Tag Archives: tapas

san lorenzo 2018

10 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in culture, sevilla, sherry, spain, tapas, tapas bars, weird, wine

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Every year Ramón and Mari Carmen of the Antigua Abacería de San Lorenzo host their San Lorenzo day celebration on August 10th, in honour of the patron saint of cooks and chefs, and namesake of both their barrio and bar. The first time I attended this event was five years ago and I’ve gone every year since then.

The martyr San Lorenzo was put to a slow and painful death on top of a large gridiron with live coals beneath it and, the legend concludes that, after enduring the pain for a very long time he made his famous cheerful remark, “I’m well done. Turn me over!”. And so, as always, different varieties of grilled flesh were on offer during the day at the Abacería, along with a typical white wine punch from Huelva called ponche alosnero. We also got to try cured pork tongue and tiny nécora crabs. Good times.

john in granada

18 Wednesday Jul 2018

Posted by in food & drink, friends, getaways, tapas, tapas bars, travel, trips

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John, Peter & Finn

Unlike our first two action packed days in Granada, our final day there was entirely unplanned, other than we wanted to go back to a tapas bar that we had always loved, Taberna Gamboa. Which we did, after a nice pre-lunch walk down from the Alhambra, but we were sadly disappointed. The food wasn’t as good as we remembered and the service was worse. Gayle told us it had recently changed hands, so perhaps that’s the reason. Oh well.

Our friend John and his nephew Finn joined us for lunch, finishing with a penúltima at Alameda. In fact, Alameda was our penúltima stop each of the three days we were in Granada – somehow we never got around to actually having a meal there. But I have to say that the complimentary tapas there were some of the best we had.

Peter and I left Granada at the same time but in different directions. I headed to Málaga to continue my little holiday, and he returned to Sevilla to cat and house sit. It was a really good visit and, thanks to Peter’s planning, we got to do a few things there we had never done before.

disappointing food at Taberna Gamboa

excellent complimentary tapas at Restaurante Alameda

with gayle in granada

17 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in welcome

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E3907C28-E25C-4BFA-84CC-44AE10E9FB15Back in February I finally met Gayle from @GranadaTapasTours in person when she visited Sevilla with her family. So it was great to meet up again on her home turf last night and be taken out on a private tapas tour.

We stopped in at four fabulous bars that I’d never been to before, and each one was unique (and delicious). Of course Gayle personally knew the owners and told us the history of each bar and also some interesting anecdotes and info about Granada. Thanks for such a fun evening Gayle!

the usual suspects

14 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by in sevilla, tapas, tapas bars

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Most tapas bars open at 1 pm for lunch service, though some also open for breakfast, with a short break between tostadas and tapas. But Casa Morales is a bit different, opening each day at 12 o’clock. This is always my favourite time to go, usually for a quick beer and a tortilla, which I like to think of as “brunch”. 😉

It’s also an interesting time because there are a few groups of regulars that come in between 12-1.00 for a beer, a snack or two, and a chinwag. Meanwhile the bar staff are still setting up, the kitchen is doing final prep stuff, so it’s both active and quiet at the same time. These gentlemen are some of the 12-1.00 regulars and I love them. They can get quite boisterous at times, and I find myself wondering about their lives, what they are doing when they’re not here. The spell is broken a bit before 1 pm when the first round of tourists show up (still too early for Sevillanos to come out for lunch). By then it’s also time for me to move on and get on with my morning.