The menu should clearly state exactly which and its origin! The tag must be intact and displayed so that it’s visible!
If you ever come back to Andalucia, just go a little farther north from super touristy Sevilla and stay a few days in the jamón producing heartland. Dead quiet white-washed villages and empty narrow lanes during the day, have the walking trails to yourself and feast on the best jamón Iberico/charcuterie (AND locally grown tomatoes!) twice every day. Exactly what I did for 10 wonderful days (using Alájar as a base) in Sierra de Aracena! That’s where Sevilla locals go to to eat jamón and Sierra de Aracena products.
Thank you, the best jamons in my opinion come from the area of Jabugo, but everybody has different tastes. Did you visit the Gruta das Maravilhas in Aracena? Well worth the visit if you’re in the area. Excellent restaurant also in Aracena is Jesus Carrion, I highly recommend! And as abase to explore the region, the fantastic “Finca Buen Vino”, home from home… I am attaching the picture you linked to your message, it is the clearest explanation of jamon qualification I have ever seen, thank you!
Best meal in Seville, tho also most expensive. Just about double the usual €25 pp. €48 tasting menu was still tremendous value for this New Yorker. Modern Basque(ish). Chef/owner Javier Fabo grew up in the Amara neighborhood in San Sebastián, trained at French Laundry, Gordon Ramsey, and other notables. Its hard to say whether this is Michelin quality as I havent been to any in the south but I imagine its not far. Tiny place, maybe 8 or so tables, and one very capable waiter masterfully handled all of them.
Great bread is often an indication of things to come. Tho the real preview came with the first dish, a complex Ajoblanco (cold soup. The white one) made with coconut, and included cashews, garlic, pineapple, and other goodies. Then came a lovely Croqueta with squid and squid ink, followed by Artichoke in Jerez butter and Iberian Chicharron. You get a sense Javier loves to play with texture with the last two. Then the 65 degrees egg with mushrooms, truffles and some sort of cream took me to the wonderful mushroom/egg dishes of the North.
We took a chance on changing the mains to the two large rice specials. The pork surprisingly easily beat the oversalted monkfish filled rice. The only fault of the night. The Torrija was such a satisfying finish. To me it’s more like a nice bread pudding than French toast. Loved this place.
Glad you enjoyed Amara. It´s my number 1 this year. I love it too and it´s relatively unknown still. Yes, it´s more expensive, but this chef is phenomenal. Great photos.
I think Amara is Michelin quality. And on the par with Cañabota, but Cañabota is for seafood and thus even more expensive.
I think it’s better than Sevilla’s 1 Michelin-starred Abantal.
Great dining report. I´ve really enjoyed your photos and your reporting.
Dont recall why exactly I picked this one. Maybe the attractive courtyard had something to do with it. I do keep the rest of the group in mind overall. My vetting process didnt pick up on how touristy this place and the immediate area is, but the food and some dishes like the tuna seemed promising. Bland fried eggplant, a far cry from the fried eggplant in Blanca Paloma the day prior. Flamenquin was fine. Tho to be fair we tried Flamenquin again a few days later and it just didnt do it for us. The Tuna was ok, more like the typical overcooked tuna you can get anywhere. Meh oxtail. The best dish by far was the eggs and potatoes. Coudnt get enough of similar egg dishes all over the region. The cheesecake was not memorable. Pass
A local bar/diner on the other side of the Roman bridge. You know it’s local when the kitchen opens at 1:30 for lunch and no one speaks English.
Other than the criminally chewy fried squid, everything was good. One of the unexpected Andalucian dishes we enjoyed on this trip was Cogollos Ajillo, lettuce topped with either white garlicky sauce, or fried garlic crumbs like in this case. Simple and delicious. One of the better Russian salads of the trip. Still a mystery how the Russian Olivier became a thing all over Spain. Good Bravas, and another fantastic Carrillada (pork cheek)
One of the top meals of the trip if not the top. Essentially chose it over the now closed Paco Morales bar. Traditional finer dining, with one of those rare breed waiters adding to the experience. In Malaga I encountered our favorite staff but this waiter was brilliant.
