Tag Archives: valentines day

valentine’s day dinner at la cochera

15 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla

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Last night’s fabulous Valentine’s Day dinner at La Cochera del Abuelo. Many thanks to our hosts Cinta Romero and Estela Coll, and to chef Francisco Jiménez. It was a magical and delicious evening.

The Menu…

  • Foe micuit with lacquered mango and beef reduction
  • Presa Ibérica carpaccio with rocket in black garlic vinaigrette
  • Cream of roasted pumpkin, apple tatín, crispy onion
  • Hake in prawn batter with rum and raisin alioli
  • Aged beef tenderloin, mushroom mille-feuille, potato purée
  • Chocolate coulant with passionfruit

valentine’s day

14 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by in animals & pets, sevilla

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Many people are cynical about Valentine’s Day, calling it Hallmark Day or Interflora Day, and they roll their eyes at restaurants and their special “romantic” menus for couples. I can see how it’s easy to mock this kind of “commercially enforced romance”, but like everything (for example… Christmas!) it’s all about how you feel. I’ve personally never felt much either way about this particular day, but then this happened.

While walking to a Valentine’s Day dinner I had been invited to (not romantic, just with friends) I saw this man and his beautiful dog sitting in Plaza San Lorenzo, so I stopped to take a photo. The dog heard me and turned, and then the man turned, so we started talking. I heard about how he came to have this dog, about his leg pain, his smoking habit, and a few other personal tidbits. Then he looked up at the clock on the church and said his wife would be just getting off work so he had to get home. He said he had prepared a special Valentine’s meal for her and had also got her a gift. And I thought … this is the true meaning of Valentine’s Day.  🙂

february 14th

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by in hope, life stuff, love

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Autumn Floral HeartI like to think of myself as a bit of a romantic, but it kinda irks to have romance thrust upon me one day a year. It was even worse when I was the fat & ugly kid at school that my classmates shunned – that is, when they weren’t busy finding new and painful ways to humiliate me. Not getting any valentines from said classmates was just one of those ways. But fuck ’em, you know? It was really the teachers who were to blame, setting all us misfits up like that. But it still hurt.

I reckon it’s also how a lot of single and lonely people feel on February 14th – set up by the media and commercial hype of what Romance should look and feel like. None of this bothers me anymore because at this point in my life I’ve experienced enough amazingly romantic moments that I don’t feel like I’ve missed out. And since I am now a more-than-somewhat-chubby woman in my mid-50’s living between PET scans I doubt I am anyone’s idea of a catch. But I digress…

This morning I got a call from a hotel telling me that one of their guests was interested in a tapas tour. So I got in touch and, after sending info and doing a bit of organising, I met Tim and Ellen two hours later for a lunchtime tapas tour. And it turned out that they were on their honeymoon! And so there I was, suddenly spending Valentine’s Day with two young people on their honeymoon holiday… and it was great! Because I really am a romantic and it was lovely being with a couple who were clearly in love and happy together. Kinda filled me up.

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?