I know we are already a week into 2016, but in Spain it doesn’t really feel like the New Year gets properly underway until the Three Kings have come on the evening of the 5th of January and thrown literally thousands of kilograms of sweets in the air. This is followed by the final public holiday of the festive season, after which people get back to work and a little bit of reality.
So just the other night the streets of Seville became filled with thousands of people watching all manner of floats go past, floats that were all filled with sugar hyped children who aimlessly threw sweets into the crowd, leaving those unexperienced (like myself) ducking for cover from flying candy bombs. This was “The Three Kings” marking the end of the holiday season in the sweetest way possible, all while I was realising that it’s time to accept that 2015 has to come to a close and now it really is 2016.
It could seem that due to the bad blogger that I’ve been slow updates throughout 2015 that not much has been going on, but actually, it’s been quite the opposite. 2015 was the year that I left the vagabond life behind. 2015 was the year that I made a massive change work wise. 2015 was the year that I decided to call Seville home for the foreseeable future. It’s not all been sunshine and rainbows, but here’s 12 memorable food and travel moments that stood out among the madness of the last 12 months.
1. Fraser Island & Fresh Oysters With Pomegranate
2015 started off with a group of friends, a sturdy ute, and a load of tents, ropes, and cases of beer and cider in the back. We made our way from Sydney up the north coast of NSW, camping in various backyards along the way, but our main destination was Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island which is located just off the north east coast of Australia. For those who ever plan to go to Australia, put Fraser Island on your list. Don’t ask questions, just do it. But make sure you take a sense of adventure and a friend who happens to be good at car mechanics.
After a week of dodging dingos, skidding over sand dunes and splashing in the shark infested sea that surrounds the inland beauty, it was time to leave this paradise and make our way down to Byron Bay for a long weekend of more friends, more cases of beer and cider, and this time splashing in the sea lice infested sea. Luckily, we had rented a truly amazing house just down the road in Suffolk Park, that was not only decorated in a style that can only be described as troubled artists meets Mexico, it had a private swimming pool skirting the exterior of the house down the back.
You might not be able to swim in the ocean around Australia’s Fraser Island, but there are inland lakes like this one that are like paradise and perfect for swimming. This is the most beautiful of them all, Lake McKenzie.
After Byron Bay I flew down to Adelaide and had myself an unexpected “gastronomic week” which involved both the Unley Gourmet Gala, a food festival which closes off one of Adelaide’s inner city suburban high streets, allowing the restaurants to put stalls out the front offering fast food versions of their favourite dishes, as well as other street food pop ups, and makeshift roadside bars popping corks like popcorn.
But perhaps the best thing I ate this whole entire week was the weekend that followed at the annual Crush Festival in the Adelaide Hills, just 45 minutes drive from the city. This festival involved moving from winery to winery, checking out the food and drink on offer, and it was at Lobethal Road, while sipping on a glass of their crisp Chardonnay, that I had a chance to try these amazing oysters topped with pomegranate vinagerette.
Amazing oysters with pomegranate vinaigrette and Chardonnay from Lobethal Road winery in the Adelaide Hills, Australia.
2. Skydiving & Amazing Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup)
Much of February was spent in Australia at my parents house in Kangaroo Valley, on the south coast of NSW in Austrlaia. Kangaroo Valley and the surrouding region, despite the name, might not be so much known for kangaroos as it is for cute mining towns, lush bushland, and beautiful, unspoilt coastline. Oh, and there is one other reason people might make a trip down to this part of Australia – skydiving!
The beach at North Wollongong, about 1.5 hours drive from my parents house – which by Australian standards is just down the road, is home to Skydive The Beach, so when in February I had the opportunity to go, I knew I just had to (and of course, get photos of it!). As you can probably guess by the look on my face, I loved it, and I am planning to go again in the not-to-distant future at a place near Seville.
Skydiving over North Wollongong Beach in NSW, Australia.
