Asian Festival and Seville Orange Days February 2015

This month, after a chilly January, two events - one cultural and one gastronomic - are trying to tempt us out into the orange-scented streets of Seville.
The first is the Cultural Festival of Asia, which is on until 22 February encompassing the Chinese New Year.
Events include a guide to the traditional Chinese tea ceremony (18 February); a series of Korean films such as The Face Reader (18 February); sessions devoted to feng shui, shiatsu, and mindfulness with meditation (19 February), traditional Tibetan medicine (21 Feb) and yoga (21 Feb); and workshops in sushi and other oriental cuisines (19 and 20 Feb), kimonos, Indian dance for children, origami (20 Feb), as well as martial arts day (20 Feb).
Venues include the Centro Civico Las Sirenas in the Alameda and Centro Civico El Tejar de Mellizo in Los Remedios.

Jornadas Gastronomicas de la Naranja de Sevilla (Seville Orange Days) starts tomorrow, Friday 20 February, and lasts until Sunday 1 March. A total of 27 tapas bars and restaurants in Seville will offer tapas which use that most typical of ingredients from the city, the bitter Seville orange. Previous editions have proved popular, and I myself recently visited a farm which grows Seville oranges - Huerta Ave Maria is the first organic certified such producer, and is Waitrose's sole supplier of these hallowed marmalade ingredients, featured in recipes everywhere during their short season, which is coming to an end now.

This year Seville oranges have seen a boost to their profile with the release of the utterly charming movie Paddington, starring the lovable bear from Darkest Peru with a penchant for marmalade sandwiches - apparently sales of Seville oranges in the UK are up by more than 15%.

This Saturday, 22 February, sees an exhibition of Guadalquivir Valley gastronomic products, including jam, oil, win and sparkling wine, tea, chocolate and sweet goodies, in front of the Centro Civico las Sirenas, on the Alameda from 11am - 5.30pm. In addition from 12 midday - 2pm there will be showcooking as well as a tasting of oranges and orange juice.
These three tapas from the list caught our eye (and are sure to tempt our tastebuds):
aromatic



intriguing
DON JUAN ALEMANES
Alemanes 7. Tel  954 563 232
Tapa gourmet: Falso huevo de naranja
innovative



 
For the full list of participating bars and restaurants see the Jornadas de Naranjas de Sevilla page here.