The 1st of February I was in Barcelona so let’s just say this month started off with a bang, followed by a resolution to eat more at home. A resolution at which I failed, to epic proportions. But that failure meant that I tried some new places, revisited old favourites, moved some to the black list (god, consistency in Seville is a PROBLEM!) but the best thing of all; I’ve had fun while doing so with glasses of albariño and tapa after tapa being the catalyst for many a conversation with friends.
‘Butifarra amb Mongetes’ at Granja Camprodon
But let’s start with the important thing – breakfast! The 1st of February I was in Barcelona and my friend and colleague Renee was showing me some of the stops for the new (and now just launched!) Devour Barcelona food tour. We went into an unsuspecting little spot behind the wonderful Mercat de Santa Caterina and sat down for a typical working mans’ breakfast in Catalunya, which turns out to be a plate of beans and sausages. Sounds simple. Tastes amazing. I left Barcelona in despair because I need this in my life and it just DOES NOT EXIST IN SEVILLE!
Granja Camprodon – Carrer Giralt el Pellisser 6, 08003 Barcelona
Delicious beans with butifarra sausage at Granja Camprodon in Barcelona – yum! A true Catalan working man’s breakfast.
Artichokes at La Cova Fumada
My Barcelona tasting adventure didn’t end at breakfast. Renee took me around Barceloneta, a part of Barcelona that I don’t actually know that well. Remember last month that when I was flipping out over artichokes? Spoiler alert. I’m still flipping out over artichokes. So when we walked into La Cova Fumada – a tiny almost run down place on Plaça del Poeta Bosca that is famous for inventing the bomba tapa – and I saw there were artichokes on the menu, of course, I had to try them.
La Cova Fumada – Carrer del Baluart 56, Barcelona
La Cova Fumada in Barcelona may be known for inventing the “bomba” tapa, but I loved these artichokes!
Seafood paella at Chito’s Bar
Still keeping with in the Barceloneta neighbourhood, Renee made a quick phone call to order paella, and an hour later we were rocking up to Chito’s Bar and digging into an amazing seafood paella. I would like to say that we were “digging into the best paella I’ve had lately” but as paella is hard to come by in Seville, it had been awhile since I had even eaten it. But who knows, if I had eaten paella recently, it still could’ve been the best – it was fresh, tasty, and hit the spot.
Chito’s Bar – Carrer de Ginebra 20, Barcelona
Freshly made seafood paella at Chito’s Bar in the Barceloneta neighbourhood of Barcelona. A delicious lunch!
Eggplant lasagna and ‘bolsita cruijente rellenas de crema de queso y langostinos’ at Restaurante Sevruga
I think it was on the way back to Seville that I said to myself that I would stick around the house eating this month but the weekend rolled around and I took a little trip out of Seville to the nearby town of Coria del Río, an interesting little place that has strange connection with Japan. Of course, I ate while I was there. Actually, if the truth were to be told, food was the main motivation for the journey.
There are a handful of simple pueblo bars and restaurants around the town, but I settled in at the nicer offering, a riverfront restaurant serving up a mix of traditional and fusion dishes. It’s hard to pick a favourite dish as it was all really good, but I especially loved bolsita cruijente rellenas de crema de queso y langostinos – a pastry sacked filled with prawns and cream cheese, and served with a bitter orange marmalade, as well as the eggplant lasagna, which was more eggplant and apple sauce than pasty.
Restaurante Sevruga – Avenida Andalucía 5, Coria del Río, Seville
A pastry parcel with cream cheese and prawns and finished off with bitter orange marmalade. AN interesting combination but so delicious!
Delicious lasagna with eggplant and apple sauce at Restaurante Sevruga in Coria del Río near Seville.
Fried artichokes, tuna, and ‘boquerones’ at Meson Mariano
After a quiet weekend, I went down to Malaga to continue eating my way the city – entirely research purposes – for the upcoming launch of Devour Malaga Food Tours. There was one place that I was desperate to try that had been on my radar, which was a local meson specialising in artichokes. Have I already mentioned artichokes once already? Hmm, I think so.