Doing the skydive was one moment in my life when I wasn’t actually thinking of food and what to eat next, but when food calls, there are plenty of cafes – even some of the slightly hipster variety – to be found in various towns around the south coast. While in this part of Australia I particularly enjoyed leisurely brunches at the Blue Swimmer Cafe, followed by walks on Gerroa beach, but the thing I enjoyed most about eating in Australia in general was the abundance of Asian food.
It was not long after my sky diving adventure that I met my dad for lunch near his office in Sydney’s CBD. Given that Australia has become (in)famous for being horrendously expensive, one could not be blamed for assuming that in the centre of the city of Sydney the only thing to be found is expensive restaurants and overpriced sandwiches. But that’s not quite the case.
Thanks to Australia’s large Asian population, there are a handful of cheep and cheerful Asian eateries to be found, even in the CBD, and given that my dad eats at them five times a week and is quite the regular customer, he gets a kick out of introducing me to his favourite local haunts. In fact, at the particular place that served up the following dish, he sometimes takes a bag of chillis from the blossoming chilli plant at home and trades them in for a meal.
This eatery where I ate this particular pho was an eatery that I’d never been to before, and as I’d already tried extremely good pho at a similar place down the road, I was skeptical. But the pho at My Selection Cafe lived up to my exceptions, which had been set pretty high thanks to my father, and was the next best thing to being on the side of the road in the streets of Hanoi, breathing in motorbike fumes while accidentally splashing Pho broth on my face in an attempt to eat it.
- Read about all the Asian food I ate in Sydney, and all the Asian food I ate in Adelaide.
Huge, cheap and satisfying pho at My Selection Cafe in Sydney’s CBD.
3. Altea & Local Wine & Liqueur
Before heading back to Spain, I googled “the warmest place in Spain in March” to figure out where my first stop would be. Google told me about a small town I’d never heard of called Altea, in the Alicante provience of the Valencia region.
Due to the microclimate that surrounds this town, it is one of the warmest and driest places in mainland Spain, when Spain hasn’t quite warmed up from the winter, and as I had already made loose plans to go to Valencia for the annual Las Fallas festival in March, that settled it. Altea would be my first stop.
The view from Altea in the Alicante province of Spain. This was the beginning of March – practically winter still! So beautiful!
While I was in Altea, I went on a day trip to explore the surrounding mountains, and on the way I passed a small village that had the grand total of one local restaurant open for lunch. While the food was great, one thing that I really enjoyed was trying the local wine and liqueur.
First up, unexpectedly while waiting for the meal, the owner came over to our table with a bota, a nowadays nearly obsolete goatskin bag purposed for carrying wine. He instructed me to open my mouth, and gave one long squirt of a sweet, light liquid.
This liquid was mistela, a sweet fortified wine, unlike what I usually associate sweet wines to be like due to its light, delicate texture. It’s made from mostcatel grapes and very typical to the Valencia region, although I was more accustomed to being served it at the end of meal in restaurants in Valencia, than it being squirted in my mouth, straight from the bota, and before the meal had even begun!
Just as the meal had began – with a special alcoholic touch, let’s say – the meal ended, but this time, instead of sweet mistela from a bag, it was an obligatory shot of a potent homemade liqueur. It bore no name, but was alcohol infused with 27 different types herbs, nuts, fruits and cinnamon – something to really get the blood pumping and the digestion moving at the end of a big meal!
Drinking a typical Valencian sweet wine, mistela, straight from the bota, a goats skin bag purposed for carrying wine.
4. Slovenia & Seafood Rice
In April I went to my first new country of 2015 which was Slovenia. Okay, so to tell the truth it was 100% work related, but I spent a week by the beautiful Lake Bled, with many opportunities to walk around and explore the natural beauty that makes up this part of the world.
It reminded me that living in Europe we all have so many great places right on our doorstop, and I need to make more of an effort to explore some more. This wasa sort-of resolution for 2015, but my year panned out very different to what I expected in the end, so it turned out that I didn’t have much of an opportunity to do this. However, in 2016 I already have loose plans to add a couple of new nearby countries to my travels. But I digress.
