We have had a few amazing food experiences that are waiting to be
written about soon- including our Kobe beef meal in Kobe, Japan, a tea
ceremony in Kyoto, Peking duck in Beijing, eating at a one Michilin star
restaurant in Hong Kong, and Ottoman cuisine in Istanbul.
Added to this list is our pintxo tour in San Sebastian, Spain.
I had heard about San Sebastián on a cooking show last year- my take away from the show was that it was a place with magnificent beaches and amazing food. I'm so glad we went there because it was true- plus it was a neat little town, with a special ambience and good day-hiking options with amazing coastline views.
While San Sebastián can boast being only second to Kyoto in the number of Michilin stars awarded its restaurants- we skipped the star-studded spots and instead enjoyed the other thing the town is famous for- pintxos. Pronounced "pinchos"- these are tapas in Basque Country (northern Spain). They are small portions of gourmet food- also called "raciones." Snacks on a pintxo-toothpick- meant to accompany drinks in taverns- they now they have taken on a life o their own and many people go for the pintxos and a drink to accompany them- like us.
We had two evenings in San Sebastián and we were able to go to a total of seven spots.
Borda Berri bar was our first stop that we had seen on all the lists of best places for pintxos. The creamy "rice bomb" with wild mushrooms and the pork ear that we ordered were truly divine (never thought I would say that about pork ear!).
La Mejionilla- Looking back over all seven places this was on the top of Julio and my
favorites list. It was supposed to be more authentic- where the locals
go- and less gourmet- and it did not disappoint. We got calamares bravas
and mejillones tigres (mussels with a slightly spicy tomato sauce) and
they both were mouth watering good. The scruffy middle aged men yelling
orders to each other behind the bar added to the ambiance.
By this time we realized that part of the pintxo experience is the atmosphere. It is not for the timid! Generally, the pintxo bars are small, like the size of a subway sandwich shop with a bar and standing room only, and crowded and you have to kind of fight your way in and not care about having any personal space while you order and eat your pintxos standing at the bars shoulder to shoulder-butt to butt- with others. It's even hard to order- you have to squirm your way as close to the bar as possible and get one of the server's attention to let them know what you would like.
This was hardest at the next place- Zeruko. We were standing bar-side for quite awhile and made several attempts to get the attention of the server. He definitely made it clear he wasn't going to acknowledge us until he was ready. Finally 10-15 min later we put in our order and sat at one of the few tables. We went back to the bar to pay. The server was definitely over worked because when it was time to pay he gave Julio change meant for someone else before we had even given any money. We probably could have walked out- one euro richer- without paying if we wanted to. At Zeruko, We went out on a limb and ordered smoked eel and smoked sashimi. The eel actually arrived with a piece of smoking coal underneath it. This was one of the most interesting if not the most tastey pintxos we tried.
We were full for one night of pintxo tasting. The next night we went back to old town and we were some what limited because many places closed on Sunday, but that didn't stop us from finding some gems.
First stop- Cuchara de San Telmo- St. Telmo's Sppon. We had excellent small cod fillet and Molleja de res- beef gizzard. So delicious!
Next stop- Juntxo. This place reminded me of La Mejilloneria from the
first night in that it was less for tourists and more for locals. Here
there was nothing gourmet about the sandwiches we got- one with tortilla espanol (potato omelet) and the other with a cod omlette
in side. And of course a beer to wash them down.
Now we didn't want to leave San Sebastián without trying the sweet
variety of pintxos. Now it was getting kind of late and we were
struggling to find places open and with dessert. The first place we
tried -A Fuego Negro- had one sweet pinxto- it sounded a lot yummier on
the menu than it actually was. Corn ice cream sandwich with chocolate. Maybe we
would have been more impressed if it wasn't so teeny weeny!
Finally we struck gold with Casa Ganderias. There were no sweet items advertised on their pintxo menu but when we asked they brought out a separate dessert menu. After taking forever trying to choose which delicious sounding thing we wanted- Julio ordered the torreja with ice cream and I got the "mandarina con cava." The torreja which we also have in Mexico is like French toast but maybe a little sweeter. And my dish was actually a drink- imagine sparkling wine with mandarin sorbet. Excellent!
