Tapas and Holy Week
We planned our Sevilla itinerary before we had the good news that Belinda would join us for the week. We were able to modify all arrangements for 3 people, but she would have to put up with our original plan of attack. One of the things we decided to do, in the category of – “why not,” was a Tapas exploration, which promised to take us to some places we would not ordinarily go into…and put food in front of us that we wouldn’t normally order! Not necessarily good things in the absolute, but we were optimistic! We were also unsure about the timing…should we eat breakfast at 8am if we are starting a tapas pub crawl at 10:15am ? Answer- yes! First stop was at a bar, in an alley that we would not have gone down…check! It was a dive, full of office workers on their “second breakfast break.” Since lunch is not until 2 or 2:30pm, you need a little something to keep you going. Our host ordered “pringá” which is made daily for the owners two bars by a little old lady who won’t share her recipe. The owners are nervous about continuity of business. It was melt-in-your-mouth good! We will go back for an additional, second breakfast.
A local church rang the noon bell and our guide said, bueno, now it is perfectly acceptable to drink alcohol at our next stop. We went to this hole-in-the-wall bar that commemorates the Easter processions year-round. The owner and his brother Nacho love the processions so much, they each belong to 3 different brotherhoods that each do a procession from their local church to the Cathedral of Sevilla. Some processions can take over ten hours to complete. Carrying the heavy float. Performing the Saetas. Walking the narrow streets. Entering through the church door on your knees so the float will fit. Even our guide who is originally from France joined a brotherhood and is a penitentes (capirote) in the procession of her brotherhood. Don’t be alarmed at the costume! Arguments sometimes occur about which brotherhood’s virgin is “better.” Kind of like football in the UK, it can turn ugly! Back to our tapas bar, we had a nice drink called a tinto de verano (summer red) which was made with red wine, lemon soda from plastic 2 liter bottle and big ice cubes along with a pork sandwich. We were treated to a video from last year’s procession of our guide's brotherhood. It was hers only by chance, the video runs in a continuous loop of all the processions, carefully timed so as not to run into each other in the madness of the crowds and the narrow streets. Our peak moment of the experience was when Nacho lit the incense and started swinging the silver pot like a pendulum from the ceiling.
You can study a little more about the Andalusian Semana Santa rituals on this link. Sevilla is the most intense, but Corduba and Granada participate as well. It was interesting to me that those involved said—it is not that religious, it is mostly tradition and ceremony. Hmmmm.
https://www.catholicsandcultures.org/spain/semana-santa/processions-seville
Last stop was one of the 15 cloistered convents still active in Sevilla. It was built in the Mudéjar tradition—Muslim materials and architecture for a Christian purpose. We went to the convent to order a box of candies, made there. A nun from Kenya answered the buzzer. Many of the recipes are Muslim in origin, as the first nuns in the convents did not bring any craft with them, but hired the residents of the territory, the Muslims, to share recipes and teach them. So, the candies are big on orange and almonds, dates and honey. We were escorted to the finest gelato place in all of Andalusia, the guy even made a special flavor for Obama. How did our guide know how much John likes gelato? We were full, and uncertain whether dinner would really be necessary, just 5 hours in the future. Somehow, it was :).
Belinda watches a procession on the video screen between bites of pork sandwich. She bravely cast aside her food allergies and is toughing it out this week in the name of cultural experience!
Check out the swinging incense pot in the middle of the frame. We were treated to a large dose, and should be good for a while!
Well what do you know about that...the visual aid our food expert used to explain the fusion of foods, spices and culture as a layer cake. And she said she likes to think of the icing representing the Jews, as the Sephardic Jews were here as a distinct culture contemporary with the Moors and Christians. Forgive me for a moment on terminology-- I am using "Muslims" to represent the invaders from Africa, and the residents of Iberia who became Muslim...as there were a few Arabs, yet mostly Berbers from the Maghreb in the invasion. Moor is an acceptable, but not very descriptive term that can mean a variety of peoples. We mean the same thing in this case, though.