Our Spanish Hibernation 3:0

It’s always great welcoming guests to our temporary Spanish home and the larger apartment this year makes entertaining easier and more fun. Despite a ninety minute delay, a windy landing and a jammed arrivals hall, my brother and sister arrived in good form for a five day stay.

The weather has been somewhat wet of recent and the forecast was not looking brilliant, however they legged it to our terrace whenever the sun appeared and seemed to enjoy chilling out there as much as I do.

For the first night, we had planned to go for tapas in Pedregalejo. Unfortunately the ongoing renovation there had closed off most of the bars and restaurants that evening. A bit disappointing, but a swift Uber to the Plaza de la Merced and we were soon digging into padrón peppers, boquerones en vinagre, patatas bravas and some delicious empanadas.

In fact it was the start of quite a foodfest of a long weekend. We had superb Argentine cuisine in La Tribuna – a terrific pub in town which we had drunk in many times before but had never tried the food – and also found ourselves back in El Gastronauta where the guacamole is sublime and the paella excellent.

On their last night, we wandered ten minutes up the road to Bar La Herradura. This cosy locals bar serves great Spanish food – my favourite is the Estofado, a beef stew that melts in the mouth and is served with chips, a fried egg and plenty of pan to mop up the gravy.

We were of the mind to have a postre (dessert) and they had two interesting ones to choose from: flan de queso (a burnt cheesecake with the look of a creme caramel) and Natillas. Natillas, a traditional dessert of Andalucía, is a lemon custard with a Marie biscuit inset on top. Before serving, it is sprinkled with cinnamon. We decided to share one of each pudding. Both were extraordinary and quite delicious.

It’s Carnaval time here and we were lucky to see the opening parade through the city. A colourful set of floats, music, dancing and dazzling costumes. So glad we all got to enjoy some of the festivities and that we could include this in Marion and Colin’s visit.