It was love at first bite in San Sebastián – or Donostia, as it is known in Basque.
Sure it is beautiful too with that glorious sweep of La Concha Bay, the beaches, the elegant buildings and the green hills rising around the city. But inevitably, for me, it comes back to food and how it is eaten.
San Sebastián is a city where food is part of the rhythm of everyday life. While it has incredible Michelin-starred restaurants and extraordinary chefs, often the most fun times are standing shoulder to shoulder with locals in a crowded bar, eating something delicious in a bite or two, enjoying local wine or cider and then heading out into the street in search of the next one.
First things first: they’re pintxos, not tapas You’ll see the word everywhere in San Sebastián: pintxo. The Basque “tx” is pronounced rather like “ch”, so say pin-cho. Traditionally, a pintxo was a small piece of food, often sitting on bread and held together with a wooden skewer or cocktail stick – which gives it its name. These days that description barely begins to cover them.
They can be wonderfully simple or incredibly sophisticated. There are still plenty piled enticingly onto slices of bread, but there are also hot dishes cooked to order and served on small plates. So while calling them Basque tapas may help explain the idea to someone who has never encountered them, they really are their own thing. And eating them is an experience in itself.
There is something wonderfully civilised about the way you eat pintxos in San Sebastián. You don’t settle in for the evening at one bar. The pleasure is in moving around.One bar. One or perhaps two pintxos. A small glass of wine – a txikito – or perhaps a zurito, a small beer. Then out into the street and on to the next place.
And that is part of what I love so much about San Sebastián. Food here isn’t merely something people consume. It is something they do together. The bars spill out onto the streets, people talk, laugh, eat and move on. There is an energy to it which is enormously infectious. And although visitors have certainly discovered San Sebastián, this isn’t a food culture created for tourists. Pintxos are woven into everyday life.
At first a busy pintxos bar can look like complete chaos. The bar may be packed, people are trying to catch the bartender’s attention, others are eating standing up and somehow everyone seems to know what they’re doing.
Don’t be intimidated.
Have a look at what is on the counter, but also look behind the bar for a menu or blackboard. Some of the best things may not be sitting out in front of you at all. Cold pintxos are generally displayed on the bar; hot pintxos are cooked to order. And don’t make the mistake of ordering enough food for the entire evening in the first bar. The whole point is to move on. Every good pintxos bar tends to have a house speciality. Find out what that is, order it, have your drink and then go and discover what the next bar does best.
If there is one pintxo which encapsulates the beauty of simplicity, it must surely be the Gilda. An anchovy. A green olive. A pickled Ibarra chilli. All threaded together on a skewer. That’s it.
With good ingredients, the combination is fabulous – salty, briny, sharp, slightly hot and enormously appetising. Exactly the sort of thing you want with a drink.
The Gilda takes its name from the 1946 film starring Rita Hayworth. The story goes that the pintxo was considered rather like Gilda herself – green, salty and a little spicy.
The generally accepted account places its creation at Casa Vallés in San Sebastián. Whatever the precise history, it has become one of the great edible symbols of the Basque Country.
Follow the speciality.
One of the great pleasures of eating your way around San Sebastián is that so many bars have a speciality so seek them out.
Check in for more next week – think seafood, cheese and more.
Meanwhile here is a recipe for Prawns & Chickpeas with Garlic.
