Thursday, February 6, 2025

Ron & Mary part II

The Ron & Mary visit continues - Wednesday night we went to El Traga, 












Thursday we went via high speed train to Córdoba to visit the Mosque-Cathedral. We had lunch at a favorite, Ordoñez. Plenty of photos of our blue sky day. 





Then we went to the synagogue and the statue of Maimónides... before heading into the mosque cathedral for our main event- 









The entrance to the Mosque-Cathedral










































Thursday night dinner. AMARA a great tasting menu with excellent wine to go with it.












So one more dinner together before our friends leave - It's been an easy and fun week to be with them. We think they have been enjoying themselves. 

Our fun week with Ron & Mary has come to an end. They leave at dawn tomorrow. Tonight we dined at casual La Brunilda. A variety of favorites and two of the special Arroz dishes for the guys (arroz de pato). We all had the tacos. We shared a risotto as an appetizer; and two orders of my personal favorite, queso casteño; and a tapa of ensaladilla. While the guys dug into more rice, Mary & I shared a tapa of the tuna tataki with couscous. As always - really great service and excellent food, along with good friends, make a fabulous foundation for the very best evenings. Next up, friend Jean arrives Wednesday. - never a dull moment- at least we will have the sheets and towels laundered by then.... 









stay tuned....

Ron & Mary visit

Dinner Friday night at Tradevo, we ordered our usual, plus the boquerones (fried) and the eggplant fries (loved those). Still love the shrimp tempura tacos there and the avocado canelone. Friends Ron & Mary arrived the following day @1 pm.









First night dinner for Ron & Mary's visit. We went to Acento because it was close and they opened earlier than 8:30. (A necessity for overseas guests first evening after overnight flights.) After they arrived around 12:45 we suggested a nap and then showers and then a walk outside to get to know the neighborhood. We went for coffee and by the time we finished up that list it was time to leave for dinner. After dinner we made our usual MITO stop. We got back home around 10:30 or so and they turned in about 11:30 which was excellent for the first night. 









We went to Casapuerta on Sunday night and had a good meal and R&M got to meet our buddy Blanca.













Our next night, Monday, was at Dos de Mayo. After Ron worked all day, at 5 pm they were off on a walking tour of Santa Cruz.  Phil went off to run errands.  We had our usual hour afternoon training with Leslie. Meanwhile, R&M went around the corner to lunch at Terra Viva (great prices and fast but only OK food.) 

But of course Dos de Mayo being an old school Sevillano tapas bar, it was a completely different experience in dining for them. This is our favorite tapas bar; it is located in Plaza  Gavidia. We had the flamenquin, the puntillitas, gambas al ajillo, aceitunas gordales, salpicón, jamón Ibérico bellota, tortilla Espanol, and a new one: bombón pato! A few rounds of beer (Vermut para mi!) #sevillatapas. 










On Tuesday midday R&M headed to a tour of the Cathedral (3rd largest in the world). Later we had merienda at home, as Phil's class doesn't end until 9:30 so our dinner reservation was 9:45 at Manolo Mayo. 
 
For lunch Tuesday we had tried a new place. It's very near us, on Guichot south of Plaza Nueva. It was good. We will return. Friendly service and a variety of food with strong South American influence. Sadly you will have to wait for our next visit to see the food because after a single photo of mini empanadas. The conversation with Ron & Mary was so distracting that I forgot to take a photo of: Mary's cachapa, Phil's fajitas, Phil's churros camarones, Ron's Mexican salad bowl (they called it "poke bowl Mexicano" not sure how the Hawaiian folks would feel about that given that it was served in a baked tortilla) I had the same thing Ron had. So - sorry you won't get a chance to see the good food until we return. But fun with friends can be distracting.  Lo siento.




I did slightly better at dinner at not getting distracted than at lunch but not 100%  because Phil's class runs until 9:30 we headed out to Manolo Mayo for a 9:45 reservation. Started with boquerones and jamon Iberico bellota and croquetas. Then Mary and I had the arroz seco con Ibérico and the guys shared an arroz meloso con carabineros. Since we served ourselves merienda at home, we skipped dessert. (No photo of the arroz meloso due to it being served table side and my being distracted by the food preparation)






We are getting kind of long in the post at this point so I will hed out and start a new one for the end of the Ron & Mary visit.