Foodie tour of Aljarafe Area

The Three King’s parade and Epiphany Tuesday, January 6^th is when the children get their gifts. As mentioned previously we saw a barrio parade and have seen another, but the city one is on the evening of the 5^th and has crowds of people to watch it. Candy is thrown to the children which hits hard but now they’ve replaced much of it with the soft stuff. I’m not talking about small amounts, the kings heave armloads of it! Here’s an amusing account from an expat.

http://www.enjoylivingabroad.com/my-blog/ouch-ive-just-had-an-epiphany

Guess the adage “all fun and games until someone gets loses an eye” from Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh, I think, wrong, but you get the idea. In any case having looked it up I did find some enchanting sayings from the book here.

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1225592-winnie-the-pooh?page=1

Okay, way, way off topic, but couldn’t resist…

We bought the Sherlock Holmes mystery series for our evening entertainment here. Yes, I know we should be out seeing the sights and tapa hopping as people do but in the evening we are both home bodies. The point to this is that it came in a box which we temporarily put on the dining table and Lexi climbed in. Her head rested on the flap of the box but she fit, and the packing bubble made a good pillow, cat comfy.

As mentioned, there are Chinese, or Oriental shops all over, one on every block and very handy for small things and emergency supplies. Well on Epiphany Day I decided to get a few little things needed for the flat. Visits to about five showed me how various are the offerings are in each.  I asked Ivan if there was any reason behind what each store carries and he said, whatever the neighbourhood asks for and buys. If you ask for, say milk, they'll bring it in for you the next day even though you needed right now, reasoning is if you asked for it someone else will tomorrow. Rather bizarre way of stocking a store, no wonder it's such an eclectic mix.

Ivan took us to Umbrete a town in the Aljarafe area North of Sevilla.  Driving through small towns we saw white washed buildings and churches with wonderfully tiled Moorish spires with round domes, perhaps not Moorish, anyway beautiful.

We tried for an olive factory tour which wasn't available that day. Did get an understanding of the whole process from the proprietor and saw a selection of what they sell to retailers. We bought a couple of jars of olives, two different recipes of the dozens available. So many barrels for the oil! (picture didn't turn out) Olives and oil are big business here. Olives are served with beer, the oil is used in almost every recipe. We are working on getting a cooking class together so I'm sure I'll have more to post about olives.

Next on to a bodega, F. Salado founded in 1810. Beautiful property, huge storage area with casks of wine.  http://www.bodegassalado.com

They do a tour of their vineyards through the Aljarafe area which we didn't take, the bodega itself is a wonder. 

Naranja is orange, it's a sherry like wine made in the area

I bought some Mostum wine, a white young table wine.

One of several wells on the property

One of several statues on the property with Bruce sitting in the car behind her.

Ivan's picture of the wine barrels

Seeing an olive factory and wine bodega we saw a LOT of barrels that day!

Lunch at a restaurant specializing in fish and seafood called Casa Rufino. 

http://www.restaurantecasarufino.com/ (you can do a translate on it.)

The restaurant owners bring in the freshest seafood from Huelva about half an hour drive from there and cook it up with skill. We had delicious large prawns served whole that I should have taken a picture of. The walls were covered with many pictures and sculptures of the Virgin. 

It was a lovely foodie focused day in the countryside!

Aside, many bloggers take pictures of food, I always forget, I remember when it’s half eaten and that wouldn’t do justice to the presentation.

Another aside, Bruce typically looks up former students and has found another who has become a success. That makes him feel that his “kids” have found a home and are happy, very satisfying to him.

Further aside and last one, We bought three fry pans the other day, because that’s just what “you do”. Explanation, if we find worn out or are missing something in the kitchen, we buy it and leave it for the next people to use. It’s all part of travelling slowly, living in a flat with kitchen. I know of a couple who travel with small kitchen items they need, another is super organized and has a list of kitchen things they typically cook with. We aren't that organized and just go and get what we need when needed.

Next post is about a spectacular event (hint flamenco) we were lucky to see, stay tuned.

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat