Tag Archives: tapas

easyjet az

06 Wednesday Apr 2011

Posted by in blogging, computers, culture, fiestas, friends, internet, iphone, sevilla, social media, spam, twitter, work

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Yesterday evening I was thrilled when I got an email from Annie Manson saying that while flying from Geneva to Málaga she’d seen me mentioned and quoted in the EasyJet’s April Inflight magazine, and congratulating me on such a great PR coup. At first I was totally flummoxed as I had no idea why I would be in there, then when I saw the article (about the Feria in Sevilla) written by Derek Workman, I remembered meeting Derek for tapas a while back and spending a pleasant leisurely lunchtime chatting about Sevilla stuff. He was in town doing research for this article as EasyJet was about to launch a new London-Sevilla route in April. So that was quite exciting! If you want to read the article (which starts on page 50) you’ll have to register, which is a bit of a pain but only takes a minute.

Anyhow, after a few emails back and forth to Annie I got into bed with my iPhone to read a few last tweets and emails before sleeping and saw that one of my favourite tapas bars was mentioned in an article by Shaney Hudson, an Australian travel writer now living in Holland who was here on a research visit last autumn. Then I saw that my tapas tours got a personal recommendation from Shaney in her Essential Guide to Sevilla (!!!). How cool is that?

All of which has me thinking this morning about all the amazing connections I’ve made, and continue to make, via my blogs, Twitter and – okay I admit it – even Facebook.  I’ve made friends and biz contacts, and have also found work, as a result of not only sitting in front of my laptop (or with iPhone in hand) several hours a day, but also by going out to meet many of these people when they are in town. Which of course I love as one of my favourite things to do is show people “my Sevilla” and especially take them out for tapas. So anyone who still thinks social media is silly is, well, silly.  😉

 

 

a day in the country

27 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by in culture, food & drink, friends, photos, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas, wine, work

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[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!

a tale of two azoteas

18 Friday Mar 2011

Posted by in food & drink, friends, home, restaurants, sevilla, tapas, television, twitter

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Azotea n. A rooftop terrace

This morning I meant to get up, get some work done, and then hit the gym. But then the guy from Digital+ called to say he could install the satellite dish and set up my new tv service, sooooo…  I decided to just stick around at home and get it done. But because I was working downstairs and wasn’t paying attention to what the guy was doing, it was a bit of a bummer to find out he’d attached the dish to the side of the azotea wall (I thought it would be on the top of that pole) right where I want to put the barbeque (when I get one), but oh well. New service seems to be working fine and it’ll be cheaper than what I had with the dreaded Movistar. Also swapped internet and phone service yesterday to go with Vodafone, so in a week or so there should be no more Movistar in my life.

So having missed the gym there was nothing left to do but go out and eat a whack of tapas!

Yesterday I’d made plans to meed Dutch Twitter pal @Amiek who is in town on holiday, so we went out to La Azotea, one of my favourite places that I actually hadn’t been to for awhile. And well, it was fabulous as always and great to see everyone again. Spent a lovely afternoon chatting with Amiek, who has lived in Sevilla before and speaks fluent Spanish (have never met a Dutch person who didn’t speak at least five languages). She’s staying in her old ‘hood, but as it’s been awhile since she’s been here I’ll be giving her tips on the latest and greatest tapas bars, and will most likely see her again before she leaves on Tuesday. Damn but that Twitter thang is great. Lunch below, which Amiek very generously treated me to…

[click to enlarge]
espetos de pijotas (fish onna stick) with blood orange mayo
grilled morcilla with caramalised onion & quail egg
cod & wild mushroom canneloni with scallop sauce / grilled tuna with olive paté
presa (iberian pork) tataky with crushed pistachios & creamy idiazabal cheese sauce

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!

 

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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