All said and done we would recommend a pintxo tour in San Sebastián to
anyone. A great way to experience amazing food at an affordable price. From the few that we went to we would most recommend La Mejilloneria, La Casa Ganderia and Cuchara de San Telmo. But wherever you end up- it is really hard to go wrong!
Added to this list is our pintxo tour in San Sebastian, Spain.
I had heard about San Sebastián on a cooking show last year- my take away from the show was that it was a place with magnificent beaches and amazing food. I'm so glad we went there because it was true- plus it was a neat little town, with a special ambience and good day-hiking options with amazing coastline views.
While San Sebastián can boast being only second to Kyoto in the number of Michilin stars awarded its restaurants- we skipped the star-studded spots and instead enjoyed the other thing the town is famous for- pintxos. Pronounced "pinchos"- these are tapas in Basque Country (northern Spain). They are small portions of gourmet food- also called "raciones." Snacks on a pintxo-toothpick- meant to accompany drinks in taverns- they now they have taken on a life o their own and many people go for the pintxos and a drink to accompany them- like us.
We had two evenings in San Sebastián and we were able to go to a total of seven spots.
Borda Berri bar was our first stop that we had seen on all the lists of best places for pintxos. The creamy "rice bomb" with wild mushrooms and the pork ear that we ordered were truly divine (never thought I would say that about pork ear!).
La Mejionilla- Looking back over all seven places this was on the top of Julio and my
favorites list. It was supposed to be more authentic- where the locals
go- and less gourmet- and it did not disappoint. We got calamares bravas
and mejillones tigres (mussels with a slightly spicy tomato sauce) and
they both were mouth watering good. The scruffy middle aged men yelling
orders to each other behind the bar added to the ambiance.
By this time we realized that part of the pintxo experience is the atmosphere. It is not for the timid! Generally, the pintxo bars are small, like the size of a subway sandwich shop with a bar and standing room only, and crowded and you have to kind of fight your way in and not care about having any personal space while you order and eat your pintxos standing at the bars shoulder to shoulder-butt to butt- with others. It's even hard to order- you have to squirm your way as close to the bar as possible and get one of the server's attention to let them know what you would like.
This was hardest at the next place- Zeruko. We were standing bar-side for quite awhile and made several attempts to get the attention of the server. He definitely made it clear he wasn't going to acknowledge us until he was ready. Finally 10-15 min later we put in our order and sat at one of the few tables. We went back to the bar to pay. The server was definitely over worked because when it was time to pay he gave Julio change meant for someone else before we had even given any money. We probably could have walked out- one euro richer- without paying if we wanted to. At Zeruko, We went out on a limb and ordered smoked eel and smoked sashimi. The eel actually arrived with a piece of smoking coal underneath it. This was one of the most interesting if not the most tastey pintxos we tried.
We were full for one night of pintxo tasting. The next night we went back to old town and we were some what limited because many places closed on Sunday, but that didn't stop us from finding some gems.
First stop- Cuchara de San Telmo- St. Telmo's Sppon. We had excellent small cod fillet and Molleja de res- beef gizzard. So delicious!
 |
| This place was so popular people were eating on the ground outside. |
Finally we struck gold with Casa Ganderias. There were no sweet items advertised on their pintxo menu but when we asked they brought out a separate dessert menu. After taking forever trying to choose which delicious sounding thing we wanted- Julio ordered the torreja with ice cream and I got the "mandarina con cava." The torreja which we also have in Mexico is like French toast but maybe a little sweeter. And my dish was actually a drink- imagine sparkling wine with mandarin sorbet. Excellent!
Sounds so yummy! Have you considered being a travel agent?
ReplyDeleteCorn ice cream ... hmmm. Glad you recorded names of these dishes, because it might be fun to "bring a little San Sebastian home" by trying to make some of these pintxos yourself when you get home. Oh, and that beach is gorgeous.
ReplyDelete