Food Tour in San Sebastian

Saturday March 21 was another cloudy drizzly day with a high of about 10C.  It is not atypical weather and apparently it can rain in San Sebastian at any time as the city is located between the water and the mountains.  The weather reminded us of Vancouver/Victoria in late fall, early winter.

Our room has a small fridge, so we had baguette and jam at the Pension for breakfast.  We stopped for a coffee at Cafe Panchito nearby, where they also sold coffee beans and chocolate.  There are so many good cafes in this city, that we can have coffee at a different place each day we are here.

We headed out to take a Pintxos (tapas) tour run by the Tourist Office.  It was a two hour tour, let by a great guide named Inigo.  We started by going to the market, which includes fruit stalls on the outside of an old fish market building and then a large basement market of cheese, fish and meat vendors.  The quality was amazing and as is the case of all the markets we have visited in Spain, very clean and well organized.

Great veg

Flowers in the rain

We stopped at a wonderful picture of Andressa Portugal (1915-2012), a woman who sold fish at the Betxa market, where we were, for 70 years.

Inigo, our guide, in front of picture honouring Andressa Portugal

We went into the basement to the fish and meat market.  Inigo talked about coquettas and various local products.  Tuna and anchovies are favourites.

Different types of croquettas 

Beans, anchovies and tuna

One stall had a lot of Queso Idiazabal, which is a young sheep cheese.

Say cheese!

We also talked about the importance of cod.  The Basque sailors were among the first that fished for cod in the waters outside Newfoundland.  Salted cod is soaked for a few days before cooking.

Salted cod

Ham wrapped up

Cod cheeks and hake cheeks are very popular.

Cod cheeks

Fileting a fish with care

 The purveyors will often inquire how you intend to cook the fish and then prepare it accordingly.

Fish with lettuce

After our market visit, we headed out to our first pintxos bar.  We stopped as a procession went by.   There will be a big celebration of Basque language on Sunday in a town outside of San Sebastian.  The procession in San Sebastian was a preview.  We bought a button saying Euskahal Dun!, which means something like We Can Speak Euskera.

Playing traditional flutes and drums

We had our first pintxos at Bar La Cepa, in the Old Town  There are over 100 bars/restaurants in the Parte Vieja ( old part of the city), which is a very small area of the City.

Outside of Bar La Cepa

Alano at bar

Most people in the group had a croquetta.  As it had a béchamel sauce, I had a pintxo with tuna, anchovies and a walnut.  Excellent.  We all had a glass of Txakoli- a young white wine from the area.

Croquettas 

Tuna with anchovies and walnut

Inigo explained pintxos etiquette.  One should order a drink first and then pick up a cold pintxo from the bar and order any hot pintxos.  One usually doesn't order too much or stay too long.  Rather, one goes from bar to bar.  It is fine to be aggressive as the bars can get quite crowded.

We walked by a statue dedicated to those workers who helped rebuild the old part of the city after a fire in 1813.

It was then on to our next pintxos at Txuleta.  We had a gorgeous pinxto of octopus and shrimp in oil oil.  Most people had some local cider, and I had a glass of red wine.

Nice presentation of octopus/shrimp

 The culture is to pour the cider from on high.  Txuleta is also known for its T-bone steaks.

Pouring cider

Inigo also told us about cider houses outside of San Sebastian that serve a set menu of food, that includes steak.   As we left Txuleta, we ran into another procession celebrating the Basque language.

                                                               Euskahal Dun!  

Inigo greeted some friends who were dressed up, celebrating the upcoming wedding of the guy wearing the pig mask.  All very friendly.

                                                 

We stopped in Plaza Constitucion for a few minutes.  Inigo explained that this square had been used for bullfights for about 50 years ending at the turn of the 20th century.  He pointed out that each apartment had a large number over the outside window and balcony.  Apparently, people would pay the city money for a balcony view of a bullfight.  They were entitled to walk into the private apartment and take their place on the balcony                     

Plaza Constitucion

Numbered apartments

We walked by the cooking school run by Luis Irizar, the man who brought the new cooking to San Sebastian in the early 1990s.

                                                     Window with pictures and promotion for cooking school

Quiet street in the Old Town

Another band on a busy street in the Old Town

The third pintxos bar we went to was called A Fuego Negro  (black flame).  It was a more avant-garde place.  We had a squid cooked in blank ink pintxo and another glass of Txakoli.  The squid pieces were served very interestingly.

Outside of A fuego negro

Inside the bar

A fork through the squid

Our tour ended two hours after it started. It was a great way to learn a bit about food history, visit the market, learn about pintxo culture and sample some local treats and drinks.

Alano and I then decided to visit the San Telmo Museoa, a Museum of Basque Society.  It was housed in one of the few buildings that survived the fire of 1813. The building is a 16th century Dominican convent.  The museum opened at its present location in 1932, and is the oldest museum in Basque Country.  It underwent a major renovation from 2007-2010 and reopened in 2011.  There is a renaissance style cloister with 11 canvases by the Catalan artist Jose Maria Sert (1874-1945).  The canvases depict scenes from Basque history and were commissioned for the museum prior to its opening in 1932.   The museum provides a look at Basque society from its origins up to the present day.

Outside hall at Museum

Courtyard at the museum

                          Sert Canvases on walls

       

Old grave markers

There was a section devoted to Basque painters.

Ramon De Zubiaurre (1888-1969)- Los Intelectuales de Mi Aldea

There was also a presentation of a number of women in elaborate Basque headdresses, put together by Cristobal Balenciag, who was born near San Sebastian.  Our audioguide noted that the Basque women were persecuted by the Spanish authorities for wearing these headdresses as they were seen as "phallic".

There was also a section dealing with the Spanish Civil War, the bombing of Guernica, and Franco's oppression of the Basques.

Photos of the bombing of Guernica

La Passionaria

Poster from the 1930s

ETA screen shot

Basque beret

It was still drizzling when we left the museum.  We went for a coffee at another cafe (Regatta) and then headed back to the Pension to rest.

Later we returned to the  Old Town for dinner, i.e. more pintxos and wine.

Outside of Borda Berri, our first destination

We knew to hustle up to the bar, order a glass of wine and then some hot pintxos.

This is a delicious piece of meat in some wonderful sauces

Pouring txakoli

Cod cheeks-- excellent

We then went to Zeruko, a bar serving more modern pintxos.  Alano and I had two small pieces and the some langostinos in tempura.

Zucchini wrapped fish pintxo

Alano with tempura langostinos

Display of innovative pintxos at Zeruko

It will be fun sampling different pintxos bars during the remainder of our stay.  It is now Sunday March 22 and we are heading to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim museum.  It is an hour bus ride away.