Seville, Spain

I'm eating very well on this trip, as you can probably imagine. TripAdvisor.com has been handy for recommendations - always with the 'Cheap Eats' option ticked - but it's by no means essential. I've never troubled myself, on my travels, with the anguished question of whether or not I'm eating 'authentic' local food. If you want to eat like the locals, then go and eat with the locals. You only have to walk a few blocks away from the main plazas and tourist attractions in order to do so.

In theory I could post five or six food pictures in every single blog. But tapas in the traditional sense - small bites being served one at a time, rather than all together - doesn't really lend itself to being photographed. Also, food isn't always photogenic. Mexican food in general, and refried beans in particular, are a good example of this. Similarly, here in Spain when you order a bocadillo (a baguette-type sandwich) or a montadito (similar but much smaller), quite often it's just two chunks of bread with meat in between, plus a dash of olive oil. It doesn't sound or look like much, but the bread is always freshly-made, and with a nice juicy cut of chicken breast or pork loin in the middle, you soon accept that lettuce is not required.

Having said that, with sandwiches containing jamón y queso, both the ham and the cheese are usually served in very thin slices and so the whole thing can be just a bit too dry for me, needing mayonesa or mantequilla to complete the picture. Usually it's jamón serrano, though you also get jamón York, which simply means the generic pink mass-produced cooked stuff that we Brits are used to. It's not actual Yorkshire ham.

Another interesting delicacy is flamenquin. This is jamón serrano wrapped in pork loin and deep-fried in egg and breadcrumbs. The name, meaning 'little Flemish', is of 16th century vintage: the Spanish associated the golden colour of the egg yolks with the blonde hair of the Flemish Belgians serving as assistants to the Emperor Charles V.

The food here is excellent, and the wine too, yet it's curious how complacent the Spanish are about beer, given how much they drink of it (which is a lot). In both bars and shops, there is virtually nothing but mediocre lager - specifically, pilsner. For a nation that boasts one of the world's great culinary traditions, it's surprisingly that they're willing to wash it all down with fizzy bathwater. Beers that are marketed as 'premium' are generally just stronger pilsners, wherein the extra alcohol shows through rather unpleasantly, without any compensating benefits of flavour or texture.

So I think there's an opportunity for someone somewhere to make billions by introducing the Spanish to proper beer. I'm sure it'll happen one day. In the meantime, I am but a prophet in the wilderness, taking solace in an occasional pint of imported German Hefeweißbier, as and when I can find one. It's a tough life.

Plaza de Espana, Seville.
Built in 1928, but obviously it echoes older styles.
It was used as a location for 'Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones',
and also for the video of Simply Red's 'Something Got Me Started'.

Hotel Alfonso X
Right in the middle of the city centre. 300 euros a night, or thereabouts.
Obviously I'm not staying here.

Catedral de Santa Maria

Iglesia de Santa Something-Or-Other

I didn't dare check out the front of this sculpture.
Perhaps a Spanish sculptor mistranslated the English phrase 'give a dog a bone'.

Edd vs Food #51
Tapas at Restaurante El Cordobes, Santa Maria La Blanca, Seville.
Montadito and flamenquin - see above.

Edd vs Food #52
Pizza Bomba:
Tomato, mozzarella, bacon, chorizo picante, veal, onions and a fried egg
At Pizzeria La Bambina, Calle Virgen de Regla, Seville.
Can't eat tapas all the time, you know.