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Food

Seville Celebrates Spring with a Week-Long Party of Fried Fish and Booze

Seville's annual Feria de Abril is a full week of nonstop partying, with women in flamenco-style dresses and men on horseback powering through fried fish, Spanish ham, and rebujito—a mix of dry sherry and 7UP.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that no one can party like the residents of the Iberian peninsula.

And as if any further proof of this was really necessary, the Andalusian capital of Seville just finished celebrating its Feria de Abril, marking the start of Andalucia's party season and reconfirming what we all already suspected.

Feria de Abril is a week-long fiesta that takes place in a central district of Seville that is solely reserved for this purpose year-round. (The area is deserted during the remaining 51 weeks of the year.) It's also the biggest and most famous of all Ferias, and it's is easy to see why: picture an area the size of a small village that transforms into a living, breathing party of epic proportions.

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Photos by the author.casetas.

This annual makeshift city-within-a-city has its own streets (you can even find them on Google Maps) each lined with Imagine small, festival-style tents, decorated like family living rooms on the inside but complete with a bar—and if you're lucky, a little dance-floor. The casetas at the Seville feria are private, meaning you have to either be a member of the caseta or be invited in by a member to be able to enter.

During the day, the streets are filled with horse-drawn carriages transporting men dressed in smarts suits and women glowing in flamenco style-dresses to their casetas. This can make navigating around the city a somewhat daunting experience, which I can testify to first-hand, having nearly being stepped on by more than one eager horse. As night falls, the horses leave but the party goes on…and on, and on. Unless the sun is rising, there is no excuse to not be partying.

Of course, no tradition in Spain would be complete without a generous helping of food and drink—and Andalucia's various Ferias are no exception. In fact, nonstop partying for a whole week calls for just the right amount of gastronomic sustenance.

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Feria kicks off with the Monday night Lunes de Pescaito dinner. This traditionally starts at around 10:30 PM, before the main lights are switched on at midnight. The dinner takes place in the individual casetas and is the most exclusive event of the week, when only caseta members may attend.

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The main dish at this dinner is fried fish, or pescadito frito in Spanish, which when said in an Andalucian accent sounds a bit like "pescaito" and is now commonly referred to as such. All manner of fish is cooked: Especially popular are boquerones (anchovies), calamares (calamari), salmonetes (red mullet), and cazón (dogfish that has been marinated in a mixture of spices, white wine, and olive oil), among others. The fish is sprinkled with a little salt and covered in flour before being deep-fried in olive oil—a favourite ingredient here in Andalucia, largely due to its abundance.

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Although the pescaitos take centre stage, the usual Spanish offerings are available as well. Go into a caseta any day of the week and you'll find plenty of delicious tapas to choose from—jamón, Manchego, olives and more. It is usually a good idea to line your stomach, as there is plenty to drink as well.

The traditional drink of Feria is rebujito: dry Manzanilla sherry mixed with 7UP. When I first heard of this, I thought it sounded pretty much like a hangover in liquid form, but surprisingly, it tastes really good. It also contains just the right amounts of alcohol and sugar to keep you dancing all night.

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There are different theories about where rebujito came from, with many claiming that the drink actually originated as the sherry cobbler—a tipple that was popular with English visitors to the south of Spain. There are also various theories about where the name comes from (possibly from rebullir, to stir).

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What is clear is that it's become a firm favourite amongst Andalusians, in particular at festivities during the warmer months.

Rebujito can be easily made at home by combining dry Manzanilla sherry (from the seaside town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda) with 7UP or Sprite, and garnishing it with a little mint or some lemon peel. Mix in a pitcher with ice and serve neat.

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Walking home after a night of frolicking at the Feria, you're likely to be in the mood for some breakfast. Luckily, the many churro stands dotted around will be happy to feed you. Churros y chocolate are traditional at breakfast here, and Andalusians make them particularly well: strips of dough, fried to crispy, golden perfection, ready to be dunked in thick chocolate sauce. Nothing short of heavenly.

So, if you have no plans yet next spring and you fancy a truly authentic eating, drinking and partying experience, you know where you have to go.