Dom Pannell's Blog

More on San Sebastian (the grub)

I signed up for a Spanish language course at the Lacunza school (part of International House, which is as good a quality stamp as you’ll find in language learning/training). The course was good value for money and perfect for what I was after: an opportunity to jump back into Spanish and find out the scale of the task of getting back to some level of fluency. As I said previously, I have something of a mountain to climb.

I also took along the 5-hour ‘Michel Thomas Advanced Spanish Course’ on CD, which I listened to in my hotel room through the week and bought a grammar exercise book. I plan to discuss language learning tools on a separate thread, but between them, these two allowed me to while away siesta time which was between my classes in the mornings and the bars re-opening in the late afternoon.

On the subject of bars, I probably experienced a good twenty or so over the course of the week. Most were very good, a few were excellent and only one was disappointing enough for me not to want to return.

The greatest single feature of bars in the Spanish Basque Country and in particular San Sebastian are the seemingly omnipresent “pintxos.” Like Spanish ‘tapas’, these are intended as bar snacks to be consumed with a glass of wine or beer. A pintxo can be as simple as a small sandwich containing ‘jamon serrano’ or tortilla, but tends to be much more elaborate. Even quite small establishments will often have an impressive array of different pintxos laid out on the bar.

On my first visit to San Sebastian, I didn’t know anything about pintxos or what correct Basque etiquette was when it came to eating them – as a result, my then girlfriend and I ended up wandering round several bars under the mistaken impression that lots of private parties were about to start because of all the buffets that were waiting to be consumed. Thankfully we stumbled on Bar Sebastopol where the owner (who I now know is called Angel or Angelito to his friends) took the time to explain.

If a customer likes the look of something, he or she just has to take it, tuck in and pay when it comes to settling up before leaving. Obviously, if the dish needs a plate or could do with warming up, it makes sense to ask the barman for some help, but generally you’re free to scoff away and pay at the end.

Angel’s place, Bar Sebastopol on Calle San Martin, is a little way off the promenade that runs round ‘Bahía de la Concha’ (one of the city’s three bays), it is an unprepossessing place that is popular with locals from before 9am to 2am at night (might be even longer hours, but I wasn’t around to find out).

This is a pic of la Bahía de la Concha on a grey day looking north-west.

Bar Sebastopol is actually a very good place for pintxos – One evening I counted fourteen different pintxos of which I sampled four. Normally I wouldn’t be so greedy* but I was chatting to Angel and a couple of customers who insisted I tried certain delicacies. Consequently, I tried two types of anchovy pintxo – one cold comprising olives, anchovy fillets and green beans on a slice of bread, the other made of potatoes and anchovies fried in golden batter – as well as fried salt cod and a small dish of pickled octopus. All of that was washed down with a glass or two of Txakoli, which is a local slightly sparkling dry white wine that apparently needs pouring from a great height.

Delicious.

I enjoyed the whole pintxos experience so much I only had one sit-down meal in a ‘proper’ restaurant all week and that was in Bilbao airport as I waited for my plane home. I’m glad I did though, because I’ve finally tried ‘bacalao al pil-pil’ – a dish I’ve always wondered about. I’ve seen it translated variously as ‘codfish in a piquant sauce’ and (I love this) ‘cod in an emulsion of olive oil’. Having now eaten it, I’ve got to say that the latter translation, although not exactly attractive, is the more accurate. Despite that description, or perhaps because of it, my bacalao al pil-pil which I had with (even) more Txacoli was gorgeous – wonderfully firm meat covered with a yellowy-green olive oil sauce.

Here is my dish in all its glory:

*Haha, the trick is to have a pintxo and a glass of beer/wine in one bar, then wander off to the next – that way you can be as greedy as you like and only you will know. Besides, think of all those calories you’re burning off as you walk…

Posted by dompannell at April 6, 2007 1:30 PM | TrackBack