06 Tuesday Oct 2020
Posted in welcome
My pal Dan @dan.jamon always sees my Decanter articles before I do. Saw this pic on his Instagram and now can’t wait to get my own copy. They usually send me one, so hopefully its on the way. Still waiting to find out if it’s also been published online. Originally this one was only supposed to be online, then they decided to publish it in the supplement of their October magazine. Yay! My fourth Decanter article. Hope there will be more. đ
05 Tuesday Mar 2019
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, sevilla, wine
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I mean what could be better than an evening hosted by 12 jamĂłn ibĂ©rico de bellota producers and 14 wineries, along with some fabulous cheeses? Well NOTHING much that I can think of. I think this is an annual event, though the last time I went was in 2016. It was great catching up with friends while sampling some amazing jamĂłn and terrific wines. In fact, after a few of these wines my pal Esteban (VermuterĂa Yo Soy Tu Padre) even convinced me into taking a selfie with him. I’ve had worse Mondays!
16 Saturday Feb 2019
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andalucia de santa maria, cuatro gatos wine fest, el puerto de santa maria, el puerto getaway, wines
The fourth edition of the CuatroGatos Wine Festival was quite different from last year’s event. This time it was held inside a lovely hacienda on the outskirts of El Puerto de Santa MarĂa and there was also the promise of a special dish prepared by Michelin star chef Ăngel LeĂłn. I met my friend Tomoko @Fu_yan at the train station and, having just missed the Wine Bus, got a taxi over.
[click to enlarge]
It was a great afternoon revisiting old friends and making new ones. And thanks to Tomoko I tried several wines I may not have otherwise (brand new love is La Choza by Bodega Callejuela). I was also happy to discover that several of the wines I liked are available in Sevilla, and almost all of them at Ana Linares’s fabulous wine shop Lama La Uva (will be visiting her soon!)
Tomoko and CuatroGatos founder Federico Ferrer
Although there were a lot more food options this year, with several stands set up on the patio, Tomoko and I decided to walk over to Restaurante El Faro so we could sit down for awhile and, frankly, have a nicer lunch. đ Which you can see, we did indeed have. The only thing was that by the time we got back to the event, several of the producers were already packing up (!!). Since they were offering another Wine Bus back to the train station around 8 pm we assumed that the producers were going to stay around longer. Oh well. It was still a fabulous day and great to hang out with Tomoko again.
spectacular lunch at Restaurante El Faro
06 Wednesday Feb 2019
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I am often asked about the difference between sherry and port on my tapas tours and I’ve always had to confess that I really don’t know much about port, other than it is also a fortified wine. So when I was invited to a Sherry vs Port tasting it seemed like an ideal opportunity to learn something about port!
The event took place at the splendid Portuguese Consulate, and the wines were from Bodegas Sandeman, which produces both sherry and port wines. It was an interesting event, finishing with port and sherry cocktails. And now I want to go to Oporto! đ
04 Thursday Oct 2018
Posted in food & drink, gastronomy, restaurants, sevilla, spain
This week (on October 4) I was invited, along with other journalists, bloggers and regular commentators, to the presentation of this season’s tasting menu at Restaurante Ispal. Ispal has been the dream of Pedro SĂĄnchez-Cuerda RodrĂguez (director of Grupo La Raza) for the past 15 years, and together with Antonio Bort (his executive chef), and Ispal’s new head chef RubĂ©n GarcĂa ChacĂłn, Pedro’s dream has now been realised.
The objective of Ispal, which opened a year ago, is to showcase the traditional cooking of Sevilla, using indigenous products and providing support for local family businesses, and then reinterpreting these popular dishes by elevating them to haute cuisine. This, by definition, involves the use of the highest quality ingredients, meticulously prepared and presented.
The local ingredients include salt from the salt flats of Utrera, cheeses from Castilblanco de los Arroyos, the famous tomatoes of Los Palacios, goat kid from Los Corrales, fish from La Puebla del RĂo, wines from Sierra Norte de Sevilla, Ronda, and sherry wines from Jerez.
The tasting menu, which you can see below, was spectacular. Many thanks to Fernando Huibrodo for the invitation, and to the entire Ispal team, including maßtre Alonso Reche and sommelier Cisco Nuñez.
Pedro Sanchez-Cuerda Rodriguez – director of Grupo La Raza
Antonio Bort – executive chef of Grupo La Raza
RubĂ©n ChacĂłn – head chef at Ispal
Fernando Huidobro – president of AndalucĂa Academy of Gastronomy & Tourism
casa azahar 