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Published: August 8th 2007
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Café Leviés
Moonshine? Naw, it's legal. They have their own label to boot. The Wok is The Bomb We have a full day to spend in Sevilla, but having seen the sights, eaten tapas, drank cañas and txakolí, and gone to a soccer match, there’s really not much left but flamenco. The museum for flamenco does not seem as interesting as seeing a show, so we make reservations for the 10:30pm show at La Casa de la Memoria in the center of town. Now what? Feed the belly! I can get full on tapas, but I don’t think Leroy can, so we go to Plaza Nervión, which is a shopping center near the stadium. The food court has three tabernas, a TGI Friday’s, McDonald’s, a Mexican restaurant, and The Wok, a chain of pan-Asian eateries. “Noodles or rice!” Leroy demands, so we go to The Wok and take advantage of their menú of the day, which is an appetizer, entrée, dessert, and glass of wine for one fixed price. The vegetable lumpia is delicious, as are the Indian-spiced fritters (not quite samosas). My sweet and sour pork is passable, and Leroy loves his beef in red curry sauce. Dessert is tiramisu and manadarin mousse, and we leave extremely satisfied.
El Corte Inglés Comes Through
Then come the errands. We finally succeed in downloading Bett’s pictures from her memory stick, although finding the photo CD machine at El Corte Inglés, a huge department store chain in Spain that I have frequented many times, and using it was almost a fiasco. It took so long to burn 430 pictures onto one CD, with the screen only saying “Exportando… Un Momento,” that I was afraid we’d lose them all and end up with a rotten disc! No worries, it all comes out okay, all 530 pics. Don’t worry, we’ll only show you the choice ones, *wink*. Then off to Estación Santa Justa train station to buy our tickets for tomorrow. We opt for the Altaria train, which takes 3.5 hours to get to Madrid, instead of the more expensive high-speed AVE that leaves every hour and does the trip in 2.5 hours. Hey, I can take a longer nap and save the €15 each! On the way home, I stop by Women’Secret, which is I guess for all women and not just Victoria, to shop a bit, and then a cappuccino for Leroy at the hotel café.
More Tapas at Café Leviés and Flamenco at Casa de la Memoria
After an afternoon of reading, writing, and blogging (oh, and more napping for me), we head down to the center of town for dinner and the flamenco show. Sevilla’s center has small, narrow streets with buildings facing each other literally only 2-3 meters apart. The cab drives through some streets that I would never take my compact car through, but he is clearly more adventurous with his vehicle. At Casa de La Memoria on Ximénez del Enciso, I ask for a restaurant recommendation from a girl who answers me back in Spanish that has a soft American accent to it. I’m convinced we could have had our conversation in English, but we both seem to want to speak in Spanish. We ask her for something on the cheap and simple side, and she points as toward Café Leviés, which is a true find. For about €2,30 per dish, you get tapas (small plate) that are the size of raciones (large plate) in other restaurants, and all our favorites (except the gambas, Bett!) are here - tortilla española, ensaladilla rusa (Russian potato salad), salmon a la plancha (grilled salmon), patatas alioli (fried potatoes with a creamy garlic sauce), and a combo plate with lomo (pork) and potatoes. The house wine advertised is only €7,40, and would you believe it, it actually *is* the house wine - the label says Leviés on it! We literally feast for about €25, and except for the disappointing tortilla, everything is supertasty (and salty). Once full, we walk to the show to find a line of people forming along the extremely narrow street. I get our tickets while Leroy gets in line.
No wonder both shows were sold out! The show room is a small Arabic style courtyard with a 2 x 2 meter platform in the center. There are two wooden chairs by a wall covered in ivy. The other three sides of the platform are surrounded by folding chairs, two rows deep, with a third row farther back and against the walls. There is a second floor with arches and closed windows. We sit in the second row and are pleased to still be able to see everything, since the stage is less than three meters away. The show starts with two artists - the guitarist and the singer. The guitarist looks like a gringo, basically like Bill Pullman with a cleft chin, but his fingers are Spanish enough. The singer is a man, which is different from the other shows I’ve seen, but his voice is high enough to create that flamenco sound. Women who sing flamenco tend to sing low, and men higher, at least from my experience. He’s a good singer, and we look forward to the other two artists - the dancers. The first is Pastora; she has won the National Award for Flamenco Dancing. I hate to say it, but she’s a bit chunkier than all the flamenco dancers I’ve seen before, and her brown dress with polka dots does not create the gypsy effect that I expected. Her dancing is good though, and she’s got that tango frown going to perfection (maybe the tango frown is really the flamenco face?).
After her set, there is more singing and guitar playing, and then El Choro comes out. He is the male dancer, wearing black pants and very shiny black patent shoes. To me, he looks like Colin Farrell with long hair. He joins the clapping that the singer has been doing, and this flamenco clapping can truly get quite complicated, especially accompanied by the stomping. The rhythm is invigorating. Then, he dances. His steps are more powerful, and the sound against the platform physically hits you. He impresses us with his steps, which are comparable to tap dancing in that complicated footwork and speed are to be admired. Then, the show ends with all of them performing and a 2-minute chance to get photos (we didn’t get good ones in that light). It was a short show, but for the price I am not disappointed. I do think I’ve seen better though, and to think, I’m in Sevilla! Home of Las Ferias and Sevillana dancing all night. Across the river lies Triana, the neighborhood of the gypsies, to which many a flamenco song refers. But for now, it’s hasta luego, Sevilla.
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