It turned out side from having artichokes done in a myriad of styles (my favourite being the fried artichokes) they also had awesome other food too. One dish that I usually don’t really like, is a typical dish from Cadiz but found all over Andalucía, atún encebollado (tuna cooked with onions). Here, however, they did an amazing version of it. Another dish I loved here was the boquerones (whitebait/white anchovy), which are a popular fish in Malaga – so much so that malagueños are even known as boquerones. This place is definitely my new favourite restaurant in Malaga!
Mesón Mariano – Calle Granados 2, Malaga
Fried artichokes at Mesón Mariano, my new favourite restaurant in Malaga!
Fried boquerones (white anchovies), a speciality of Malaga and one of my favourite things at Mesón Mariano.
Espetos at El Cabra
It was this time around in Malaga I also had my first ever espeto experience. This involves heading out to one of the beaches around the city, finding yourself a good chiringuito (beach side restaurant) to settle into, and ordering an espeto. The espetos are cooked in a barbecue pit on the beach (fashioned out of an old fishing boat) and are skewers of sardines (or boquerones in the sardine off-season) cooked over the flame.
Our chiringuito of choice was closed, so we ended up going to one recommended by the taxi driver. In the end, it was a good decision! Aside from the espeto being great, everything else we ordered – the adobo, chipirones and red pepper salad – were all amazing and fresh!
El Cabra – Paseo Marítimo el Pedregal 17, Malaga
The delicious food on offer at El Cabra, along the beach near Malaga.
Potato ‘Milhojas’ at La Bodega de Salteras
Someone had told me recently that there was a restaurant in another pueblo in Seville which out-did La Choza de Manuela in terms of being a fantastic place for a simple feast of local meats. It’s not that eating a meat barbecue feast is my favourite thing in the world (it’s not) but I was definitely curious about this place as La Choza de Manuela is somewhat a Seville institution. So next stop in February was to check it out to see if the rumours were true.
In the end I decided it was like La Choza de Manuela who want to put a bit of class in their dining. I wouldn’t say that the meat was any better, and on top of that, it was a bit more expensive. But one thing I really enjoyed was the milhojas de patata, which was layers of potato slipt up with onion confit and served with melted cheese on top.
La Bodega de Salteras – Carretera Camas Albaida, Km 6.5, Salteras, Seville
Milhojas de patata – layers of potato and confit onion at La Bodega de Salteras near Seville
Buying real coffee from Virgin Coffee
Okay, so it’s not quite food, but it’s important. It was mid-to-late February when something happened that really changed my life. Drum roll please. I bought REAL coffee from Seville’s only micro coffee roaster. I’d previously being going here for my morning coffee when I had the chance, as I don’t like too much caffeine and I find that regular supermarket coffee is too strong and just makes me feel shit. But the 10am opening time is sometimes a little bit too late for me, so what better way that buying the beans and having the coffee at home? So I went home with my Guatemalan beans in tow, all ground up and ready to go, and yeah, life changing. What can I say.
Virgin Coffee – Calle Regina 1, Seville
Spicy Tuna Sushi Roll at Takumi
There are more and more Asian/International restaurants popping up around Seville, and there was one in particular that I had meant to try out for a little while but hadn’t got around too, tucked up just behind the back of Las Setas. It’s a Japanese restaurant with all the favourites – tempura, sushi, agedashi plus some interesting dishes thrown in there.
Unfortunately the most interesting of them all weren’t available that particular night, so we weren’t with a pretty standard offering of tempura, agedashi eggplant and sushi. While they were all good, the standout was definitely the sushi. I went for the spicy tuna roll, and yes, it was actually spicy – which is a rarity for Spain even when it is advertised as spicy! Look, nothing compares to Asian restaurants in Australia, but for a Japanese restaurant in Spain it wasn’t bad at all.
