Begin Anew - 2026 Arrives

 To start the New Year with the best we had dinner at YO tonight. We did a hybrid menu between the two tasting menus, as the last time we found the longer menu just too much food. However, we couldn't pass up a couple of our favorites from the longer menu, so we added them to the shorter.  I know, "special case".  While all the food was fabulous, the welcome from Stefano and Eva (Chef and FOH respectively) made the entire experience even more wonderful. The fourteen seat cozy dining room could simply not be more gracious.

The Ajo Blanco (above) to which we added the gambas spinach wrapped dumplings (below) 

Bread (above) with the "olive" tapenade and  anchovy butter (below)

beef tartare (above) under the shiso leaf with a smoked egg yolk and a fruit sauce to add to the delight when you wrap it up by picking it up and then top it before eating it like a taco - beef tarte shown revealed (below) 

Mousse of Liver with Pedro Ximenez flavors serve with paper thin crackers 

We did the pairings but this was the WOE a magnificent version of a wine I don't really like. Light and not sweet (just a touch) - a perfect balance

Cod on a very buttery butter sauce with just a hint of lemon. (above) and Pork rib slow cooked with creamed corn and cherry (below)

Goat milk ice cream with pineapple anise geleé followed by the last dessert. Red fruit puree with a white chocolate and ginger  and a side of lemon curd with a pastry twig in the center

Our menu was a hybrid of these two with an upcharge for the extra course and substitution of shrimp over tuna.

Tried a new place for lunch Friday. One of the folks who runs Sushi Kanasawa opened up a noodle shop nearby. So we stopped in to say hello last night and to tell her we'd come back the next day for lunch. I would say this is more of a hot pot shop versus straight noodles. 

The translation of the name is "10 Second Yunnan Rice Noodles" and Professor Google helped us find that it is a Chinese franchise. 

We ordered two soups and a crispy pork starter. MORE than enough food. I found my spicy soup just right once I dug in past the pepper that was floating on the top of the lemongrass and chicken broth. Everything was super hot in temperature and stayed nicely hot throughout the meal. I would refine my ordering a bit the next time and try some new options but this particular broth would be perfect for that day you find a cold coming on. 

Phil chose the basic chicken broth and seemed to like his very much (no photo except on the menu.) The staff were all very helpful as hot pot is new here (we now have two in the old city) and people are unfamiliar with the process - hence the "how to eat" instructions that are on both the menu and the window on the outside of the restaurant. 

The street outside - the shop is on Canalejas a few doors down from our coffee place and around the corner from the fancy "big white hotel" LOL

We made all three nights of New Year's weekend as reservations for five when Lee, Nick and Aarav were going to be here but we kept them all for just the two of us - no point in our suffering because our friends couldn't be here. 

Meal for Friday evening at Augurio (every table was full and several turned over a second time, which is unusual here). The packed house is likely due to the holiday weekend. Here in Sevilla it is still Christmas. It doesn't end until Epiphany and on Three Kings Day (the day before Epiphany) there is a huge parade with floats and treats thrown to the children who line the streets awaiting the "Magic Kings". So things are still in full holiday season mode until at least mid next week. 

We had our usual favorites of the steak tartare bombitas and the pez mantequilla tacos and the foie gras along with the tuna triptico (tuna three ways) and Phil had his pan cristal sandwich of pork in whisky sauce. We headed to MITO for gelato as - believe it or not it has been at least four days since we had a MITO fix 

Turns out we are doing pretty much Asian for the bulk of the holiday weekend- with "10 second fideo" and our choices at Augurio, then sushi at Hiyoki and now we have added MING with Helena for Sunday night. 

Saturday night at our current favorite sushi place HIYOKI. Lots of sashimi and a few new to us rolls. We are still trying various things from the menu. Then we stopped on the way home at the new MITO to say hello to Gabby.

And Sunday night at MING 2 with Helena - 

And so ends our first week of 2026... 

Home for the Holidays

So we are home for the holidays after our Paris trip the first week of December. Our next guests are Nick, Lee & Aarav for new years day. Meanwhile we are taking the opportunity to eat at favorite places and try new things... 

Holiday season is upon us and our small - 24 seat (current favorite) place to dine was overwhelmed by two large groups of merry makers. One a group of 9-10 French folks being hosted by a Spanish guy and a second mixed Spanish group of 5-7. The "French" table seemed very much a business "party." (Read that as loud - not intentionally or with bad behavior - just too many people trying to be heard at a large table.) The food remains among our top three places to dine. And the service is generally excellent - if a bit stretched tonight. Tough to pick a favorite course. The tuna triptico is always among the top, as are the steak tartare bombitos but I still love the pez mantequilla "tacos" (Little tarts of marinated butter fish that are just the perfect combo of fresh flavors!) We have reserved for when friends visit over New Year's.

A huge WOW (or Guau! as we learned in Spanish) dinner tonight was spectacular. In order to assess the food we, of course, ordered the longer menu. Thankfully Phil ate a lot of my unfinished courses.  Everything was really full of intense flavors and the menu had much variety. My personal favorites were the bacalao, the vaca tartare, the gambas blancas courses     and all the desserts.  We did the wines, and six of the seven were magnificent pairings with the food. We reserved for January 1st with our friends Lee, Nick, & Aarav. The staff was so lovely, they asked about whether we'd do the longer or shorter menu. When I  insisted the long was too much, they graciously offered to rework the shorter one to substitute any favorite that wasn't on the shorter menu. Going to the top five for us immediately.

Streets are teeming with people and restaurants are fully in holiday get-together mode. Tonight we went for a quick meal. We were a two-top sandwiched between groups of seven and five and across from a row of four-tops.  We were the only two top in the whole restaurant.... The big table in the back was set for seven (it's usually a nice four or a tight six.  Things are hopping. The light show on the river is running tonight and I think this might be the first night. Lots of people. Our meal was quick and peaceful as we arrived at 9 PM and the bigger groups started wandering in around 9:55 (likely 10 PM reservations.) Had three of our favorites to share and then gelato on the way home.

Then the following night we headed back to Chiquilla - where we have learned from experience we do better on our own than with people who want an english menu. (completely different treatment)

A fabulous dinner tonight. All specials "fuere de carte" (off the menu). The freshly foraged mushrooms followed by the variations of tuna (resembled the triptico we get at Augurio but more generously sized.) Then our main was the cabracho (scorpionfish) that gets its color from a diet of shrimp (like pink flamingos - LOL) We had lovely service and since we sat at the chefs counter we got to watch the prep for all the dishes. A fun time. 

Then on Sunday night we went to Islamorada and walked home along Constitution Avenue  to see the holiday lights. 

on the last leg of our walk home we got to see the work along Mendez-Nunez which has been under very loud reconstruction for months now- nearly finished now- including wider sidewalks and a set of trees which were never present before!

 

now- maybe when we are gone next summer they can do a rework of Calle Bilbao - we have the worst pavement in the city I think on the two short blocks that make up Calle Bilbao... but we need them to do it in the summer - as there was no sleeping when they were working on the above project even though it was a block to three blocks away!