19 Friday Oct 2018
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla, social media, tapas, tapas bars, twitter, welcome
I have been Twitter pals with @GreatOil (Callum & Anne-Marie) for many years and so it was great to finally meet up in person. We went for lunch at La Azotea and I was given a bottle of their premium evoo, which we sampled with some lovely sourdough bread. It’s unfiltered evoo (40% Picudo 60% Hojiblanca) and has quite a nice peppery kick to it. Very nice.
Lunch was great too!
24 Friday Feb 2017
Posted in food & drink, friends, sevilla
So remember when I serendipitously met Alexis last week? Well, before we parted company we made a plan to get together and try out Ana’s tasting space upstairs at Lama La Uva, along with Ania and Delia. I’d been to a couple of olive oil tastings before, but I felt I learned a lot more at this one. Alexis is a natural teacher, and her passion for all things olive oil is infectious. Even Delia, born and raised in Spain, had no idea about some of the aspects of the whole olive oil biz here. I even learned a few “tasting tricks” that I think will also help me with tasting sherries. A wonderful experience.
15 Wednesday Feb 2017
Love it when stuff like this happens. I went out late morning to run some errands, and a bit of shopping at the market for a dinner party with friends, and then I stopped off at Lama La Uva (my favourite new wine shop) to pick up some wine. There was a woman there talking with shop owner Ana Linares and so I politely waited my turn and perused the shelves… and then I realized this woman had a couple of olive oil bottles out on the counter, as well as the tell-tale dark blue olive tasting glasses… it could only be an OLIVE OIL TASTING.
So of course I butted in and joined the conversation, and I could tell that this other woman was NOT Spanish. And then the penny dropped and I said… YOU’RE ALEXIS!
This mystery olive oil woman, founder of The Olive Oil Workshop, has been on my radar for AGES, and I’d been meaning to get in touch and plan to meet up sometime. But now I’m glad that never happened. Because meeting Alexis exactly how we met was… well, perfect.
What was supposed to be a quick wine purchase segued into an hour long chat including cheese, olive oil and wine… and meeting a new friend. Both Alexis and I are keen to work with the fabulous Ana, and maybe even with each other! The one true thing is… get three dynamic women together over a glass of wine, all talking about possibilities… I reckon only amazing things will come of this. Also, it was fun.
19 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in food & drink, restaurants, sevilla
[click on image to enlarge]
So remember when I did that ice cream tasting, which included some unusual flavours like vanilla olive oil, gazpacho topped with balsamic vinegar and chocolate with hot chilis? Well this evening I was invited to a special olive oil tasting at Flores Jamones & Vinos. It was weird and wonderful and featured a gourmet brand of olive-oil based products called Uhmm…!
It was also very tasty!
27 Sunday Mar 2011
Posted in culture, food & drink, friends, photos, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas, wine, work
[click to enlarge]
One of the reasons I occasionally wish I had a car (and a valid driving licence) is to take day trips to the many little villages near Sevilla. So I was delighted the other day when my Twitter buddy Eduardo got in touch to ask if I wanted to go with him and his girlfriend Mercedes to an olive oil & wine tasting in El Viso del Alcor. The tasting was held at the magnificent Basilippo hacienda in the countryside amongst their olive groves, and the snacks we enjoyed during the event were catered by Más Que Tapas. I was keen to go not only to learn more about olive oil (and, as it turned out, caviar!) but also to meet Aurore and Eduardo, who run Más Que Tapas, as they have often asked me to come out and see their place.
After a presentation on the different types of olives oils (we sampled three) inside the museum, we went out to the gardens to sample five different wines, paired with delicious snacks prepared with the olive oils we had just tasted. But first we were in for a special treat – some local caviar and sparkling wine. We had a great time and I got to meet some new people, as well as a small pregnant cat which I ended up feeding chunks of bread dipped in my carrillada gravy. By the time the tasting finished we were informed that Más Que Tapas was offering a special “after hours” lunch menu (it was way past lunch time) and so we made our way over for something a bit more substantial.
[only click to enlarge if you’re not hungry]
In the end we didn’t go for the fixed menu and just (just!) ordered three dishes to share. Above you can see owners Eduardo & Aurore in the top corner, and at the bottom that’s Aurore again with Eduardo & Mercedes. In between some fabulous food: risotto with mushrooms, cashews & raisins, a burger of goat cheese, a slice of apple and foie, and some grilled scallops and chorizo on puff pastry with carrot purée. As if that weren’t enough we were given a couple of hot desserts to sample and I found myself wondering how on earth I was going to manage to eat anything on my tapas tour that evening…
It was a fabulous day in the country with lovely people. We got back to Sevilla around 6.30 and so later I wasn’t too concerned to discover that my clients were delayed getting into town from Lisbon which meant the tapas tour was rescheduled for today. In fact, I have to leave in a few minutes – see ya!
casa azahar 