decided to send her a selection of my favourites, one bottle for each decade, to begin her sherry education. Which turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought it would be.
I contacted some of my favourite bodegas, finally settling on the one (which shall remain nameless) that promised me the full range I wanted with no problem of the delivery being made in time for the big day. Well, the big day came and went. I had been constantly checking up on this and each time was told that the order was being processed and there was nothing to worry about. Until the umpteenth email informed me that the order hadn’t actually been placed in the States and instead I would have to send the six bottles from Spain with a shipping cost of 120 euros. WTF? Meanwhile, I had been back in touch with other bodegas and two of them came through big time, giving me the names of their distributors near Kate. BUT, then it turned out that neither had the full range I wanted to send, and one was actually a wholesaler so it didn’t seem like this was going to work out after all as I obviously wasn’t going to buy a case of each sherry. And then a wonderful thing happened. The wholesaler and retail outlet got together and, with their help, this is what Kate received just two days later…
Bodegas Lustau: Manzanilla Papirusa, Palo Cortado Península, Pedro Ximénez San Emilio
Bodegas Gutiérrez Colosia: Fino, Amontillado and Oloroso
These two bodegas couldn’t be more different. Lustau is one of the largest wineries in the sherry triangle, comprising several bodegas in Jerez and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Gutiérrez Colosia is family run – and I mean run by the four family members and a couple of employees – in El Puerto de Santa María (remember the video?). But when I got in touch with the people I know at both bodegas they were quick to respond and help me out, as were their fabulous distributors, Elite Wines and UnwinedVA. Special thanks goes to Vanessa at Unwined who – countless emails later – patiently put all this together is that cute green bottle carrier and got it over to Kate’s in time for the weekend. Mil gracias a todos! And now it’s time for me to start educating Kate. This is going to be fun! 🙂
If you want to know more about the wonderful world of sherry, follow me on Twitter @SevillaTapas and also on my AzaharTravels and AzaharSevilla blogs. You know you want to…
24 Monday Nov 2014
Okay, hands up! How many of you remember my sister Susan? She was such a very important part of my life a few years ago, she was my best friend, the sister I chose, she was my family. Meanwhile, lots of things happened. I got sick with cancer and man, did Susan come through big time! To say she saved my life is no exaggeration. And then stuff in her life went sideways. Long story short, she chose to go back home to the U.S. and I tried to help her like she’d helped me. But there were misunderstandings and Susan, under a lot of pressure, made her move and we lost touch for awhile.
Fast forward to 2014. Susan and me, back chatting on Skype, back to feeling good together. And then suddenly she was back in Sevilla! With her beautiful, chatty, smart and sassy daughter Isabel (aka La Sardina) and her partner Matt.
It was such a great weekend. To be back with my sister again. To get to know Isabel again as a young force to be reckoned with. And to finally meet Matt, who received the “az seal of approval”. I mean, does this look like a happy family or what? The energy between them was so great. And I hope to stay a part of the family now, despite the distance. Tía Az. 🙂
10 Monday Nov 2014
casa azahar 