A taste of Seville - By: worldhoteldir

The capital of Andalucía in southern Spain is the home of flamenco and of tapas, Spain’s culinary
gift to the world. Martin Bewick travelled there to get a flavour of this historical city

Seville is worth a visit for its cuisine alone. Not because of its good dining , perhaps, but because it is home of tapas. Tapas was developed in Andalucía, the Spanish location of which Seville is the capital. The word tapa comes from the classic Spanish custom of covering (tapando) a wine glass with a smaller, complimentary dish of ham or bread before serving it in the bar to a thirsty, hungry visitor. Nowadays it has come to mean snack or light bite, though you may also order tapas dishes as a ración - a greater dish of food.

Traveling to Seville the first time, like I did in the warm heat of August, you are struck simply by how much time the residents - Sevillanos - spend in and around the city’s Four Thousand or so tapas bars, eating regional meals and chatting with friends and strangers over a glass of the region’s fortified wine, jerez - sherry to us Brits. There is little point trying to select which are the finest of the bodegas (which literally translated means ‘stores’) and tabernas (taverns) where tapas are served. None will win a Michelin star - this is certainly closer to street food than nouvelle cuisine and, in any event, there's basically a lot of choice that comparisons are made meaningless. One taberna might have a great tasting plate of chorizos al vino ( hot and spicy sausages in red wine) or maybe garlicky snails, when another will have a fresh catch of chipirones (baby squid) on that day. It is really a matter of preferences.

In the older, traditionally authentic tapas bars, the switching menus are lined up daily on a blackboard, while in the touristy streets the menus are more formulaic and are generally published in translation for the aid of the city’s many travellers. Don’t be put off the tourist-friendly dining places, however, as the residents all enjoyably roam from tapas bar to the other regardless. The truth is there is a word for this: to tapear. In numerous of the bodegas and tabernas, legs of jamon Iberico (ham) hang on the wall space, all set to be cut into wafer thin slices and served with a sherry or a cool beer at lunch break. When it comes to sherry a cold glass of the dry and pale Fino, or a somewhat dark but not quite so dry Manzanilla, will be the most desired - so ignore the Bristol Cream! The local red wines, that are normally served cooled in summer, are worth a go.

Feast for the Eyes
So, yes, Seville is obviously a spot where you could eat, drink and be happy. Nevertheless Seville also is a feast for the eyes and the centre, particularly the old Jewish quarter of Barrio de Santa Cruz, is clean, charming and enchanting - with ‘wrought iron gates, Arcadian patios and tinkling fountains’ as a letter from John Cornelius poetically describes it. Legend has it that this city was founded by the one and only Hercules and, since the mythical Greek hero’s time, the Romans and the Moors have claimed Seville as theirs. It's been known as the New Jerusalem, the Babylon of the West and the Capital of Happiness. That last name is fitting.

Being a weekend break in Seville, you will be forgiven for believing that there’s something that tiny bit more archetypically Spanish about the city compared to the country’s other renowned holiday spots. Many reasons exist why this may be the situation. Possibly it’s because Seville is the home of flamenco - a sound you will hear regularly while you check out the city’s plazas and parks. Or perhaps it’s because the city’s cathedral houses the tomb of Spain’s great explorer and also the discoverer of America, Christopher Columbus. Possibly it’s the gory pageant of the corrida - the bullfight - at Spain’s most fêted bullring, La Maestranza. Perhaps it’s the trees full of oranges,
too bitter for contemporary preferences, that are used to make the world-famous Seville marmalade.

The city centre is a pleasure to discover and can be easily covered without the aid of trains and buses. You'll find pedestrianised shopping areas with all the high-street shops you can find in almost any European city, but Seville makes its own with the wide, formal avenues, the squares and the beautiful whitewashed lanes of Santa Cruz, which is nearby the center point of the cathedral featuring its bell tower, La Giralda and also the Alcázar palace. Lots of the city’s well known buildings and parks are a short distance from one another.

The Plaza de San Francisco, with the cathedral bell tower in view and a host of tapas bars just around the corner nearby the Plaza Nueva, is an excellent starting point for any kind of tour. The cathedral is big in scale. Finished in 1517 it is claimed by some to be the biggest church in the world - larger in volume than even St Peter’s in the Vatican. The central nave rises to a staggering 43 metres tall, chapels brim with ornate silverwork and marble, there are works by Spanish Old Masters. Many people are drawn to climb the Giralda bell tower, which was formerly a minaret for marvelous views.