Takumi – Calle Regina 1, Seville
Yum! Sushi rolls at Takumi in Seville.
Leeks with hollandaise sauce at Perro Viejo
Sunday night rolled around and I was stuck with the usual Sunday night dilemma – where the hell am I going to eat? It feels like the whole of Seville goes into shut-down on Sunday nights, and that’s actually not pretty far from the truth. There is a reason why lately I have been eating at La Choza de Manuela just outside of the city almost every Sunday… But this Sunday I was to eat in the city, and options were limited – pretty much ALL of my favourites are closed on Sunday nights. So I decided to give Perro Viejo another chance.
I had eaten there once, and it was okay. It was still okay. Well, it was good. Perhaps okay it a little harsh. Perhaps I just get weirded out by the “bigness” of the place. It feels like Australia. It’s multilevel with loads of hipster staff running around with headsets to communicate with each other. So un-sevillano. Look, there are better places in Seville especially when value for money comes into the equation, but none-the-less it was an enjoyable Sunday evening. My favourite dish was definitely the leek with hollandaise sauce (perhaps I’m still obsessed with the onion family after my calçot experience in January, who knows!)
Perro Viejo – Calle Arguijo 3, Seville
My favourite dish at Perro Viejo in Seville – leeks with hollandaise sauce
More artichokes and ‘milhojas’ of ‘carne mechada’ and goats cheese at Bar Mingalario
During the last weeks of February I decided that it was time to get out of Seville for the afternoon, so I went down to the nearby town of Carmona, only around half an hours drive from the city but one of the most beautiful, quaint little spots in the entire province. After spending some time wandering around the city, taking photos from above of the town below, it was time to get something to eat. My first choice which I selected from the
My first choice which I selected from the Restaurantes Rurales de Andalucía guide – which is kind of like my bible to decide where to escape to outside of Seville on the weekends – was closed, but then upon the suggestion of my friend we went to a little bar tucked in the back streets in the middle of the city.
Out of the three dishes we ate, I can’t decide whether it was the artichokes on the grilled with Pedro Ximénez sauce, or the milhojas – layers of goat cheese and carne mechada (carne mechada being a typical dish from this side of Andalucía which is basically the pork collar boiled in water and herbs, then cooked, sliced thinly, and eaten in a whole array of manners) that I liked best, so why not give them both a shout-out here.
More milhojas – this time with layers of carne mechada and goat cheese, at a lovely local restaurant in Carmona, near Seville
Delicious grilled artichokes with a Pedro Ximénez sauce at Bar Mingalario in Carmona, near Seville
Vermouth at La Vermutería
The following weekend I went out for an aperitif with a friend. The aperitif started at La Vermutería, the first (and currently only!) bar in Seville to have vermouth on tap and to also specialise in it. Vermouth is the fortified wine aperitif well loved over the other side of Spain in Catalunya, though until fairly recently it was hard to come by in Seville. But as this old tradition has also gone through somewhat of a revival in recent years over in its home of Catalunya, vermouth is starting to also pop up more and more in Seville.
La Vermutería – Calle Regina 1, Seville
Spritz Aperol and an epic cheese plate at Piaceri Italiani
We followed up this aperitif with another. Piaceri Italiani is an Italian delicatessen selling packaged and fresh pasta, cheeses, cold cuts, sauces and an array of other items to take home and cook up an Italian feast in the kitchen, but a lesser known fact is that you can actually stop by and have an aperitivo in store too. For 3.50 euros you get your drink (mine being of course, the typical Italian aperitivo of spritz aperol – Aperol liquor, sparkling wine and sparkling water combined to make a refreshing and punchy start to the evening). In true Italian style – which means, at no extra cost – a snack which in this case was a cheese plate with three different types of cheeses was put down for our eating enjoyment. So good!
