10/6/2015
We woke up at 5AM today because we scheduled the airport
shuttle to pick us up at 6AM. Our flight was at 8:25, and I thought it’d be
ample time to get to the airport (a 30 min ride). I didn’t know the driver was
going to pick up two other passengers all over the city, so by the time we
arrived at the airport, it was already nearing 7-ish. Yikes. Thank God the
airport is pretty small, though like most of Europe, they’ve reduced the
employee headcount and installed a bunch of self-check-in kiosks. There are employees
making sure you self-checked-in before they allow you to check in your luggage
at the counter, which means, allow additional time because there was a huge
line at the kiosks!
I’d booked our flights with United, but they codeshare with
TAP Portugal. After some confusion where I tried checking in using United’s
confirmation number, an employee told me to use the confirmation number under
TAP’s system. Finally, we’re getting somewhere. The boarding passes and luggage
tags print out, and then we move on over to the luggage check-in counter. So
many lines you have to wait in!
By the time we arrive at the gate (incidentally the very
last gate at the opposite end of the airport), we only had ten minutes before
boarding. A shuttle took us onto the tarmac to board a tiny jet plane, where we
saw the workers physically picking up the checked-in luggage and heaving them
onto the plane. This would never fly in America; just think of the lawsuits! “Oh,
my back hurts. Oh, I can’t work.” Etc, etc, etc.
Angel freaked out about how small the plane was, but the
flight was smooth and painless. It was so smooth, I didn’t even know we took
off until we were already in the sky (I’d fallen asleep). The flight to Seville
is one hour, but Seville is ahead of Lisbon by an hour.
It didn’t take long to clear customs. We just waltzed out of
the airport, and immediately to the left is the EA bus, which takes you to the
city center for 4 euro/person. If you don’t know Spanish, pay attention to the
stops! The driver doesn’t always stop at each stop, and it’s hard to understand
what the announcer says.
We got off at Paseo Colon, and I went around—on a hot humid
day, no less—trying to find our apartment. A well-meaning man tried to give me
proper instructions, though he also overshot a bit. I finally located a few
landmarks and was able to ascertain the location from those key points. As it
turns out, the hotel was only a block away from where I left Angel and my
parents waiting as I went a-searching. Google Maps may say Calle Santander, but
the receptionist desk is hidden, tucked away in a little courtyard with a cute
restaurant.
While I was checking in, Angel grabbed some brochures about
Seville. One of them turned out to be a flamenco museum that is highly rated,
and there’s a 2 euro/person discount. You know me with discounts! I’m so down
to go! The museum was opened by a famous flamenco dancer in 2006, and there are
performances every night. We’d been planning on one of those flamenco + dinner
shows, but if this is a famous dancer, then we want to see the real deal. I
went to reception to buy the tickets, but tonight’s shows—all three of them—are
sold out! Crazy! So we bought tomorrow’s—super excited! Angel read online that
if you sit in the front row, you might get the dancers’ sweat on you by the end
of the show. Hmmm…not sure how I feel about that! The seats are not assigned,
so reception told us to get there as early as possible for the best seats.
Our flight was delayed by an hour as they took their
la-di-da time loading and unloading the luggage, so by the time we checked into
the hotel, set everything down, and were finally able to go out and explore the
city, it was already 1:30pm. This, when we got up at 5am!
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| The kitchen in our cozy apartment |
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| Dining room |
First stop: lunch. Along the way, we saw the Plaza de Toros, which is the stadium ring where bullfighting happens:
I’d been super excited before our trip to
check out La Brunilda, voted #8 out of all the restaurants in Seville by the
ever-helpful TripAdvisor community. Based on our experience eating there, it
should be #1! Everything—and I mean everything—was so, so, soooo delicious.
Everything blew my mind, and we kept exclaiming we gotta make this and that when
we go home. And it was so cheap! We ordered half the menu and it was only 48
euros total! Total!
