Christmas is coming

We went over to this bar we know with good food and a relaxed atmosphere for a quick meal. Had the tortilla and a carpaccio of shrimp as well as the arroz dish. We started with two anchovies and two sardines. Nothing fancy but always a good choice.

The next night we had sushi for dinner. Our favorite Hiyoki. Missing are sashimi of red tuna and toro. (Photographer fell down on the job) Shown sashimi pez mantequilla, and salmon, okonomiyaki, gyoza de pato, unagi nigiri, gunkun ikura and langoustino tempura. Started with miso soup because temperatures  have fallen below 60* and Sevillanos are cold. Love this place.

 

on the way hoe we took this photo for Lee LOL

Dinner tonight was a close-by choice as it was raining heavily and quite chilly for us. Less than 60*.

I started with salad, Phil with the steak tartare. My main was the Presa Ibericos and Phil's was the lamb shank. We shared the fruit salad and torrija for dessert. As we have found since returning from Paris, holiday gatherings are in full swing. A table of 16+ next to us was much better behaved than the six top in the bar seated right behind us. Thankfully they left before we started our dinner. 

Still raining when we left, but we remind ourselves that it IS winter. 

Then it was Saturday night and we headed out to dinner with Helena to La Cayetana.  Sadly her hubby couldn't join us but we managed to have a nice meal. Started with the great Aperol Sevillano x3 yum! A sprig of mint and it could have been a holiday drink. We shared calamari, arroz Ibericos, buñelos de bacalao, and gambas al ajillo. Went to MITO for dessert, of course.

Then Sunday rolled around and Phi wasn't feeling well so I went to MING and got carryout soup and fried rice and kung bao chicken. Sorry no photos - of the plastic containers LOL. Then Monday we made our holiday stop at Casapuerta to bid Feliz Navid to Blanca and Manuel.

on the night before Christmas Eve we were supposed to go to Tradevo, But whatever virus felled Phil on Sunday when I got carry out from MING2 took me on that day and so he went around the corner to GOIKO for a burger and then finished off the left over Chinese later at night. Then on Christmas Eve I made spaghetti sauce for a Spaghetti dinner with salad and garlic bread (he's been complaining about not having any for about two months...)  

Merry Christmas. The view from the bedroom window. Blue blue skies but a chilly high of 60* real feel.  Coldest December in Spain in more than a decade. We'll take the blue skies and sunshine.

 

and one Phil took on his walk along the river on December 20th  

It will be a quiet holiday for us. Things pick up around new years with a visit from Lee, Nick & Aarav. 

at home for a bit

Two nights meals. Phil arrived from the States Tuesday afternoon so we dined early at Islamorada. He had eaten half the Huelva white shrimp by the time I remembered to take a photo. We also had a presa Iberico that was missed altogether.

Then Wednesday night, because we had huge storms and flooding all day, the reservation we had for soup on the "chilly" day had to be abandoned due to no power in the building or actually on most of the block. So we walked in the direction of lights and ended up at La Piemontesa for a shared salad and pizza (all fine) but the postres were what salvaged the evening. I had the strawberry ice cream (strawberries only, not vanilla with strawberry) and fresh strawberries with cream. Phil had the Nutella crepe. So that was our rain for pretty much for the whole month a bit last weekend for part of one day. But it poured today and a lot of lightning, sometimes right overhead. Quite the show.

The next night we had dinner at Casa Juan Paloma. A great neighborhood bar near the Plaza de la Pescaderia. We had the three marked menu items. Arroz, carpaccio de gambas, and the anchovies. Friendly service and good food. Two drinks, water, and three courses for 45€. What's not to love? PS they have the best traditional tortilla in town here. You can choose with or without (a big debate) onions. We like it "with"... But neither of us was hungry enough to order it tonight - one size - smaller but larger enough to share.

Friday night Italian again. We met up with Natalia (one of Phil's Spanish teachers). We haven't seen her since the spring when she introduced us to Janet & Mike.  The restaurant is serviceable but not brilliant (although I do like their pizza crust better than some of the other options nearby.) We all had a "starchy" main after sharing the pizza tartufada as a starter. I had the risotto, Phil had the carbonara and Natalia had shrimp ravioli. We shared a bottle of chianti and stopped to see Helena at MITO on the way home. Tomorrow night, a first for us, a concert at the Teatro Maestranza. A guitar virtuoso. A dinner after at a new (to us) place.  #expatlife

Then Saturday night came around and... Some nights are a complete miss. We went to a concert of a well known flamenco guitarist at the Teatro Maestranza (our concert hall in Sevilla.) The guitarist, Rafael Riqueni was an excellent guitarist.

Here is some more info on his artistry from M Wikipedia. Rafael Riqueni del Canto (Sevilla, August 16, 1962), is a Spanish guitar player and composer. He is considered as one of the biggest names or “Maestros” in flamenco guitar history. At age fourteen, he won the two main national awards for flamenco guitar in Spain. As an adult, he has won the most prestigious flamenco music awards in Spain, including: Premio Andalucía de Cultura, Premio Nacional de la Crítica, Giraldillo a la Maestría de la XVIII Bienal de Flamenco y el Premio AIE. In 2017, he was awarded with XXXI Compás del Cante, this award is always referred to by the Spanish media as the "Flamenco Nobel prize". 

Unfortunately in my opinion the program was marred by two other performers. A young man vocalist who had a lot of hair that he kept flicking back from his face and then he'd lean forward to emote into his vocalizations and it would fall back in front of his face. And the cycle would start all over again. Clearly his hair stole the show. At one point I could only think he must be wailing about his dead cat (not understanding the words left me to make up my own interpretations LOL) As bad as that was, at one point a woman came on and did a sort of interpretive/flamenco style dance. Her demeanor was very dark, dressed in all black and scowling throughout the performance. I wondered if both the performers were doing something surrounding mourning and it would figure as a possibility because it is the dead of the dead today (November 1st).

So we decided to cut out at intermission. And headed to the place we had reserved for dinner. It is a beautiful restaurant and the two women working the front of the house were as pleasant as they could be. The dinner rolls were also very good.  But the rest of the report, not so much. My salmon tartare tasted too fishy to be truly fresh. My lubina was overcooked and didn't come with the things described on the menu. Phil fared a bit better as he was happy with his pork dish although he said he wished the foie had been less sizable and higher quality. 

But the real kicker was they had neither of the wines we wanted to order and the server insisted that we needed a much heavier red than we desired since we were ordering both fish and meat. We asked about the other wines listed under the blends and were informed that none of them were available. ???? So we shared a glass of decent Ribera del Duero and gave up the quest for the wine we wanted to drink.

 

So all in all - not the best evening we've had in Sevilla but we did try two new things. We can now safely say. We'd go back to that venue, it was very nice. And we would not return to the restaurant.

So that brings us to Sunday and a dinner with Janet and Mike at Hiyoki and the beginning of a new week... we are headed on Thursday to Madrid to spend time with Megan & Christian and Oscar & Candela.