visits continue

We had a short visit with our "cousin", who was in from Madrid to play a couple of concerts at a swing music festival in Sevilla. Shared some tapas and a bottle of wine. I shared the food in another post but I didn't want these two cute boys to get lost in the food forest

Yesterday David & Lori asked me a question. Who do you socialize with here as an expat? I just laughed. My answer was: we socialize with our friends from the US. Being an expat herself Lori immediately understood.  I have a calendar just for visitors. Since I took the photos that make up this collage of our visitors I have added at least one more for the big empty space of the largest square. I remember when our friends Al Horrigan and Carol Howes bought a second home around the corner to house the steady stream of visitors they always had. We won't be doing that because Carol was cooking for all her guests (I don't) and she was acting as a tour guide (here you get a book about Sevilla and some recommendations for the "don't miss" sights.) Oh and we make dinner reservations. So we only offer a bed and bath  basically. Keeps me (the introvert in the family) sane while I get the fun of seeing friends and my extrovert husband gets all the company he craves. We see folks from the expat community here too. The culture in Spain is focused on family and our original immersion teachers warned us not to expect to be invited into someone's home or to invite them to yours. If you become friendly with someone who is truly local (as opposed to a transplanted Spaniard) you will see them at coffee or for a drink and tapa. (BTW that is something we see all the time; groups of friends out for drinks with a few bites of food along the way.) But as you can see from the calendar - we don't lack company 

Some of the days are cut off - and we still haven't gotten confirms from Angela & Lee or John & Stephanie (only tentative dates) but as you can see we are busy- We leave the 4th of May and Oscar is with us until May 3rd... so it will be a quick "get out of Dodge" style getaway. 

But back to the present, We had a fun (if fast) visit from Christian Pérez Yates. He was in town for a couple of gigs at a nearby music festival. We were able to snag him between rehearsals and performance to grab something to eat. We tried a place I always wanted to check out. Catalina, El Bar.  We had a selection of tapas, as the timing was in between lunch and dinner hours. We will see each other again soon when we head to Madrid in December with Lee Cherney for a visit with Christian, Megan Cytron and possibly their son Oscar. 

consulting on the wine- 

Dinner that night was at our favorite sushi place. We were pretty stuffed from "merienda" with Christian so I was happy to let Phil take the lead in consuming the "extra" pieces.

On the walk home from "snacks" with Christian we went by the windows on the big toy store on San Pablo.  They have been covered over as they reset the display for the Christmas reveal. And here is the first. (More windows in progress)  What I really found interesting is that the standard infant dolls look really tired (circled in blue -100€!) But for less money you can get a grumpy baby (circled in green - 95€) or for a premium you can get a happy baby (circled in red - 130€). Trust me. Spend the extra € and get the happy baby. It's Christmas 🎄🎁🎄LOL

Then on Sunday night we wrapped up the weekend with dinner at Brunilda.... After rescheduling from a week ago, we made it to Brunilda tonight. A few changes on the menu but we had some of the old favorites too. We finally had an evening where we could order postres and we both liked our choices. Mine was tarta de queso and Phil's was chocolate migas. I think my favorites dishes continue to be the risotto con setas and the salmon in a Thai chili glaze.

Next up Jenny arrives Wednesday - after we have a Tuesday adventure  with a trip to Costco! 

Big 7-0 for Phil

 So Phil's birthday week started seven days before - at SunWah for his birthday Peking Duck. And ended (sort of) with a deli dinner provided by Jeremy & Angela from Katz's NYC Deli!

so let's recap the whole last ten days or so- 

Phil always has "Peking" duck as one of his birthday dinners. So tonight we headed to the best duck place in town for a duck. We started with walnut shrimp (an off menu favorite) then we had a small beef chow fun with rice noodles. Then the duck dinner - which consists of roast duck, bao buns with fixings, duck fried rice and duck soup. We brought home the vast majority of the duck dinner (duck, soup, and rice)and a bit of the chow fun. So it's leftovers for us this week before the celebrating kicks into high gear.

The birthday week celebrations for Phil were now in full swing. Tuesday night with Steve & Suzanne Friedman (arrived from Portland) a casual-ish dinner at the Loyalist. Had the lobster chopped salad to start along with deviled eggs for Suzanne and me, and anchovy toast for all. Then we split the Loyalist burger. Then S&S shared the chicken and the birthday boy wanted steak, so we shared that as it was a giant entree (had some to take home) We got to say hello to Cara Sandoval before we headed into dinner and also spend a bit of time catching up with Christopher Gerber at dinner. A relaxing evening before the "BIG" party the next night at Jeong.

Birthday party tonight for Phil. A fabulous evening brought to us by Dave Park and Jennifer Tran at Jeong. Our group of ten all had a fun evening. Steve and Suzanne Friedman came from Portland to join a group of our foodie friends for good wine and amazing food and great company. The festivities continue through the end of the week. 

The next night we were at Brindille. About the first photo: So they've known each other for 65 years now and might have run out of things to talk about.  Phil's birthday dinners continue. You'll no doubt be surprised that he chose DUCK for dinner. Menu items marked and photographed. The Puligny was an extra from last night and the Lynch-Bages (1996) came from the cellar visit Steve & Phil made Tuesday. Absolutely stunning service tonight. Suzanne and I shared the Dover Sole (served with an exquisite sauce.) Steve had scallops. The boys shared the hot & cold versions of foie gras. Desserts listed as shown.

Then, Friday night - the last of the Steve & Suzanne nights - we went to Lee & Nick's for dinner.

So the big blow out on the actual birthday - after a week of celebrating. Lee & Nick made dinner for Phil's big 7-0 at their place. We started with some of Lee's nibbles and cocktails from Nick's extensive repertoire. First a Champagne and Chambord cocktail with vodka, followed by The Last Word (gin, green chartreuse, lime juice and maraschino) and then later chocolate martinis (pre dessert). Lee really outdid himself with a perfect salad to start, followed by a seared foie gras course and then, a very gourmet version of meat and potatoes with creamed spinach and a garnish of jumbo shrimp. If you check out the photos you'll see massive amounts of food. Then Nick handcrafted the dessert course of a chocolate and caramel tart with flavored whipped cream. We had sauternes with the foie course; a 2015 Leroy Bourgogne with the meat course; a rose champagne from Billiot and a Lavinea white with the salad. Always always always a fun evening with L&N and a great send off for Steve & Suzanne Friedman who came in just to help celebrate the birthday.

a photo by google - of Phil and Diego

And then - a night of deli from the kids- Most of the birthday celebrations were behind us- but we got a bonus round from the kids, Angela Friedman and Jeremy Friedman. They came up with a brilliant birthday gift for their Papi. A deli meal with all the fixings from Katz's NYC delicatessen. A regular stop on our many trips to New York over the decades, this seemed absolutely perfect for an avid participant on the Save the Deli Facebook page. Phil had his favorite pastrami and I chose a corned beef Reuben.  We ended that night's feast with a few of the black & white cookies for dessert 

So that was the birthday week recap... I think Phil was pretty happy with every part of it.  I finished packing the weekend after to ready for my Wednesday departure for Spain.