Growing up I remember my dad having a joke that he was whispering to my grandparents. He was whispering so that my brothers and I couldn’t hear what the joke was about. My dad (we call him Pop.. might be a mid western thing ) didn’t realize that I have super hero hearing and heard most of the joke. At the time I was around 8, so I didn’t really get the whole joke, but it was about bulls, matadors, and meatballs. A man repeated a restaurant for some great big meatballs, but was disappointed on an occasion with small meatballs…this is where the joke culminated with the waiter exclaiming “this week the bull won”. How terrible is this joke?! Im not sure why this has created a space in my brain, other than the confusion of why my family was enjoying this joke at the time. My only hope is that they were just being nice with fake complimentary laughs.
So as we planned our trip to Spain, I was looking forward to trying some meatballs… just kidding. But I was excited to finally have authentic tapas. Unfortunately on this trip (Nov 2012) the tapas did not live up to my expectations, but I did make a great friend in authentic paella…. almost more than friends. 🙂 For some reason the tapas just fell flat on both the occasions that we focused on just tapas. And what is the connection to Russian dressing on a bunch of the tapas choices…. someone has to tell when and how the Russians implanted that one?
Seville was a very charming city with a lot of different things to see, while keeping a small town vibe. We were lucky to have great weather for our trip being that it was in November. The Cathedral and Alcazar were amazing sights. And the nightlife was fun with an flamenco dance or two thrown in the mix. This was a busy trip where we took a military flight into Rota Spain and made our way to Seville and eventually flying out of Madrid back to Sicily. Spoiler alert…. Madrid will be the next post. 😎
Food listings:
Pepe Hillo – Very cool tapas bar near the plaza de toros, but the tapas were No Bueno. The famous matador would not be happy about his namesake.
Giralda Bar – Another disappointing tapas venture near the Giralda Cathedral. Rick Steve’s failed on this one. uh oh.
Santo – This is the restaurant at Hotel EME near the Cathedral. Awesome food.. especially the Paella. Paella was the star of the trip (food wise)!
Zelai – This was recommended by our B&B owner and it was a score for our dinner. Mini oxtail burgers and a Mussel cappuccino .. I did not mistype this.. pics below. I would like to come back to try their tapas sometime.
That was the most amazing flamenco show I’ve ever seen…it was very emotional. Anyway, when I lived in Spain I never saw flamenco like this. In case anyone is reading this and planning a trip…if you are in Seville, go see a show at Museo del Baile Flamenco. You won’t be dissapointed!