Scribbler in Seville

After a hectic week involving one almost-royal wedding, covered all over the international media; two Semana de la Arquitectura visits to fascinating new buildings, one attention-grabbing (seeking?) civic architecture, iconic landmark, and one corporate complex (plus writing blogs on all of that, and more); and a day assessing English students immediately followed by a serious Anglo-Spanish 50th birthday party last night my energy ran out and we didn’t go to our local romeria, Torrijos, after all.

Instead we have indulged in a very Spanish day of late breakfast, loooooong siesta and now a barbeque. On our menu today, we have caballa (mackerel), gambones (king prawns), mais (corn-on-the-cob) and provolone cheese. The nights are drawing in now, so the evening barbeque opportunities are fading fast.

As a non meat-eater, I’m always keen to get my kids eating fish, especially when it’s as delicious as the fish we get around these parts. When I lived in London, I used to make all sorts of fancy marinades, salsas and other accompaniments for barbequed food, but out here we don’t bother – just lovely, fresh fishy business.

I love barbies for several reasons:

1) I don’t have to cook all the food. My husband does not exactly throw himself into domestic life, but when we have a barbie, he can at least take a share in preparing his children’s dinner.

2) It looks great. Nothing like some glossy seafood to liven up your dinner table with some visual stimulation.

3) It smells gorgeous, and doesn’t taste bad either. A feast for the senses, you might say.

4) It’s cooked outdoors, so the kids spend most of the time running around, plus the strong fishy smells (sardines are real pongers) stay outdoors.

5) You can be adventurous – two of my favourite bbq puddings are bananas: roasted in their skins, sliced open with either chocolate or cinnamon inside, and cooked until they’re mushy; and nectarines: sprinkled with a little sugar which caramelises, making a sweet, juicy, delectable end to your meal; cooked fruit is hugely underrated, in my opinion. Both accompanied by either Greek yoghurt or vanilla ice-cream, depending on how naughty you’re feeling.

Eating outdoors is such a part of summer, both here and in England, and now as we slip into autumn, we will be shifting our barbeque schedule to lunch time. One of the many things about Spain which I love: eating alfresco all the year round.

This is my eighth post of A Post A Day, an undertaking of questionable sanity to which I and Digamama have committed ourselves for the month of October.