Carnet here… in my quest to follow the sun this year we decided to hit the road after a month of intense rains in Portugal and look for sunshine in Spain. We hopped in our sort of beater rental car and started driving south to the Algarve where we met up with our dear friends the Freemans (they just moved the family to the Algarve) the second day in their new house. We went out to an Indian dinner and drank many bottles of wine. Their little piece of paradise is in the town of Carvoeiro. And they found paradise!

We left the next morning a little bleary eyed and made a beeline to Seville where we prepared ourselves for stuffing our stomachs and sunning our bodies (well just my belly and face). The skies cleared as we crossed the Spanish border and finally blue skies ahead! One thing we always notice is the transition from the very nice roads they build in Portugal to the much rougher “country” roads that are the highways in rural Spain. The Portuguese really know how to build freeways well (and charge lots of tolls).

When we booked last minute accommodations at the Hotel Centina we got the last two rooms. They were “suites” and they were magical with outdoor tubs on each secluded balcony.

Maybe we just picked a great location and the hotel is always almost full? Nope. Turns out Seville was packed with tourists. I mean it felt like we were there in the middle of summer. I guess people are figuring out that the “shoulder” months are a great time to travel? Maybe post depths-of-covid people are thinking like we are – life is short, play hard (SL’s famous saying that Rachel tends to keep at the forefront of her mind)? We decided to stay a second night and had to move Al/Maren down the block to the Casa de la Plata Hotel. Both places are perfectly located for walking around town and there is a large parking lot about two blocks away to leave your car.

Sleeping arrangements aside, let’s get down to the nitty gritty of our eating plans. As with all foraging expeditions for us there are some hits and misses. We never divulge the places we won’t return to… why bring up bad memories on a blog? We did enjoy two great spots.

Lunch at La Bartola turns out to be a bar that Rachel used to hang out at when she stayed in Sevilla last decade. She had her daily dose of Vino Tinto de Verano there. I think the bartenders all remembered hampig when she walked in as they were all yelling Ola to her. The lunch was spectacular and it was the best Salmorejo (ripe tomatoes, bread, extra virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar, and garlic) we had in Seville. Other notable dishes include the burrata salad, grilled octopus (you will notice we eat octopus everywhere we see it on the menu), pork cheeks, and chipirones.

The spot we loved for dinner was El Traga. We started with sardine toast (two types of sardines on avocado mash with piparras) and jamon iberico. The sardine toast was a knock out. I love anything with piparras on them. They are the guindilla peppers that I believe are more native to Basque country. Typically, they are pickled. They’re really mild and they add a nice hit of acid to things.

We followed those with a shrimp bao (wow), croquetas, and octopus salad. Yes, there’s a theme with us…octopus, octopus, octopus. The last dish, pork cheeks, was just meh compared to everything else. The wine was dynamite as was the service.