Most restaurants in Spain don’t open for lunch until 1pm, so
the lines really start forming around 2pm. We’d gotten there a tad early, as it
was near our hotel, and were able to snag the last table for 4 people. By the
time we left the restaurant, there was a line, people were waiting by the bar; so
you know this is a popular restaurant. A lot of the customers were locals too.
At a tapas bar, there are two portion sizes: tapas for
small, and raciones for large. We ordered everything tapas, but when the dishes
came on, they were pretty big portions. It’s like going to Napa and ordering an
entrée—that’s the size of these babies. We kept saying that in Napa, these
dishes would go for $18-26. Each.
Risotto with cheese – perfectly cooked, creamy and thick,
very flavorful with the sharp Idiazabal cheese. I’d eat this every day if I
could. Actually, I’d eat everything we got today over and over again if I
could.
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| Croquettes--the cute baskets are sold at Casa |
Ham croquette – texture was very nice. Oozy but not gummy. We
gotta improve ours, man. I think the ham was diced up very fine, added with
cheese and béchamel. Yum.
Gorgonzola croquette – this one surprised me. It was
freaking delish! The gorgonzola wasn’t overpowering at all, and the outside was
lightly crisp. Angel thinks it’s grounded panko crumbs, and she totally wants
to make this when we go home.
The food's so good, Dad's scraping the bowl. He never scrapes the bowl!
Squid with fried bread crumbs and eggs and herring roe:
I’ve always hated squid, but if ever I was tempted to like it, this dish would be it. It was very tender, lightly chewy, perfectly—and I mean perfectly—cooked. Mom’s had a lot of squid in her day, and she says they usually always end up overcooked. But this was absolutely divine. The fried bread crumbs tasted strangely like sweet potato, which was awesome, paired with a thin crepe-like omelet egg.
Iberian pork shoulder with glazed sweet potato – Dad really
liked this one. The slices of pork were crisply fried on the outside and tender
on the inside. Angel loved the sweet potatoes. Like candied yams, but tasted
healthier.
Duck confit with spiced carrot crème and pistachios – Angel
loved the carrot puree, and she hates veges. The duck confit fell off the bone,
it was so tender. The fatty slices were bites of heaven.
Look at the fat falling off the bone!
The foie gras with a sweet honey/spiced red wine sauce,
toasted sweet biscuit flakes, poached pear and sweet biscuits – Oh my god, the
foie gras was amazing! 13 euro for 5 huge ass, fatty slices of foie gras—how
can you beat that???
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| Oh yeah baby - foie gras! |
Beef tenderloin with potatoes and thyme – the potatoes were
sous vide so the inside was very soft and creamy while the outside was tenderly
crisp. The beef had an excellent beefy flavor, and the texture was very nice.
Spain adds a service charge if you sit down and eat, a
nominal 0.50 euro per person in this case. We didn’t know about this, and I
thought it was like Lisbon where they charge for the bread that we declined, so
I asked the waiter about the servicio. That’s when he explained that the fee is
for sitting down and viewing the menu. Different culture, right? He was nice
enough to waive it, so I gave him a 10% tip. In Spain, that’s considered
exorbitant. 5% is the norm. But I rather the waiter get the tip than a servicio
charge that I oppose on principal. The restaurant pockets this charge.
I bought a 100% UV-proof hat at DSW that Mom really liked. But Angel thinks it's horrendous and makes me look like Paddington the bear. That became my nickname for the duration of the trip.
After lunch, we walked to the Seville Cathedral and La
Giralda, which are attached to each other. La Giralda is the bell tower of the
cathedral, built in the Moorish period. The whole square is very quaint, and
reminds me of Havana Cuba in the movies for some reason. I guess it’s the
architecture? Plus the colorful horse carriages waiting to take tourists around
the city.
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| Seville Cathedral |
The main attractions in Seville are all pretty consolidated in one square. Across the cathedral is Real Alcazar:
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| Real Alcazar |
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| La Giralda Tower |
I wanted to go to the Museo de Bellas Artes, Spain’s second
most famous museum after the Prado in Madrid. Angel pointed out where (she
thought) the museum was on the map, and when the parents saw how far away it
was, they said no freaking way. Dad wanted to go to a supermarket to buy grapes
and his breakfast for tomorrow (always thinking about his next meal), so off
we went on the hunt for supermarkets. Based on TripAdvisor, we knew there
weren’t that many supermarkets in the city center. It was slim pickings, it
was.