Piaceri Italiani – Calle Regina 23, Seville
Three different kinds of cheese and one of my favourite aperitvos ‘Spritz Aperol’ at Piaceri Italiani, an Italian deli in Seville
Garlic prawns at La Pepona
Now I am starting to end things on a bad note. Towards the end of February I went to eat at an old…well I don’t want to use the word favourite, but a place that was once upon a time quite good, La Pepona. I remembered this place that had the most amazing modern version of gamba al ajillo (garlic prawns) an extensive range of wines by the half glass which was perfect for an impromptu wine tasting, and just an all round, solid menu.
There were still wines by the half glass, but a mere 20 or so which was much less than I remember. The menu seemed interesting but nothing that relaly jumped out and said “eat me”. But at least, the amazing garlic prawns were still there, so of course, I ordered them. Look they were okay. Not great. Or even that good. They seemed to be lacking flavour, and quite frankly, at 8 euros a plate (which works out to 1 euro PER PRAWN) I would’ve expected better.
Not only that, I didn’t recognise a single member of staff. Now, it’s not that I eat there that often, but I would’ve expected to see a few familiar faces. And not only that, they were almost all really young, unable to offer good suggestions such as an alternative to the wine I wanted that they didn’t have in the end. La Pepona has been moved to the blacklist and the problem of consistency in Seville’s modern tapas bars and restaurants strikes again.
La Pepona – Calle Javier Lasso de la Vega 1, Seville
Disappointing garlic prawns at La Pepona in Seville
‘Bacalao’ with orange at La Chalá
But it wasn’t all bad. In fact, last weekend in February it was saved, a couple of times over. I was determined to check out a place that had been on my radar for ages but I’d never quite had the chance to eat there, a little bar in a quiet plaza on Calle Alfonso XII, La Chalá. It’s been awhile since I have been left with the mouth wide open and gushing superlatives at the water after eating somewhere, but that is exactly what happened after eating here.
While everything that I tried was amazing (especially the arepas – yum!) it was the bacalao (salt cod) and orange that really did it for me. It was 6 euros, so I knew it was going to be a slightly bigger plate than the other dishes, but I never expected the huge plate that arrived. It was delicious, flavoursome and fresh, but not only that, it was excellent value for money.
La Chalá – Puerta Real 6, Seville
Possibly the star dish of the month – bacalao (salt cod) with orange at La Chalá in Seville
Bar Joaquinito
This year February got an extra day, which means, I also got an extra meal. And not only that, the last day of February was the bank holiday associated with Andalucía Day, so what better way to celebrate than go to one of Andalucía’s own pueblos and eat a meal. I turned up to Aracena with no idea about where to go or what to eat, only that I was in jamón iberico country. We picked the simple looking restaurant that was already so packed with locals that we had to wait nearly half an hour for a table. But it was worth it.
While there wasn’t one standout dish per se, the whole experience was just wonderful. We had solomillo (pork loin) with a mushroom sauce, arroz meloso con setas (soupy rice with wild mushrooms), chorizo on the grill and ham, but it was the combination of the food and sitting in the sun (nearly 25 degrees on a winter’s day) alongside the cobbled streets in the middle of one of Andalucía’s pueblos blancos, local dishes featuring of course, Iberian ham and also mushrooms (which I love!) and a good value meal. The whole feast cost 22 euros and when the bill came it still had the amount in the long-abolished pesetas on the bill – cute! All in all, the best way to finish off February on a high note!
Bar Joaquinito – Calle Pozo de la Nieve 18, Aracena, Huelva
The delicious feast at Bar Joaquinito, a local restaurant in Aracena, about an hour’s drive from Seville
While February probably wasn’t quite as interesting as January in the food stakes, it was still a good month of eating my way around Seville (and Malaga and Barcelona). What great things did you eat last month?
Cat of Sunshine and Siestas says
YOU HAVE MADE MY MONTH WITH NEWS OF A VERMOUTH BAR!!!!!!!