Well, if you are completely mad like me, and an Englishman like Peter, you go out in the midday sun!

Of course we didn’t know it was going to be 51º. The official weather forecast was much more conservative and said the high would be 42º, but you know, who lives at the airport? In the centre of Sevilla with the sun blazing down on narrow cobbled streets with very little air-flow it soon turned into a blast furnace. But I was determined to go and visit a little abacería I’ve been meaning to go to for years. Finally did go on a Saturday at the end of June only to see a sign posted outside saying they were closed for holidays – starting that day! I later found out that this was the first time in 15 years they’ve closed for holiday.

Anyhoo… when I saw an article in the local paper about the post-holiday re-opening party yesterday at La Antigua Abacería de San Lorenzo (on San Lorenzo day!) I knew I had to get over there. And I’m really glad I did. What a little curiosity shop of tasty delights! An abacería is a combination of provisions store, take-away delicatessen and tapas bar, and the best ones have been around forever and have a loyal and local clientelle. In fact, we were not only the only foreigners in there but also the only non-neighbours. Everyone was clearly on a first-name basis and the old guys hanging around the bar area made me feel like I was in a small village rather than in Spain’s fourth largest city.

After trying a couple of tapas I got to talking with the owner Ramón who was charming as heck and really keen to tell me all about the place and even about future plans, including cooking classes that will be starting up in September. I loved how he’d take an occasional trip through the bar with a tray of complementary snacks, and I also loved how they served the bottled beer in tiny ice buckets. And the tapas were very good! So all in all, a very worthwhile reason to go out in the very intense HEAT.