The second Feria de Vinos & Ibéricos takes place this weekend in the patio of the Diputación de Sevilla. It’s a great way to sample the gastronomic delights of the province. And entrance is free!
Diputación de Sevilla
Avenida Menendez Pelayo 32
March 4 – 6
Friday 15.00 – 20.00
Saturday 11.00 – 14.30 / 18.00 – 20.00
Sunday 11.00 – 18.00
Tomorrow the 19th edition of Semana del Arroz (Rice Week) will take place at Taberna del Alabardero, headed by Valencian rice master Juan Tamarit. For the next week you can find special rice menus in the restaurant paired with wines from the non-sherry branch of Bodegas González Byass, including Beronia Verdejo, Viñas del Vero Chardonnay and Beronia Reserva. From the 23th to 25th you can also attend seminars hosted by Juan Tamarit and learn the secrets of perfect paella making, held from 10.00 – 13.30 and 7.00 – 20.30. For more information, or to reserve your space, call Taberna del Alabardero at 954 50 27 21 or contact them by email rest.alabardero@esh.es.
Last Friday I was invited to attend a preview and rice tasting at the Taberna and, upon finding out this was the 19th edition (all of which have been run by Tamarit), my first question was WHY I hadn’t been invited to the previous 18! It was a delicious way to spend an afternoon, chatting with other foodie pals and sampling a wonderful variety of flavours. Chef Tamarit also put paid to the notion that the only true paella is the traditional Valencian version, telling me that if it’s made in a paellera it’s a paella, if it’s made in a pot it’s rice. Simple. And who am I to argue with a maestro arrocero?
Whether you are interested in learning how to make this iconic Spanish dish, or if you’d just like to sample some of the best, don’t miss your chance this week at Taberna del Alabardero.
getting started on a vegetarian paella
paella Valenciana
chef Juan Tamarit with a spectacular squid ink and seafood paella
chef Juan Tamarit overseeing paellas and arroces
This weekend you can enjoy specially chosen tapas with a small beer for a set price of 3€ during the Ruta de la Tapa in Zona Calle Feria. Twenty bars are participating and you can also win a prize by voting for your favourite tapa. See the Calle Feria Facebook Page for details. It’s a fun (and economical) way of getting to know the tapas bars in this area.
click on map to enlarge
This weekend you can enjoy the best of street food at Muelle de Las Delicias next to the Seville port. There will be 15 participants serving up everything from burgers to desserts, along with workshops, music and other special events. Click on the programme to enlarge the image or have a look at the Callejeando Food Fest Website.
Be there or be square.
A visit to the Reales Alcazares (Royal Palaces) of Sevilla and the gardens around them is a bit like stepping into a 1001 nights world of magic and make believe, or the set of a medieval fantasy TV series, with a timeless quality of a place set somehow outside the mundane world.
But appearances can be deceptive. The Alcazar is also a fortress, and for much of its history was the working centre of government and administration, a history that goes back to 913, when the Caliph of Córdoba established a residence and headquarters for his governor in Sevilla roughly in what is now the Patio de Banderas, protected by the walls that we still see in the Plaza Triunfo and Plaza de la Alianza. During the next four and a half centuries the Royal precinct underwent profound changes, with buildings and walls built, torn down, and replaced by others.
In the last couple of decades extensive archaeological work has been carried out in parts of the complex, such as the Patio de Banderas, to elucidate these developments. Work is currently going on beneath the Mudejar Palace of Pedro I, built in the 1340s in a style that blends Moorish and Christian elements together in the most stunning way. Not surprisingly, though, it wasn’t the first building on this site, being erected over the remains, and foundations, of a previous Moorish palace. Such sites are required to have some public access for educational purposes, and the basement of the Mudejar Palace is accordingly open for guided tours, which can be booked online every Saturday at 11 am and 12 noon while the work is going on. This was what I had come to see.
The tour started with a talk by one of the archaeologists on the history of the Alcázar, given in the formal gardens behind the palace, from where we went down into the basements. The area we were able to see seemed quite small, though its hard to judge size compared to the palace above, and we could see that the cellars extended at least as far as the Gothic Palace. It was orginally a storage area and, of course, much more basic than the palace, with brick walls and vaulted ceilings to support the weight above, in a rough hewn early Moorish style. There was also a substantial collection of recovered tile and pottery pieces laid out on tables, parts of the intricate abstract patterns of Moorish and Mudejar decoration.
It was certainly a different view of the palace, and a reminder of what may be going on behind the scenes. Worth doing, but you will need to speak Spanish, as the tour is primarily intended for locals, not tourists.