Tortillas were as good as Tortillas get (for me). Octopus with fried pig ears over creamy potato purée was the star of the meal. The creamy potato was another unexpected Andalucia specialty we encountered in some places. Another great Salmorejo. As with most Salmorejos we had, the flavor is fairly strong, and overpowering most of the “toppings”, so the good ones feel more like beauty contests. Quite a few award winning tapas here. Another fantastic super tender Oxtail. A new dish on the menu was Artichoke with seafood and a superb seafood bisque I could drink like a smoothie. All washed down with a fine Caraballas Verdejo. Another great Torrija, and a fine cheese mousse with fruit to finish. Go!
Great pics of Garum 2.1. I had it on my pared down list but had no time between the snails, NOOR, and various stops at EL PISTO. Will make a note to try next time I’m in Cordoba…
thanks so much for the reporting. I’m a little surprised at a few of your meal choices and sorry that some meals did not excell. For example, was Azotea not a contender in Sevilla (I just have a personal love for that place). And Canabota or their bar? But easy for me to say, traveling alone and not having to figure in other people’s wants and needs… Looking forward to more!!!
Next in Europe is TBD. Hoping to go back to Piedmont in Oct for the truffles but now debating between that and Buenos Aires (first). Next spring probably Thailand
Overall in Spain, other than a few duds, I’m fairly satisfied with the food. With two weeks, and another couple I had to juggle some dietary restrictions, price, location among other things. Not to mention my trademark vetting process ;). And there was some research fatigue with this being our first time. I dont recall ever booking so many attractions and tours well in advance, so researching that and food was exhausting. Between the four of us, I do all the planning… driving, booking, everything. They dont even open the menus.
But in Seville, between Amara, Blanca Paloma, the two time warps, the food tour, and Casa Román, I’m fairly happy with the result overall. Maybe instead of Castizo tapas bar or conTenedor I could have picked something else to make it more memorable. In Cordoba I somehow missed some of your posts, but 2 out of 3 is aint bad. I got a few more duds to report but mostly hits the rest of the way. Jaen and Granada next…
Oh good, you were in Jaen; I remember you asked about the olive oil…
I was thinking of going to that area next March, (Ubeda and Baez with Jaen to eat at BAGA). So am curious to read about your food adventures and all else about the area.
While researching I started getting this warm and fuzzy feeling about the food scene at Jaén. The rest of the town including the castle towering over it sealed the deal to spend the afternoon here on the way to Granada.
Absolutely brilliant top 3-5 meal that didn’t start very promising. Completely empty, cold welcome at 1:30 when we showed up, but by 2:30 it was packed with locals. We were the only tourists there. Might be in the whole town.
The food was traditional with an Asian twist that actually works. Expertly prepared Duck confit spring rolls that came Ssam style. Silky smooth, flavorful Foie Gras. Interesting spinach salad. Phenomenal, explosive Chicken Croquetitas that came like a dozen eggs with curry sauce. Probably my favorite dish. Octopus on a bed of potato cream, as good as it was prob my least favorite dish. More excellence from the Oxtail ravioli. Panna Cotta and choc cake nice finish to another wonderful meal.
Note, I select the noteworthy pictures instead of the noteworthy dishes. For example in this case the Pate and the Ravioli pictures look rather sad so dont feel like posting them. But the flavors were there.
I am considering time in Jaen, Ubeda, Baeza maybe two of the three.
Did you get a feel for the city of Jean and if so, would you recommend an overnight, in addition to a couple of days in Ubeda? Did the city feel very interesting in any way, apart from the “sights??” Good to cruise around for a few hours???
Online reports say it is not so special but I’d prefer to hear the scoop from you!! Love that is was not full of obvious foreign tourists…(like me!!)
I’m looking at Baga but could go there from Ubeda, I think…
So interesting that when we think of food in Andalucia many of think of the sea, but inland, as in Jaen, your pics have illustrated that they have a totally different type of cuisine, always so interesting to see the differences within a fairly small number of miles.
(I’ve never been to Jaen province; will be interested in your olive oil quest!! Good work!!)