Lake Bled in Slovenia – a truly beautiful little spot!
In Bled I ate my body weight in pork, and left vowing never to eat pork again – or at least, for awhile. So when I arrived in my next stop of 2015 which was Lisbon, I was quite ready to gorge on something different, perhaps a speciality to the local area. Given that Portugal has nearly 1,000 kilometres of coastline (and is only 150 kilometres wide – at the widest point!) that speciality happened to be one of my favorite things – seafood.
I did check out Cervejaria Ramiro, somewhat of an institution in Lisbon, where waiters rush around in penguin coats and bow ties, bouncing between wooden tables that are lined with white paper tablecloths, where people like myself are seated with the best part of their crab through their hair, and water running down their hands from the percebes that have been sucked out of their skin.
But my favourite eating experience in Lisbon was definitely at a hole-in the wall restaurant I found while walking back to my hotel one evening. From the street I heard music creeping out through the cast iron bars that were covering the windows, windows which fronted a non-descript basement of a building. But then I smelt the food. I knew I had to go in.
Maria Mil Reis is run by two Brazilian brothers, and between them and their staff give the place an energetic, festive vibe, which is completed with mismatched decor and interesting liqueurs flowing freely. But of course, the most important thing is the food. Still all “porked out” from Slovenia, I settled on arroz de marisco, mixed seafood and rice which came cooked in a claypot and finished off with a handful of fresh parsley. Aside from being incredibly fresh and delicious, it was big enough to feed myself and two friends, if I’d so wished. Don’t worry though, I ate it all myself.
I loved this seafood rice at Maria Mil Reis in the centre of Lisbon, fresh, local and amazing food!
5. Alentejo & Seafood at Arte y Sal
Although I love Lisbon, after a few days there it was time to explore a part of Portugal that I’d never been to before. Alentejo is the region wedged in-between Lisbon and the famous Algarve coastline, and with every kind of terrain from mountains to sea, means it is literally a food lovers paradise.
While most visitors to Portugal visit the Algarve region and larger cities such as Lisbon and Porto, regions like Alentejo remain almost entirely untouched by tourism (perhaps, with the exception of Évora, a place I would like to describe as a small hilltop town, but is actually the capital city of the region). This itself makes the region a pleasure to visit, but it is especially if you are in search of a place that has great food made with love, passion and stories behind it.
Smelling the flowers in the countryside of Alentejo, Portugal.
It’s really hard for me to pick one stand out meal, dish or experience in Alentejo because everything I experienced there told it’s own special story – from the olives from the 3,000 year old olive tree to the never ending desserts crafted out of orange and egg yolk, I loved it all. But I guess one stand out experience was lunch at Restaurante Arte y Sal. And not just because I love seafood.
We sat down to a feast, carefully prepared by the the owner, Carlos Barros, which included sardines (a staple in Portugal), blue mussels cooked in tomato sauce, clams, and fresh John Dory fish which had been “swimming in the ocean in the morning”. For a seafood lover, this was heaven!
An amazing seafood feast at Arte y Sal in Sines, a small city in Portugal’s Alentejo region.
6. Girona & Can Bolet Restaurant
After such a full on start to 2015, I decided I needed a couple of weeks to “get away from it all”, so I headed to Girona, a smaller city about an hour or so north of Barcelona. My week in Girona (aside from staying in my rented apartment and working) involved eating, taking a stroll around the city, sipping on an evening glass of cava and eating some more.
Girona is a beautiful little town, perfect for relaxing, exploring and taking a lifetime’s worth of photos. It was also while I was here in Girona that I made a huge decision which would completely change all of my upcoming plans, which was to leave my job at Intrepid Travel and start working the following month with Devour Seville Food Tours.
Girona, a cute little city in the north of Catalunya in Spain.
