Before we leave town

Our first Sevilla dinner outside in 2025. We went to Plaza Alfalfa to La Escalona (a regular choice for us). I missed the photo of the brioche but the rest is shown on the menus. My favorites tonight  were the tuna tataki and the empanadas.  And of course we stopped to say hi to Helena and have some MITO on the walk home. We love living in Sevilla.

I mentioned that the city is really in full blown preparations for Semana Santa. These are the stands they have set up for the processions in the Plaza San Francisco. They come through here exactly as I am facing, and head south to the Cathedral. Next, they will fill the stands with chairs. I would estimate that each of these boxes will have at least 6 chairs. To give you a sense of the VAST space allotted to Semana Santa viewing, this is just ONE plaza of viewing stands. I have zoomed in on the car at the end of this section. Right where the car is located they will veer to the right and join Avenida Constitution (also lined with similar boxes between this square and the Cathedral) My crowd hating claustrophobic tendencies flare up just looking at empty stands. This is why we leave for Semana Santa. And this yearr we will be in Barcelona with Todd & Evie and then A Coruña for the remaining time of Holy Week (Palm Sunday to Easter Monday) 

Many upcoming posts on Barcelona  and A Coruña - so stay tuned...

around town

They have a new menu at La Azotea. They have been running limited hours with only three days open a week. So we haven't been there in a while.  Not loving the new menu. We tried to order the puntillitas ("no tienes") and then tried to order the arroces carne ("solo desayuno" - only lunch despite there being no indication on the menu of such restriction). Every dish we had was up to their usual excellent standards but the menu was less appealing than our visits over the past two years.  Will monitor this one... Not sure about the direction it's headed.

So I guess the guys picking up the oranges missed one or two along the way. This poor forgotten orange was left rotting in the flower bed at Plaza Nueva. But from  the buds you can tell that we are heading into the scent of orange blossoms soon....

We didn't see Daniel tonight but had good service and an excellent meal (despite the fact that they were out of the tosta de Atun rojo) instead of going for MITO we had dessert at the restaurant. A fabulous tarta de queso and the panchineta were our choices.  We ran into Lauren Tucker on the way there. I'd say small world but she does live in the same city we do.   

We have reservations at Petit Comite and Tradevo this week, before Jean and Time return from Moroocco.  Then we are off on a weekend trip to Ronda and Gibraltar. Stay tuned.

Oscar leaves

 So Phil arrived and he had a chance to have a couple of meal with Oscar. Oscar was out with friends on Wednesday and Thursday so we caught up with him for meals on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. 

We went to Tienda Placido Y Grata  for dinner and La Escalona on a perfect weather day for an outdoor lunch. 

For dinner we shared the starters and dessert and each ordered a main - Fish for Oscar and Lamb for Phil and Pasta for me 

side veggies for Oscar's fish

We had a terrific lunch outside in Plaza Alfalfa at La Escalona. 

After walking by a number of good looking bakeries, we stopped at MITO for gelato and Oscar took a brief tour of the Art Museum, came back and picked up his bags for his train trip home to Madrid. 

Then we went to out to dinner at La Cayetana. After a large lunch, we decided on a smaller dinner. We shared all four dishes. Two starters: beef tartare and "matrimonio" (boquerones and anchoas) and then two medium platos - arroz Iberico and puntillitas with egg and truffle. We had our favorite server tonight Iryna.

So today we had a leisurely morning and made brunch at home with some terrific smoked salmon and fresh rolls for the "convenience store" around the corner (Carrefour Express) which are kind of like upscale 7/11 with less crap and more fresh food.... so on we go. This next week, Phil's first full week should be more in our normal mode without classes and trainer Leslie sessions etc... We aren't traveling until December, but Jenny comes to visit on the 13th of November and then Mike on December 3rd and  Lee on December 8th.  Then the three of us go Madrid for three nights and Lee continues his Spain  explorations while we return home to Sevilla. It is going to a be a busy year abroad for us. So stay tuned.