San Sebastian – Food

This is an extract from the book Travel tales from Exotic Places like Salford

In Spain’s Basque country it is important to know a few words of the Basque language especially in the city of San Sebastian. This hotbed of Basque nationalism is known as Donostia locally and there are other words visitors should become acquainted with. The most important is pintxos.

In the Basque Country there are no tapas bars – instead they are referred to as pintxos bars, but the idea is the same. People in Spain eat a lot later than most tourists are used to and one of the reasons is the locals visit a pintxos bar first – so it is a great idea for visitors to eat a few pintxos too, to bridge the gap to the later eating time.

The problem in San Sebastian is eating just a ‘few’ pintxos – these bite-sized delights are so tasty and varied that some visitors, me included, can eat them all evening. Pintxos bars also serve wine and sherry, so if you do have a seat at the bar then there is no real need to move all night.

So it was at the A Fuego Negro in San Sebastian’s old town – this is a famous pintxos bar in the Casco Viejo, appearing in most guidebooks, and it always looks busy. This might be because it is roughly midway between the 18^th Century Basilica de Santa Maria and the Museo San Telmo, two popular tourist destinations. As we approached along Calle de Agosta at 9pm there were people standing around with small plates, wine, and/or a cigarette. Visitors should not worry though because there is no smoking inside. Heading indoors the place will look packed but that is usually because people prefer to be closer to the door in the warmer weather. At the back there is a small area with eight tables which always seemed to be occupied.

However, it’s more fun to be at the bar and luckily two places became available at the end near the kitchen and we sat down before anyone else could. We ordered two glasses of the house white wine and settled into the warm and welcoming atmosphere.

People were ordering food all around us and the five servers behind the bar were scurrying here and there, sometimes disappearing into the kitchen to place a larger order. Occasionally the female chef came out to query something and there would be a bit of shouting until everything was sorted out. Each time the kitchen door opened we were treated to a waft of whatever food was cooking at the time – squid, hake, cod, crab.

The wine was really fresh and we decided that due to the din we would just order three items at random from the blackboard rather than getting a Basque lesson in how to pronounce items such as spider crab (txangurro). My girlfriend can’t eat dairy products so we did have a protracted discussion with a very patient proprietor to ensure that none of our order contained milk or butter, including the bread.

This is an extract from the book Travel tales from Exotic Places like Salford