day 3, sevilla: ghost town.

day 3: sevilla, bodeguita romero.

night 2: sevilla, la chunga.

There's lots to say about this night, it was our first "big city night", we walked from the catherdral and Bodega Santa Cruz/Las Columnas down to the river and a McDonalds-y beer terrace to talk about morbid shit for hours: the red dragonfly I "saved" from the pool; the infamous drunk driving decapitation from my "hometown"; getting bad news on vacation; the allure of nihilism and related danger...

...and then we were finally hungry again at about 21:30, so we slowly made our way through a semi-deserted and unpromising-looking "business district" to find La Chunga somehow absolutely packed. "Really?" "Why?" "What's happening?"

Nelson put her name on "the list", which was a chalkboard, and every 3 or 4 minutes someone would come out and shout a few names out. You really had about 8 seconds to respond or it was onto the next name. We had a couple of tinto de veranos in our hands and things were moving along pretty swiftly, so it seemed like a pretty good system.

Sure enough, maybe 10 minutes later they called "Nelson", and we flew over to the door and got seated. It was a whirlwind of activity in there, I imagine you really only had one chance to order, questions about the menu seemed unwise. But I must say, the first bite of this risotto was one of the best mouthfuls of food I had in Spain the whole week:

'
It was a literally creamy risotto de calabacín y parmesano, with a solid hint of truffle in there somewhere also. Really good. There was also a goat cheese salad with walnuts and grilled squash, fine, but below, another really great bite, croquetas de setas y trufa con alioli de cebolla. The patatas bravas (also below) were OK I guess, nicely smoky and picante, but they ended up being left on the table in favor of all the other yumminess. Can't quite remember the exact bill but I want to say €21....I'm sure it was less than €25. Incredibly cheap for the sophistication of the cooking, plus it was vibrant and fun as well as being our first exceptional food of the week. By the time we left at 22:30 the waiting list seemed twice as long. Slight minpunt: really loud despite having no music.

day 2: ronda to sevilla.

night 1: ronda.

Lots to say about this day, including something about revueltos and how this was our last one ever.

day 1: torremolinos.

day 0: torremolinos.

open the gates.

preminscion.

Temperatures are high in our fair city this week, today it was 91F. Also, I have officially wandered beyond the upper range of my perpetual weight seesaw. Thus a week of Salad Concepts.

0) spinach; strawberry; Granny Smith; red onion; pistachio; mustard; balsamic, olive oil, optional fried goat cheese.
1) iceberg; blue cheese; buttermilk; mayonnaise; pine nut; cranberry; black pepper.
2) vadouvan-rubbed cod in nuoc cham with red onions.
3) cherry tomato; toasted almond; plum; sherry vinegar; olive oil; fresh basil.
4) watermelon, tomato, soy, shallot, lime, feta, basil, mint, scallion.
5) beet, orange, red onion, red wine vinegar, pistachio, basil, goat cheese.

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round the clock.

Just in time for summer, I think this wintry vegan comfort food recipe is finally "solved". And as is often the case, the solution is to remove everything except the star ingredients, which are: the tempeh, marinated for 3 hours, with either soy or tamari as the salty element; the ruby slaw, made the day before; the potatoes, either meticulously mashed or crushed lazily; and some version of the gravy...in the end not a sandwich at all but much more of a vegan stamppot.

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ai ai ai que calor.

In conjunction with a very brief return visit to Ronda, there's a general tour of tropically hot (42°C/108°F in Sevilla this week) southern Spain planned as well as an excursion into the heart of European Summer Tourist Idiocy. Oh, plus a night in Fucking Africa. In July. Join me, won't you?

TORREMOLINOS
Styles Music Bar. Karaoke Professionals. Need I say more.
Stamcafe Torremolinos. One step more nonsensical: a Dutch karaoke bar in a Spanish beach resort town. Last night there was a Herring Party there, I kid you not.
Restaurante la Viña de Ale. Among the best-looking things I could find, which is not saying anything.
VD REVIEW: Not very good.
El Gato Lounge. Looks semi-horrible but Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews are positively glowing. From breakfast to late-night. VD REVIEW: Much better, should have eaten here the night before. 

SEVILLA
Horno San Buenaventura. "Best coffee in town." Service maybe not so much. Breakfast. Wildly mixed reviews.
Confiteria La Campana. Better reviews. Cakes and coffee.
Casa Morales. 160 years old and highly unfancy.
Bodega Santa Cruz/Las Columnas. Seems like another very reliable "traditional" option.....very popular. VD REVIEW: OK, fast, friendly, serving potato chips with everything gets old very fast. 
Bodeguita Romero. Consistently great reviews, sounds like I have to try the pringá montaditos, but they are also known for vegetarian stuff (review). VD REVIEW: Our favorite lunch of the trip I think. 
Enrique Becerra. Kind of a step in a more modern direction, in very traditional surroundings. Reviews are kind of mixed about whether it's a tourist trap or not. Maybe worth one bite (review). VD REVIEW: We went for a drink and a glass of ajo bianco, and it was great, but the dinner menu's prices were crazy expensive. 
Eslava. Even though they have something called "fried blood with onions" on the menu, they're considered "vegetarian friendly". The bar side of things seems like the doable "fancy" option in town, the only potential downside being that it's literally ranked #2 out of 1,726 retaurants in Sevilla on TripAdvisor (review).
La Azotea. Also "vegetarian friendly", in case Eslava doesn't work out. Looks a tiiiiiny bit ehhhh not cosy enough (review).
Dulcería Manu Jara. Across the river near the flamenco bars, this is the location for sweet stuff, check hours.
La Chunga Tapas y Platos. Near one of the bridges that head over the river, great reviews here and here. VD REVIEW: Fun, frantic, and great food. 
Duo Tapas.  "Vegetarian friendly", up near the Alameda, great reviews here and here.

TANGIER 
Hotel Continental. This explains a little. This too.
Rif Kerabdani. Vegetarian Moroccan food near the Casbah and Hotel Continental. Assuming we make it to the bnb, "more adventure" is not really the goal at that point. VD REVIEW: Just about the sweetest restaurant service ever, but the food was extremely unexciting. I would look for somewhere else. 

VEJER DE LA FRONTERA
El Central Restaurante & Cervecería & Tapería. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, bodega.
Los Quatro Gatos. Good reviews, not totally my taste stylistically, whatever that means.
Bar Abaceria La Oficina. Looks "quirky" but/and close to the bnb. 
El Jardin del Califa. Fancy sit-down Moroccan in a hotel, but despite all that, great reviews. Looks somehow cool temperature-wise.

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week 23.

lasagnioli.

Prepare for an extreme lack of thrilling content, but this needs to be written down for repeatability's sake.

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ravioli dough and/or lasagna filling.

dough
2 cups flour
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
water if necessary to combine

Combine flour and salt. Add eggs, work them in with a fork or dough hook of a mixer. Add water if necessary to make this a dough. Form into a ball and knead until smooth. Cover with plastic and let rest for at least 30 minutes, in the fridge is fine. Then roll it out and run through a pasta machine.

filling
250g ricotta
a healthy pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
1 cup parmigiano-reggiano
1/2 egg, beaten

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