Croqueta Week at Becerrita

croqueta week
Yesterday my friend Saray and I headed over to Becerrita to sample the seven different croquetas they have on offer during their Semana de la Croqueta. You can order them separately as tapas but we shared a media-ración with 14 croquetas (two of each), which were very prettily presented. Tasted good too, our favourites being the jamón and the bulltail ones. The chistorra croquetas needed to be a bit spicier, the beef & gorgonzola and the mussel croquetas were of the “tastes like chicken” variety, and the condensed milk & anchovy ones were frankly a bit weird – clearly an acquired taste. You still have until Sunday to sample these crispy fried delights, either the entire selection as we did or you can mix & match your chosen croquetas with other tapas.

Semana de la Croqueta
23-29 September
Restaurante Becerrita
Recaredo 9, Sevilla

Sevilla Orange Days

naranja de sevillaThe second Jornada de Naranja de Sevilla (Sevilla Orange Days) is on now until March 10th. This year 31 bars and restaurants are creating special tapas at 2.75€ made from Sevilla’s emblematic bitter oranges with a contest for best tapa, which will also be open to the public.

For those who participate in the voting there will be a draw for 10 fabulous food hampers containing artesanal products from these local suppliers:

  • Inés Rosales: orange flavoured cakes
  • Basilippo: orange olive oil
  • Mermelada la Vieja Fábrica: orange marmalade
  • Bodegas Góngora: orange wine
  • Burnaj: orange sparkling wine
  • Obrador Valle de la Osa: orange chocolate

I’ll be trying as many as I can, as well as heading out with Fiona Watson (aka Seville Writer) on Tuesday for a lunchtime orange tapa tapeo, and will be back to give you a report of my findings.

Meanwhile, you can have a look at the list of participants below to see what tapas they are offering and decide which ones you’d like to try…
Continue reading “Sevilla Orange Days”

Methinks They Doth Protest Too Much

censorshipIt’s been just over a year since I wrote here about the Sevilla Tapas Policy Change and yesterday I had my first experience of someone trying to gag me. I received a Threatening Email from the lawyers of a tapas bar I reviewed last December on Sevilla Tapas. They cited various laws and articles before coming out with their DEMAND that I remove all photographs and text, saying that some of the photos included images of their customers and also “marketed products” (the tapas?) that were taken without permission. They then went on to say that some other law protected their client from any “value judgement” that may adversely affect their reputation and professional image and insisted that I remove any references to this bar from all my blogs, websites and social media accounts.

I mean, WTF??

It wasn’t even a scathing review. I basically just said that I’d gone there twice and was disappointed both times. And well, they can’t really blame me if their tapas look like crap.

Anyhow, I’ve been threatened with legal action if I don’t comply. But while I can see their flimsy excuse for wanting photos of customers removed to be somehow “justifiable”, it seems way over the top to insist that I remove any mention of this place from everywhere on the Internet. Protesting far too much, don’t you think?

Oh, and for the record, I did ask permission to take photos and, after the first disastrous visit, spoke to the manager who apologised for the bad service and food and said she hoped we would come back again. She also knew about my Sevilla Tapas blog and that we had a friend in common who had recommended the bar (which is why I went there twice – I thought my friend couldn’t be that wrong!). Well, they won’t be able to remove the Trip Advisor review that’ll be going up shortly…

 

Puro Centro

puro centro sevilla

Ever since I published the blog post about Lab 4 last year I’ve been telling myself that I need to set up a “bares de copas” section on Sevilla Tapas. The difficult thing about that is it’s hard to group these places into one category as some are strictly cocktail bars, others also offer snacks, some have full kitchens, but the one thing they have in common is that the focus is on drinks more than food. The other difficulty for me is that I seldom “ir de copas” (go out for drinks), preferring food and wine to straight alcohol, so these aren’t places I would usually visit. Then the other day I happened upon Puro Centro, which seems to be in a category of its own, and although it would probably fit better under “bar de copas” than “restaurant” it actually has quite an interesting looking Asian-Spanish fusion menu.

Well, a bit about Puro Centro. It’s the latest offering from Grupo Kudéta and is situated just off the Plaza Magdalena. It’s all done out in deep reds and golds, and furnished with a curious mix of classic Asian and ultra-modern Western designs. There are a couple of large open spaces as well as several cosy nooks, which are nicely distributed over the two levels of this stunningly refurbished old townhouse. Manager Fernando García says that the initial response to the opening has been great and promises lots of special events which will be posted on the Puro Centro Facebook page. Puro Centro is open 7 days a week from 1.00 pm until the wee hours. The kitchen is closed from 4 – 9 pm but you can still go for coffee, drinks and desserts. Looks like a perfect place for a cosy late afternoon merienda.

Puro Centro
Murillo 6
Tel. 661 577 535/ 954 088 518
Open: 13.00 – 02.00
Kitchen is closed 16.00 – 21.00