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Page 3 - Seville Impressions Lifestyle
Cesar Gonzalez dela Pena, Operations Manager for Barcelo
Incentives, our gracious host for this trip, is waiting for us at the hotel.
It is 9:30 pm and almost dinnertime.
Dinner at 10 pm? You
probably know lots of people who would be way deep into dreamland by that time.
The Spanish lifestyle has always been a source of fascination for me.
On the whole, Spaniards drink a lot, eat way too much pork, smoke like
there’s no tomorrow, go to bed at 1 a.m., yet they live to be 79 years old on
average. Ponce de Leon, are you listening? Ooops! Maybe part of the secret is precisely in the hours the Spaniards keep. One thing you can say—the Spanish schedule is tourist friendly if only because it forces you to go back to your hotel several times a day to get some rest. Offices typically open around 9:30 am. Workers go home for lunch from 2 to 4 pm, most stopping for a quick bite (tapas—more on this below) before lunch. The workday resumes at 4 pm and ends around 7 pm. Then it’s tapas time once more before dinner. Many restaurants don’t get busy until 10 pm. Cesar is taking us to dinner at his favorite tapas
bar in his neighborhood. But before
that, we take a quick stop at the site of the Iberian-American Exposition of
1929 and two of Seville’s important attractions—the Parque de Maria Luisa
and the Plaza de Espana. The park
consists of a half-mile of palm, pine, and orange trees replete with flowerbeds,
ponds and pavilions. The Plaza de
Espana is a mix of modern art deco and mock Mudejar architecture. It is well known to Star Wars fans as the site of the city of
Theed in the movie Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (see Skywalker
and Amidala below).
Tapas Tapas are Spanish
mini-dishes, not unlike the Chinese dim sum, at least in portions and in
variety. Spaniards eat them before
lunch and before dinner, always accompanied by alcohol, typically sherry, beer,
or wine. They are not just food
items; they are part of a ritual. My
short glimpses of Sevillano life, thus far, lead me to think Spaniards are
highly tribal. One would gather a
small group of friends and go tapas barhopping, sampling the best a place has to
offer. Ordinarily, diners eat tapas
standing up at the bar while engaged in spirited conversation.
When the group decides on a place, they sit down and order large
portions, called raciones. Tonight
we’re not tapa-hopping—we’re having raciones at Cesar’s favorite
place. Tapas come in all
varieties—fish, shrimp, sausage, pork, ham, cheese, olives, and so on.
Andalusia is tapas country. It
is also the world’s premier producer of olives and olive oil, so it comes as
no surprise that olive oil is a staple of Andalusian (indeed, Spanish) cuisine.
Garlic is everywhere as well. While
I’m not exactly crazy about garlic, I have to admit my favorite this evening
turns out to be a dish consisting of small pork loin portions and tender-cooked
garlic cloves swimming in garlicky sauce that does not assault the palate.
Seville is not known for its cheese, but this evening’s sheep cheese is
a hit with our group as well. Seville
is famous for its Gazpacho (cold soup made of tomato, cucumber, bread,
garlic, and of course, olive oil), Huevos a la Flamenca (fried egg in
tomato sauce and chorizo), Pescaito Frito (fish rolled in flour
and fried in olive oil), and of course, (being at the heart of bullfighting
country) Rabo de Toro (bull’s tail).
Still, as I look around me this evening, it appears everyone’s favorite
is jamon—cured ham. I
would learn later how much passionate Andalusians are about ham.
They even have a special breed of hogs that are fed a special diet of
sweet acorn for a type of ham called Iberico ham.
Tonight’s variety is jamon serrano—mountain-cured ham.
As I understand it, the Spanish predilection to ham or pork traces its
origin in the days of the Spanish Inquisition—eating pork was apparently the
only reliable way to tell whether one truly is a Christian.
As one wag once said, taking off from the maxim we all learned in
kindergarten about cleanliness: Hogliness is next to Godliness.
The
word tapas is derived from tapar—to cover. There are those who say that a large thin slice of sausage
used to be placed over one’s drink to prevent fruit flies from taking a dive
into the alcohol. Others say, a
small plate with food is placed over the drink for much the same reason.
Regardless, tapas appear to be the reason Spaniards can imbibe almost
continuously and never get drunk. I
have read that one monarch went so far as to pass an edict mandating tapas as a
way to reduce public drunkenness. Seville Cathedral
First stop is the magnificent Seville Cathedral, or Magna Hispalenses, the world’s third biggest cathedral after Rome’s St. Peter, and London’s St. Paul. Constructed in 1401 at the site of a large mosque, the mosque’s Minaret (La Giralda) remains as the cathedral’s bell tower. Columbus is buried here, as is Pedro the Cruel (more on him later). The Royal Chapel contains the works of famous Spanish artists, including Goya.
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