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| Guess Museo de Bellas Artes is outta the question |
We were able to find the El Corte Ingles department store relatively easily (El Corte Ingles stores dominate Seville—we counted at least six of them today!). They have a supermarket in the basement. But the parents weren’t impressed with the selection, so off we went to the next market. The hotel receptionist had drawn out the markets on our map, but we struck out with the first two. We went all over Seville looking for these markets, so along the way, we encountered:
...it's the home goods store we found in Lisbon. Angel became obsessed with this store and insisted on going into every Casa she could find. She even mapped them out for us. What a courtesy.
It was pretty hot and our clothes were sticking to our
backs, so the parents were getting a little short-tempered. But gelato cheered Dad right up:
The Metropol Parasol, or The Mushroom, as locals have taken to calling it, houses a gourmet market hall underneath it. Across from it is a small market with stalls selling scarves, hats and the like. When the Mushroom was first completed in 2011, the locals hated it. It is kinda ugly...considering how much money went into building it!
You can walk the rooftop of the Mushroom, though I think it costs money to go up there.
Seville's famous for its orange trees:
The third one the receptionist circled was the Plaza des Armas, which has
a large supermarket in the basement called Mercanado, and a movie theater on
the second floor. The first floor has small stalls displaying artists’ works.
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| Plaza des Armas |
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| Mercado Lonja del Barronco |
The last market the receptionist circled is called Mercado Lonja del Barronco, which I’d originally wanted to go to anyway. It opened earlier this year to great fanfare, as it was opened by a famous retired bullfighter. It’s like a gourmet food court, much like the Mercado de la Ribeira in Lisbon. The market is housed in a beautiful glass building with lovely décor. By the time we ambled here, it was already 8:30pm, but we weren’t really hungry as we ate so much for lunch.
Chef cutting Iberico jamon, the famed ham leg of Spain:
Spain's known for its seafood too:
With the tantalizing options before us, we ended up
buying a heck of a lot more than we intended. First up, empanada with chicken
and gorgonzola:
Empanada with salmon and cheddar:
Spanish tortilla, which is like a potato gratin with egg and
Iberico ham:
Nope, tortilla in Spain is not the same thing as tortilla in Mexico. So don't confuse the two!
4 different flavors of croquettes: oxtail, spinach and truffle oil, jamon iberico,
gorgonzola. These were good, but not as good as La Brunilda’s.
Gelato: Death by Chocolate, and Crème Catalana, which was
absolutely divine. I guess I am changing; there was a point in my life where I
hated crème catalana and anything custard. But I loved the Portuguese egg tarts
this time, and the crème catalana was a very unexpected surprise. It just
looked so good in the display case, with a whole layer of caramel on top, that
I had to ask the cashier about it. She was kind enough to give me a sample, and
when I tasted it, I think everything in the world just stopped. I could only
think of how tasty this was! The caramel swirls were finger-licking good.
Angel: I don’t think so…you dropped some on your shirt and you didn’t lick your
shirt.
Angel said the Death by Chocolate tasted a lot like the gelato I made, except the texture was a whole lot softer. I have yet to figure out how to serve homemade gelato at the right temp straight from the freezer. Gotta learn this!
When we go to the markets, we see a shitload of ham and
cheese (a whole package for 1 euro!), and we wish we could buy everything in
sight. A bottle of red wine was 1.35 euro. Argh, I wish we had more time here!
After dinner, we walked along the river back to our
apartment, and passed the Pointe Isabel bridge. There were a lot of people
walking down beside the river, which looked like a very romantic stroll. People
were jogging along the river too.
Mom's cold. For some reason on this trip, when it's cold out, she doesn't bring a jacket. When it's hot out, she brings the jacket. Go figure. :T
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