Tag Archives: seville

oscar would be so proud…

13 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by in food & drink, internet, social media, twitter

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Went out for lunch at Eslava today with a friend of mine (who shall remain anonymous) and found out that another Sevilla food blogger has been going around spreading nasty – and totally untrue! – rumours about me.

Looks like I have arrived!  🙂

But I am vindicated not only because what he’s saying is false. I have a friend here who had the same problems with him a while back (stealing photos, sending rude private FB messages) and so he can say what he likes. In fact, I actually hope he says these things to people who know me well so that it all blows up in his face.

Karma, baby!

 

a tough job…

11 Friday Mar 2011

Posted by in food & drink, restaurants, sevilla, work

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Last Monday I was invited to the opening of Maccheroni & Co – the sister restaurant of L’Oca Giuliva, which is my favourite Italian place and just across the street from where I used to live. I’ll never forget how owner and friend Frabrizia (Bizzy) kept me well-stocked in gourmet pizzas while I was on chemo. One of the few foods I could keep down on bad days.

I haven’t been around my old neighbourhood much since I moved, mostly due to the sprained ankle, and so I was keen to see what Bizzy & Franco had done with their new location. Well, I had a great time at the opening, though it was pretty packed out and obviously not the time to check out the food, so Bizzy told me to come back for a meal, which I did today. Just a nice light lunch – Nog and I shared a salad and then a pasta dish – but it was very satisfying, as well as on the house! And tomorrow I’ll write it up with photos on Sevilla Tapas. Bizzy also said I have to have lunch with her next week at their third location in Triana. Well, you know, somebody has to do it…

gambones

06 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by in food & drink, home, sevilla

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One of the great things about living in my new barrio is that I come across great deals like this at the local supermarket – gambones (giant prawns) for just 11€ a kilo. How could I pass them up? But what to do with them? Well, after a bit of thought about a light low-carb meal I went for the easy option – a killer prawn, chorizo & spinach risotto. Whatever.

What would you have done with them?

I also got a couple of big fat tuna steaks for next to nothing that I’m now off to grill with a bit of lemon and garlic. Totally loving my new neighbourhood…

central heating!

03 Thursday Feb 2011

Posted by in home, sevilla, weather

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OMG… this little tiny box on my wall is about to change my life. I haven’t had central heating since I lived in Bristol (1990-1992) and today I finally bit the bullet and turned the thing on. I’ve been wanting to save money but we’re going through a cold snap here, and I decided I have enough to deal with having a painful sprained ankle without also sitting here shivering away as I try to get some work done. So hang the expense! At least for today.

I’d much rather have this kind of aircon/heating system, with just one unit in the livingroom and another upstairs, but oh well. I am hoping that the double-glazed windows in the livingroom and my bedroom will help conserve heat (and cold air in summer). And anyhow, if the heat was shut off upstairs it would probably just go up the stairwell, so there is nothing for it but to heat the entire apartment. I was talking about this to Agustín last night (who has the wall unit system) and he said that if I set my thermostat to a low but comfortable temperature it should be cheaper to run it all day than to keep turning it off and on again. Given that it’s taken an hour for the temp here to go from 14º to 18º  he could have a point.  Once the place reaches 20º it’ll take less energy to maintain the heat than to turn it off and start from scratch again. I’m actually already feeling more comfortable at 18º but I guess it’ll be a question of trying out various combinations of space heaters and the central heating to see which is more economical, but right now I’m very glad to have this option.

Though I recall my friend Paco telling me how he hates his central heating because in summer cockroaches come out of the vents (!!!!!). But I already have a plan for that. One apartment I looked at during the search also had central heating and I noticed they had attached plastic mesh screens over all the vent openings, which was all I had to see to walk away and not take the place. So here’s hoping this won’t be necessary. According to an engineer friend who works for the water company, each and every house in the old centre of Sevilla is stuffed full of roaches. He had a few horror stories of breaking open walls to get at the pipes… but apparently they usually stay where it’s dark and damp. We’ll see what happens here.

But it’s such a fabulous place. Every day it feels a little more like home. Wish I could walk though…

I love tapas interview

11 Tuesday Jan 2011

Posted by in sevilla, tapas, work

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It’s been quite a week for Sevilla Tapas! First I got a glowing Trip Advisor review from Tara and Christian, who’d been on my Christmas Day tour, and then a new website called Andalucia Direct surprised me by giving me a free listing.

And today the interview I did this past weekend with Rosana Domínguez (aka Holly Cocina) for I Love Tapas went live!

I’ve been given permission to post an English translation here, which you can read below. You can see the original Spanish version here:

Entrevista a Shawn Hennessey y sus tours de tapas Sevilla Tapas

Shawn Hennessey, compulsive blogger, Twitter addict (with 4 accounts) and long-time Foodie, is originally from Canada but never felt she truly belonged there and so moved to Spain (via Bristol England) in 1992, where she finally found her home. After a year in Salamanca she moved south to Sevilla and in April 2007 started the Sevilla Tapas blog. According to Shawn it all happened by accident while she was out for lunch with a friend on a lovely spring afternoon and it occured to her to take some photos not of just the square and the orange trees, but also of the food, which were then posted on her personal blog, casa az. The response was so positive that she started publishing regular “tapas posts”, which eventually led to a separate website for Sevilla Tapas. Aside from running several blogs, Shawn also writes for travel sites such as Slow Europe, Travel Intelligence and National Geographic, and has recently become the Seville Expert for Simonseeks.

Presently Shawn is working on several projects including her very popular tapas tours, working with local restaurants, managing their social media, and organising special Restaurant & Hotel English courses.

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