Eat, Drink, and be Wary

San Sebastian is considered the culinary capital of Spain (big surprise we came here first), rich with newness as well as classical cuisine. It has more Michelin stars than any other city in Spain, despite its modest population of 170,000. The highlight, and much anticipated portion of this foodie haven, was the tapas or pintxos (pronounced peen-chos, the Basque word for tapas). As a side note, San Sebastian is in the Basque region of Spain which means signs, menus and most text you find in any city is in Spanish and Basque. Today we even found Harry Potter translated in Basque! Anyway, back to deliciousness.

The Spanish philosophy to eating is delightful: ‘it should taste of what it is.’ There is a savory combination of simplicity, straight-forwardness and romance to the food here. Pintxos are prepared with exceptional delicacy, yet are devoured upon arrival of a hungry belly. Spirits are an inseparable component, wine and cider in particular. It’s a little confusing for the bashful tourists, as drink menus don’t seem to exist. But we’ve come to notice that sangria isn’t a local preference, and have only seen it once, served to obvious tourists.

Notice Matt in background enjoying the fare!

Our first encounter with pintxos was memorable. We had not eaten in over 12 hours, and were famished. As we stood in front of our restaurant of choice, we realized immediately we were in for a surprise. Piles of pintxos lined the bar-like table to the far right, and tables with stools surrounded this central bar as if to keep the eaters as close to the food as possible. Some people were standing, some sitting, some walking up to the bar and rapidly receiving drinks, others grabbing pintxos without any discussion with the restaurant staff. Questions raced through our minds. Do we sit? Do we stand? Do we wait for a table? Do we sit? Do we order at the bar? Or do we wait for a waiter to come to us?

First, we stood there for longer than preferred by both us and the restaurant folk. Then we realized that there was only one solution to our myriad of questions: ask. So ask we did. And then we sat at a table, ordered our food at the bar, had really no idea what we were getting, but enjoyed every bite.

The last couple nights, we’ve been able to take in more of the restaurant scene. Every day around (late) lunch and (even later) dinner time, the dozens of bar-restaurants lay out their spreads of pintxos on the counter. Over a few hours, people filter in and out, places get packed and empty out, and the counters slowly get cleared of the delicious snacks. You typically don’t have more than one or two, plus a splash of wine, cider, or beer with each, then move on to the next spot. The best sign of a popular place is the steady accumulation of used napkins on the floor. Really, when you’re finished, you throw your napkin on the floor. Just the way it’s done.

And for the coffee lovers reading this, it’s quite simple here. There is no coffee, it’s all espresso – brilliant! We haven’t had a bad cup yet, you can get it almost anywhere, anytime, and it’s about $1.50 per café con leche.

¡Buen provecho!