Category: seville

The Amazing Alexandra del Bene

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alex mural project

I was so excited when Alex pinged me with a link to this video about her latest project. I had no idea that she was doing this and it’s absolutely amazing. She will be creating 15 gigantic murals themed around the 500th anniversary of the first round the world voyage, the Magellan-El Cano circumnavigation (1519 – 1522). See those buildings up there? Those will be her canvases. Located in Calle Tarfia, facing the river it is expected to set a Guinness world record.

Below you can see virtual depictions of how they will look when finished. Impressive, right?

I first met Alexandra by chance ten years ago when she was starting out here working as a “graffiti artist for hire” painting shop and bar shutters so that they wouldn’t get vandalised by taggers. One day I saw her painting a bar shutter while out for a walk on a Sunday afternoon and stopped to chat and we’ve been friends ever since. She once even joined one of my tapas tours in progress while “on the job” painting the shutters at Bodeguita Romero. While Alexandra still does the occasional shutter art, she is now also an award-winning artist recognised both here and abroad. An amazing accomplishment for someone who arrived here from Rome in 2010 with a young daughter to start a new life. I am quite in awe of not only her talent but also her energy and spirit. You can check out her website here…

Alexandra del Bene

alex murals

alex virtual murals

Calçots 2021

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calcots 2021 (1)

It’s that time of year again. From December to March calçots are in season and La Quinta Brasserie brings the Catalan tradition to Sevilla during this time. Basically the calçots (similar to a large spring onion) are roasted over coals, then wrapped up in newspaper and served with a wonderfully nutty romesco sauce. Delicious and also messy as hell. The trick is in getting the non-charred delicate centre out. First you peel away a bit of the charred bit at the end until you see the green part of the onion. Hold onto that! Then tightly grip the tip of the calçot with your other hand and pull.

After that you dip the calçot into romesco sauce, another Catalan dish made with tomatoes and roasted red peppers, puréed and thickened with toasted crushed almonds and bread. Heaven. You can see that La Quinta provided us with a paper bib and also latex gloves for this procedure, as after dipping the calçot into the romesco you are meant to hold it high over your mouth and slowly lower it in. My friend Peter shows us how it’s done (more or less, it was his first time).

calcots 2021 (2)

This dish is usually served with the traditional porrón, local Catalan wine served in a peculiar wine carafe, which you also hold well above your upturned face as you pour wine directly (or otherwise) into your mouth.
la quinta (1)

It was great fun doing this again. La Quinta offers the calçots either a la carte or as part of a set menu that includes the calçots, grilled butifarra with creamy butter beans and alioli, a selection of char-grilled meats, desserts and wine. We opted for a la carte and frankly after the calçots and sharing the butifarra dish we were practically dead. Though we did see a couple the next table over polish of the entire menu. RESPECT.

calcots

Open in August!

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Every year I write up a list of bars and restaurants in Sevilla that will be open in August. Used to be that almost every place closed, shops too, and Sevilla was quite a ghost town. In some ways I kind of liked that. Broke things up a bit, with a change of rhythm. Everything slowed down appropriately, in terms of The Heat. But the past few years there have been throngs of hapless HOT tourists wandering all over town, tour guides risking heat stroke taking out group after group, all defying the weather. It was getting crazy. It WAS crazy.

And now it’s crazy in a different way.

Anyhow CLICK HERE to see the August 2020 list. These are all independently run places and they can all use our support. So if you’re hungry in Sevilla these are some great bars and restaurants to go to that are also doing well with Covid health and safety protocols. Also some good take-away and home delivery options. 🙂

La Azotea at Home

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lunch (3)

La Azotea was the first restaurant in Sevilla (that I know of) to start offering pick up and delivery services. They were on it just like that, up and running just four days after Lockdown. Impressive. Co-owners Jeanine and Juan, along with their amazing team, have been keeping Sevilla fed and happy all this time, and now it was my turn thanks to my London friends Dan & Deb.

We’ve been staying in touch, and looking forward to meeting up again some day at Las Teresas. THEN, I got a surprise voice message from Jeanine the other day saying that those two lovelies had purchased a voucher for me to get some home delivery. So nice of them! As you know, I am still mostly keeping myself in Phase 1 of the de-escalation process, while the rest of the country has moved on to Phase 3. Which means I still haven’t dared to go out to a bar or restaurant, even for a Cold Beer O’clock. And as much as cooking lunch has been one of the things saving me from going completely bonkers from boredom at home, this was a total treat. Really my dream La Azotea meal.

lunch (1)

I got one of the saquitas (crispy pastry filled with prawns, cheese and leeks), my favourite battered prawn salad with kimchi sauce, THOSE rabbit ribs and a bottle of Chan de Rosas albariño. Heaven.

lunch (2)
Jeanine with my delivery
it was SO hard not to give her a big hug

azotea team
Team Azotea

Now La Azotea is open for restaurant service (at their Conde de Barajas location) and they have everything perfectly set up for proper social distancing, and are also continuing with take-away and delivery service. Whatever it takes, these guys are there for you. xx

Lockdown Food Home Delivery

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El Mercado de Sevilla

Today I went out for my weekly supermarket run (and rubbish dump). My last time out was on Wednesday, when I noticed changes since the previous visit to El Corte Inglés supermarket at the beginning of the lockdown. Staff were all wearing gloves and masks and we were handed plastic gloves on our way in. Today security had been stepped up, with gloves and sanitiser left out for our use on a table on the way in, and cashiers were being protected behind hanging plexiglass shields.

All this time I’ve been feeling bad about not supporting local independents more but the sad truth is that the small guys aren’t able to offer the same protection for both staff and customers that the bigger supermarkets can. Being in a high risk demographic – over 60 with autoimmune issues going on due to previous stage 4 cancer & chemo – I just don’t want to take the extra risk.

Meanwhile, last week my friends Jeanine & Juan who run the amazing La Azotea, started offering daily menus for home delivery, along with selected items from their regular menu, and also wines. This is a great option for people who haven’t had time to shop, don’t like cooking, or simply miss their favourite La Azotea dishes. You can follow them on their Instagram stories to see the daily specials.

And today I found out about a new initiative started by four friends, including my pal Javier, chef and owner of Taberna Lalola, called El Mercado de Sevilla, offering an online platform for local independent food shops and suppliers to provide home delivery. It’s free of charge for suppliers to join and there is no delivery charge. It’s still early days, but the website is up and running as of today.

La Azotea Sevilla