portada
bubbles
striking a pose
elegant amazonas
amazonas sharing lipstick
thirsty work being an amazona
mutual respect
standing having a cold beer (while others had VIP seating)
deceptively benign looking ride
la noria
photos from my azahar Instagram account
… and you’re not invited. 😉
Okay, not quite. You are very welcome to go to the Feria but unless you know someone with a caseta (the little stripy marquees) then you will end up crushed into one of the 19 large public ones. With over 1,000 private casetas that’s a lot of exclusion, which seems not very in keeping with what is meant to be a festive local event. Sound like sour grapes? Well, it isn’t. When I first moved to Sevilla over 22 years ago I found myself invited to Feria all the time, including the “noche del pescaíto“, followed by the “alumbrao” (lighting up of the gate and grounds at midnight on the Monday) and all-night partying. There would also be (private) lunches and long evenings going from (private) caseta to (private) caseta. I don’t know when it got tedious for me, but after a few years of this I would make my excuses when the invations came in, and limited my feria-going to one afternoon of taking photos of the splendid horses and colourful flamenco dresses.
This year I did something a bit different, which was to take in the “pre-feria” on the weekend before the official opening. To be honest, I didn’t know you could just walk in or that the casetas would be open for business. But I was there with a friend taking some photos of the portada and we saw people wandering in, so we did too. Many of the casetas were still having finishing touches done, but we saw several (private) ones full of people and then came across the large Distrito Casca Antiguo and, since it was open, decided to stop in for a beer. The calm before the storm.
As I sit here writing this a few invitations to meet at the Feria have come in by email or text message. And the other day I was even asked to do a radio interview about Feria (!!) which I turned down for obvious reasons (I don’t think it would have been the interview they were looking for). But you never know. I may end up popping over to people and horse watch for awhile. And before you write me off as a grumpy anti-feriante, I’ve already booked some time off to spend a couple of days at the feria in Jerez, where the casetas are open to everyone and the horses are especially beautiful. Just feels friendlier there somehow.
Waaayyyyy long ago, when I was about 17 years old, I heard about a brand new place called McDonald’s, which had just opened up in Winnipeg (my accidental place of birth). They were handing out coupons for a free burger and fries and so one day I cycled over to check it out. I went in, took a couple of bites, and never went back. Until today. Because my first response had been “this isn’t food!”. And for the record, I have never set foot in a Burger King, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut… as I had a pretty shrewd idea that it would just be the same non-food crap (though as a kid I did like going to A&W – do those still exist?).
Fast forward to 2015 and the very surprising announcement that 2-star Michelin chef Dani García was in cahoots with McDonald’s and producing something called the Grand McExtrem Bibo, for a limited time only. Described thusly: Between an exquisite pretzel bread, you can enjoy a double burger of 100% Extremeño beef, Batavia lettuce, crispy onions, queso Ibérico and a special “Dani sauce”.
How could I not be intrigued when Dani’s amazing bulltail burger totally won my heart back when he started his first gourmet tapas bar La Moraga in Málaga? Served on a soft brioche bun with melted havarti and au jus mayo it was heaven and even now I never feel like I’ve truly arrived in Málaga until I’ve had my first “burguer bull” and a glass of Botani, now available at Wendy Gamba. But I digress…
the splendid Dani bulltail burger at Wendy Gamba in Málaga
So there I was today at the McDonald’s closest to my house in Sevilla (yes, sadly there is more than one) and I joined the throbbing crowd of mostly parents and young children clamouring to have their orders taken. I first thought that the Bibo was a bit pricy at 7.90€ but was told that it came with large fries and a big drink. So okay, I ordered it with a Big Beer and the burger was slapped onto my tray in mere seconds. It was a bit of a wait to get the fries and beer. I finally made my way over to where my fearless companion was saving a small space at one of the little ledges that line the walls at this place (even at the beginning of the lunch service the bins were over-flowing so we just had to stack left trays wherever we could).
As you can see, the Bibo Burger in reality looks nothing like the promo pic above (surprise!). And if that is Batavia lettuce (whatever that is) then I’m the Queen of Sheba. It had obviously been sitting in the “warmer” for some time, hence the almost cooked lettuce and seriously slimy mayo (do not heat mayo guys, wtf is wrong with you?). So yeah, this did not work. On any level. Honestly Dani… why? Also, you owe me 7.90€ 😉
Sevilla’s first tabanco is celebrating its first anniversary today.
Be there or be square!
So this happened while I was away in Madrid last week – Sevilla’s first ever street-food event, #StreetFoodAndalucia by @AndalucíaPopUp, which was held on the roof terrace of the Oasis Backpacker Hostel @OasisHostels. In my opinion Sevilla has probably the best bar-food (ie tapas scene) of any city in the world, and it’s great to see good quality “street food” from kiosks and trucks finally coming of age here, starting with the recent arrival of Sevillas first food truck La Cayejera @lacayejera.
Anyhow, since I couldn’t be there my friend Peter Tatford @SVQconcierge said he would stop by and have a look (and he even took these photos!). I’m told that, although modest in scale – the rooftop venue itself was a bit limited in space – the event was well attended, and got quite buzzy. And the four participants all did a great job of preparing everything from sushi to burgers at their stalls and keeping everybody well-fed. Looking forward to attending the next one. Here is a video of the event, and there’s even a small cameo by Peter about half-way through.
[youtube=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-fAQXRosWU”]