After Girona I headed to Lloret de Mar for the TBEX Travel Blogging Conference. I don’t really have anything noteworthy to say about Lloret de Mar itself (which is, at least in the summer months, is a beach town which is overrun by tourists who’ve come to soak up sun by day, and cause ruckus in the town by night). Let’s just say, i wasn’t expecting to find a restaurant with a local ambience, serving up home cooked, hearty Catalan dishes.
But if there is one thing my radar is fine tuned to, it’s finding good places to eat, so well within 24 hours of being in Lloret de Mar I had discovered Can Bolet, a local restaurant serving up typical local dishes using fresh market produce since 1961. It was just my kind of place, so I did something I don’t usually do and returned there several times over the course of the week.
One of the things that is not so common in Seville as other parts of Spain, it the amazing value menu del día (menu of the day) to be found in restaurants. It means that you get a starter, main course, dessert and wine (often the bottle just left on the table!) for a fixed price, which is seriously cheaper than ordering a la carte.
Of course, it means that the selection of dishes is smaller, but a good place has a selection of the regular dishes available anyway, and there is usually a few choices for each course. I found myself visiting often at lunch time, so took full advantage of Can Bolet’s menu del día that was on offer.
Arroz negro (black rice) was one of the dishes on the menu del día at Can Bolet in Lloret de Mar.
7. Tarifa & Bar El Frances
May was the month that I quickly made my way back over to Seville – but this time, to stay put! While I was busy working, leading the first tours of Devour Seville Food Tours, I did manage to get out of the city a little bit, and my first weekend escape from Seville was none other than a short jaunt to a nearby beach town that I love – Tarifa.
Unfortunately the weather decided to be against me this particular weekend, so plans of spending time on the (albeit windy) beach were ruined. But that was okay, because it just meant I had more time to eat! It was the beginning of the tuna season, which meant that various restaurants around the town were taking advantage of this and serving a menu full of various tuna specialities.
But although I love tuna, perhaps my favourite eating experience during this weekend in Tarifa was at a little bar that I had always had on my radar but never had the opportunity yo check out, Bar El Frances. Even at 9.30pm on a Saturday night, which is “early” by Spanish standards, this tiny little place was already rammed. I managed to squeeze up near the bar, order a vino blanco, and study the menu.
It all seemed so good, so I just went all in and ordered a few different tapas. I don’t know whether I didn’t look at the prices, didn’t look at what people around me where eating, or the vino blanco was already getting to my head, but many of the “tapas” I ordered actually turned out to be raciones (full plates) – and HUGE raciones at that!
But what’s a girl supposed to do when faced with a mountain of food? Well, eat it, of course! While the patatas bravas were good and the tuna was nice, it was the aubergine baked with tomato sauce, goats cheese and rocket was something else. It was full of flavour and perfectly cooked, and besides, how can you go wrong with goats cheese?! I can’t believe I DID NOT TAKE A PHOTO OF THIS AMAZING DISH (but I robbed one off their Facebook page, not quite the same but you get the idea).
Stuffed aubergine at Bar El Frances in Tarifa. Photo Credit: Facebook
8. Seville & ‘Gin Tonic On A Plate’
Sometimes when you are on the road all the time, it can be easy to forget the benefits of actually staying in one place. So the middle of the year, around June and July, I was busy re-learning all these benefits again. Part of appreciating the fruits of Seville involved eating in a whole lot of different places, but one place that particularly stood out for me was a restaurant in Seville’s El Arenal neighbourhood called Petite Comite.
The summer sun setting over Seville’s River Guadalquivir.
In fact, just the other day my friend who I shared this particular dish with, commented to me that we simply have to repeat it some day soon. We will. Now, I’m not usually one for desserts. But I’m one for gin. I’m one for citris. I’m one for sorbet. Combine all three and what do you have? Dessert heaven – or “Gin Tonic On A Plate” which is gin & tonic jelly, accompanied by lemon sorbet, and a sauce of bitter orange and juniper!