The city's motto: ‘She has not abandoned me’

The slogan of Seville, which you'll see round the city adorning anything from flags and lampposts to manhole covers, is ‘NO8DO’. The ‘8’ is in fact the shape of a skein of wool, which in Spanish is translated as madeja. The motto is pronounced as No madeja do, a play on the sentence, No me ha dejado, or ‘she (the city) has not abandoned me (the king)’.

According to one legend the motto refers back to the city’s support of King Alphonse X in a 13th-century war with his son, Don Sancho. Another tells that Ferdinand III uttered the words after expelling the Moors in 1248.

Next stop is the Alcázar - the fortress palace of Pedro I. The palace complex is Moorish in design - or, to be accurate, Mudéjar in design. The Mudéjares were muslims who were permitted to stay in the city following the city’s conquering by Christians in the 13th century. Quite a series of passageways and courtyards brings you from the Alcázar to the palace’s Italianate gardens, where the breeze rustles the leaves of palms and the sound of these tinkling water fountains and cicadas fills the air.
From the gardens, across a large avenue, is the big Plaza de España with its tiled murals depicting the Forty different parts of Spain. Under a beating sun, a few street vendors sell shawls and hand-painted fans, there is an echoing clip-clop of horse-drawn carriages taking sightseers on sightseeing and tour journeys, and a number of buskers sing flamenco, backed with the strum of a guitar plus the click of castanets.

No journey to Seville is complete without having a look at the Maestranza bullfighting ring, even though you don’t want to witness the grisly action. The streets surrounding the Maestranza are evocative of a timeless, nearly fairy tale Spain, and are popular as the setting for Bizet’s opera of gypsies and murderous revenge, Carmen. People today still travel to Seville to see the matadors and toreadors in action. Others come for the Semana Santa - the Holy Week beginning on Palm Sunday, with sombre, black-clad processions - and the Feria de Abril, a lively and colorful event that follows the Semana Santa. But my vacation was for tapas, so, let’s eat.

On the menusIn case you are used to the types of tapas served in most British eating places, be prepared for something a little bit different - a phrasebook certainly will help! Boquerones (white anchovies) are famous, calamares (squid) come stuffed, fried or battered. Empanadillas are tiny fried pasties, often filled with tomato and tuna. Then there's fritura de pescado, flash-fried fish of kinds found off the Andalucía coast, and gambas al ajillo - delicious garlic prawns. Ortiguillas are deep-fried sea anemones (a local favorite), while a menu of puntillitas fritas became a mountain of deep-fried little squid, each only 2 centimetres long.

If you are not a fan of fish and shellfish, or when you're vegetarian, then the variety of tapas might be more limited, however there are still choices to go with that glass of Fino. Usually, the first thing to arrive at the table is a complimentary bowl of the regional fruity green olives - an ideal, ‘free’, tapa, then. Ordering queso curado brings a menu of well-matured Spanish Manchego cheese and patatas ali oli are potatoes in a rich and creamy garlic herb mayonnaise. 2 local favourites also need to be tried. Espinacas con garbanzos (spinach with chickpeas) is a deeply savoury Andalucían favorite, while a bowl of gazpacho (cold tomato soup) is a traditional summer staple and a wonderfully refreshing dish for a hot evening. Vegetarians be warned: fish and meat often crops up in dishes where it isn't listed. We ordered a tortas de berenjenas (deep-fried aubergine) and it arrived as parcels of aubergine, each containing a plump, pink prawn. Which is a tiny bit how you might feel after enjoying all of that tapas under the Seville sunshine.

Each and every season brings its very own benefits to Seville. In the spring there is the orange blossom and the celebrations. Summer is hot but, as many Sevillanos escape to the seacoast for some weeks in July and August, it makes for a quieter, roomier city. Even in winter temperatures remain quite a lot higher than those in the United Kingdom, which means it is a good idea for a winter break, as well. ‘Sultry, brooding and exotic,’ as John Cornelius describes the city, it is complicated not to be jealous of these lucky Sevillanos more-ish culture and cuisine.

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