[Adam]

Just back from Seville, Carmona, Jerez and Sanlucar. Pretty much ate nothing but Tapas and convent biscuits.

Convent Biscuits: Since the 1950's the contents have been able to increase their incomes by selling produce or services. The ones I was interested where selling biscuits and other sweets. In Seville the convents that sell sweets range from commercial shop fronts to a rotating panels set in the side of closed convents, you yell your order through the wall, place your money on a dish which goes into the wall, biscuits come out with your change.

I bought many, many sweets including: Various custards, fennel flavoured wafers, honey fritters, almond paste balls studded with nuts, melon preserve filled almond cakes, cinammon biscuits, coconut balls and many many more.

Tapas: We tried many places ranging from: planks set over barrels - your account being written in chalk on the surface of the plank to a Tapas Festival in Sanlucar to 'Modern' places where the portions arrived on Japanese-style glass plates.

Some of the better Tapa were: Tiny baby eels, snails, cuttlefish, spinach and chickpeas, tuna ham (similar to that in Sicily and Liguria), small sandwiches of tuna belly, cheese, mussels and ham, various black puddings, bulls tail stew, crabs, "Moorish" kebabs, fried fish, fideos, paella portions, various hams and cheeses.

We also ate some other stuff.

[Vanessa]

It had to be the Balic to hit topic 2000.

Orik, break out the champagne please.

v