I’m not usually a huge dessert person, but this “Gin Tonic On A Plate” at Petite Comite in Seville was amazing!
9. London & Street Food Truck’s Tacos
In a bid to escape the gripping heat that burns down Seville in the peak of summer, I went across to the UK with my jacket and gumboots in tow – okay, not really. At least not the gumboots. But I should’ve, if I owned some, because my “summer holiday” was washed out and 16 degrees most of the time. I swore to my parents that for our next summer holiday, we are going to Croatia!
Weather aside, London is always an exciting trip for me, mostly entirely for the fact that some of my best friends in the world still live there, making it an 100% social occasion. But since my parents were in town, we decided to take some time to visit others places in the UK while we were at it.
We travelled up to Manchester (Virgin Trains First Class, thank you!) then hopped in our rental car and went across to North Wales to visit – among other places – Portmeirion, a village designed and built between 1925 and 1975 by a Welsh architect, who intended it to mimic an Italian village. Nowadays, it’s owned by a charitable trust and is little more than a tourist attraction, but it’s an interesting place to visit none the less.
Portmeirion, a little village in North Wales designed in the style of an Italian village.
One doesn’t go on holiday to the UK looking for amazing food experiences (although that being said, I did find a surprising cafe in the north of wales serving great gluten free food). Even London, where it is possible to find all manners of restaurants and cuisine, it’s never the best experience as the price/quality ratio is often, well, rather large.
But since I visited London last the street food truck trend has taken off and taken over the city, particularly in East London which is where I tend to spend all my time (I know, hipster alert). So in light of this trend, I was eager to find out what London’s food trucks were really all about.
I often approach food trucks with caution as to me food trucks means burgers, which means better luck next time when you are looking for gluten free food. However, it turns out that everything one thought about food trucks needs to be rethought when visiting them in London as there were concepts and cuisines that have never been seen coming out of the side of a van before.
But creative food truck offerings aside, I am addicted to Mexican food and flavours, so as soon as I saw “tacos” I knew that would be my place. The tacos were made with 100% corn flour tortillas (gluten free win!) and the chicken was breaded in 100% corn flour (double win!). I ordered one box of 3 tacos (9 pounds, which by London standards is not bad), then loved them so much that I went back for seconds.
London’s street food trucks sell a whole range of things, but I just loved these tacos so much I had to go back for seconds!
10. Lagos del Serrano & (Whole) Rabbit Rice
Before the autumn and winter settled into Seville, I got one last trip in with friends to a nearby lake for an afternoon of sun, swim and cerveza. One of the things that I love about Seville is that once you are in the car, it doesn’t take long to be out of the city and out into the countryside of Andalucía, and in the mere 30 minutes that it takes to drive to Lagos de Serrano, you feel like you have escaped to the wild.
The Lagos de Serrano are just a short drive outside of Seville, but a world away from the city.
Well, not quite. There is a non-descript pueblo not far from the lake, and alongside the lake there is a perfectly located local eatery where you can fill up on hearty local dishes and pass the time with a cerveza in hand. On this particular visit to the lake, Sunday lunch was calling us. Upon enquiring about the dishes we were told that if we were willing to wait around an hour, they could prepare for us their speciality of arroz con conejo. Rabbit rice? Why not.
Swimming and more cerveza passed the time as we waited for our rabbit rice to be ready. Eventually, our host brought out out a huge cazuela filled with rice and a rabbit. They weren’t lying when they said it was rabbit rice – nearly the whole rabbit, aside from the skin, was to be found inside.
The skull, with its teeth intact, was clearly identifiable and for those in the know, the heart and other such organs could easily be picked out from the other pieces of meat. But gizzards aside, it was an experience, and a fresh and tasty local meal at that!
Rice with…wait for it…practically a whole rabbit inside!