I’m not sure I’d spend more than one night in Jaen. Since I havent actually done it, I’m really not sure.
There was an event by the church at around 1pm, and after 3 it seemed like everyone is either eating or sleeping. It was quite dead. But again, maybe at night it livens up. For us it was just interesting enough for a few hours, between the views of the town from the top street (Mirador “El Balcón del Santo Reino”), the castle, and a small area full of murals. And the meal of course
Olive Oil for a fail. The only producer I found that was accepting visitors on the way was closed that Saturday
Granada was a mixed bag. One good, a few ok, and one dud. This is the dud. Surprisingly considering I thought I found a good meat specialist well outside tourist central. Odd room and just an odd experience. I warned my friends well in advance that this place may not cook meat to their liking (medium well), but they have a full menu including burgers in case they still want to join us. They did, and they were determined to get steak. The wait staff showed us the meat refrigerator and let us choose the cut, which I didn’t like. When dining out frankly I dont want to go to the kitchen and choose anything. All the Chuletons seemed well marbled and I dont want to decide whether I’m in the mood for a cut from Cadiz or Galicia. I just chose Galicia because I figured meat is generally better in the north, but they shouldn’t really subpar cuts.
But the main problem was that they assured our friends that they can cook their meat to any temp they want, and they put a hot stone on the table to let them continue cooking. The result for them was an incredibly chewy ugly mess. Our Galician cut was better, cooked rare as expected instead of the requested medium rare, but flavors were uneven, where a good portion tasted odd. Mrs Z didn’t like it at all. We also ordered some appetizers that were a waste especially the poor Tequenos (btw this place is Venezuelaish offering Tequenos, Arepas, etc). Should be more fried. I couldn’t help but compare to the excellent cheese and Guava Tequenos I offered in one of my tours in NYC. Skip!
Serviceable meal on a pleasant sidewalk. Felt like a good way to follow Alhambra. Pleasant service.
As usual the egg dishes stole the show. The simpler eggs with mushrooms and potato topped the more expensive eggs with fava beans and Jamon. The free paella tapa we got(twice) was more balanced and tastier than their signature creamy risotto, though the group enjoyed both. A more elaborate Flamenquín didn’t quite save it. This is where we officially give up on this Andalucian specialty. Its not bad, just not particularly exciting. Nice meal overall
I was winging it for much of Granada (3 days). Cancelled late dinner plans for an early quicky at this fried seafood fast casual institution. Open at 7pm and mostly empty… woo hoo. Normally there are big lines here. Very happy with the result overall. Really good Galician octopus and Gambas al Ajillo. Better Gambas than the next day at a more renowned place. No complaints about the fried seafood mix (their specialty). Fresh, crispy in all the right places. Tho ordering fried veggies as a side was pushing it a bit.
Coming from seafood deprived NYC, this is one of those types we really like.
Nice! I remember this place from many years ago…packed out but good fried seafood…I suppose it is still a classic in Granada.
The one I never got to was BarFM, which back in the Chowhound days was touted as a real out-of-the way discovery so out of the way that we passed on it, although when I look at the map now it nothing remotely out of the way!
I remember not being wowed by any of the food we ate in Granada, but it was maybe 15 years or so ago…
And it cannot be because the city is inland because so is Jaen (or so I’ve heard) so is Jerez, so is Cordoba, to name but three great food cities…
El Trillo (Granada)
Unplanned ricefest at a “Carmen” house overlooking Alhambra. We passed by Carmen De Aben Humeya but that menu felt a little rich for our impromptu lunch. Not that El Trillo was much less rich, we just ran out of energy and took whatever came next. We opted for the shadier cozy garden over the terrace. Enjoyed this overall.
Tuna, Cadiz style with onions and potatoes, first of a few on this trip, and marginally better than the second in Malaga. Grilled Turbot, not the whole fish Getaria style, but a few pieces was fine. Nice risotto with wild boar and mushroom, bested by squid inked rice with octopus chunks hiding inside it. One of the better rice dishes of the trip. Desserts were ok. Recommend, overall.