11. Cadiz & Delicious Boquerones (White Anchovies)
Of all the places I’ve been in Spain, I can’t quite believe that until last September, I’d never actually been to Cadiz. Cadiz is only an hour or so south of Seville, and combines a city made up of a mishmash of architectural styles which spans centuries – after all, Cadiz is the oldest inhabited city in Spain – with the city beaches, giving the city an almost island sort of vibe, and of course, amazing seafood.
When I checked into my hotel in Cadiz, I asked the receptionist for a recommendation for food – somewhere that he would like to eat. He gave a very vague, very unsure answer about a restaurant that had no name. I did enquire about its lack of name, but he assured me that if I made my way to a particular square, I would find it. Dubious, but worth a shot. (Side note: It does have a name, Taberna El Tio de la Tiza, basically it takes the name of the square where it is located and takes up almost the entirely of this hidden square).
The beautiful seaside city of Cadiz in the very south of Spain.
What followed were plates of all manners of fish and seafood, washed down with glasses of local vino blanco (yeah okay, you know me by now!) I tried everything from mojama (cured tuna loin) to mussels, but the standout plate here was something so simple, something so quintessentially Spanish. It was the boquerones.
Boquerones are white anchovies, larger that what we would typically consider an anchovy to be and without the sharp taste. In Spain they are eaten simply with vinegar, garlic, parsley and lemon. It’s amazing that something so simple can be so damn satifsying – and I don’t just say that because they happen to go perfectly with wine!
These boquerones with olive oil, vinegar, parsley and garlic at Taberna El Tio de la Tiza in Cadiz were simply amazing!
12. The ‘pueblos blancos’ of Andalucía & De Locos Tapas
When people think of Andalucía, they think of Granada’s Alhambra palace, they think of Costa del Sol’s coastline and the idea of catching some rays on the sand, and of course, they think of exploring the capital city, none other than Seville. But often people forget to think of everything in between, which is the smaller towns and villages dotted throughout the region that make up the real charm of this area.
Ronda is the most famous pueblo blanco (white village) in Andalucía, but in fact there are a whole lot with many different things to offer, so I spent a weekend in November exploring some of the villages on the offical “Ruta de los Pueblos Blancos”.
There was Setenil de las Bodegas, known for its houses which are built into the side of rocks, creating an unusual setting of cave like houses throughout the villages. Then Olvera with its hilltop castle looking out down below. But for me, the most beautiful of them all was Zahara de la Sierra, not for the village itself (although its super cute!) but for the amazing views that you get from the village. I don’t need to say any more – like they say, a picture paints 1,000 words.
The view from Zahara de la Sierra, a pueblo blanco in Andalucia.
Of course, I couldn’t visit Andalucía’s pueblos blancos without stopping by Ronda, even if I have been there more times than I can count! I’ll be honest – I love Ronda, but I didn’t come here to see the town. Arriving in the evening, it just seemed like the perfect place to start my adventure and gave me the perfect opportunity to eat in one of my favourite restaurants, De Locos Tapas.
For the average visitor to Ronda this little tapas spot, which is located on the edge of the town centre, is easily over looked (despite it’s high rating on I used to have the good fortune of being able to frequent this place every couple of weeks, but it has been over a year since my last visit. I was happy to see the smiling faces of the owners, and equally happy to tuck into some old favourite tapas and some tasty new ones too!
Truffled eggs with ham at De Locos Tapas in Ronda, served, as always, in their own creative way. Love it!
So that was 2015, what about 2016? Well, I’m not one for wild promises or wacky New Year’s Resolutions, so I’m going to leave it at that and see what 2016 has in store!
Cat of Sunshine and Siestas says
Zahara is at the very top of my list this year! All of my plans have been rained out. Looks like a delicious year – hope you meet you in 2016.
Cyra says
You must! It’s seriously beautiful! My parents are visiting in March so I think that will be a good excuse for me to return then. Plus, I want to explore some more places in the area that I didn’t get a chance to explore yet! Absolutely, I hope our paths will cross – let’s make it happen!
Hans says
What a year filled with amazing food … what will 2016 hold? My appetite is primed already!