Pintxos me, I must be dreaming.

San Sebastian is a large town on the northern coast of Spain. Not far from the mountains that border France, this is part of the Basque region.




Basque cuisine has a very long and proud history and here in San Sebastian, there a huge variety of food on offer, including plenty of seafood. Wandering around the old town of San Sebastian, you might stumble across one of the private cooking clubs, called txokos. These are traditionally men-only clubs, where men gather and shop and cook together, often followed by some singing.


The bars, which are everywhere are always groaning with platters of small foods - usually on bread - called pintxos. These are usually one or two bites and often have a decent amount of mayonnaise in them.


The way to eat and drink here is usually standing at the bar. I ordered a beer and asked for a plate. As I enjoy my beer, I reach out and choose whatever looks good from the platters spread from one end of the bar to the other.

The presentation is exceptional and everything looks appetising and exciting.



Some are based on seafood, others on jamon or vegetables. Some bars are better at certain things, so experimentation and window shopping are part of the meal. Ingredients that are very common are octopus, baccalao (salt cod), anchovies and jamon.


At lunch and dinner, the popular places get so crowded that people will squeeze in to order a drink, grab a few pintxos and spill out onto the street to drink, eat and chat. All of the bars have cold beer on tap, one of the most common being San Miguel, a light refreshing beer, great for drinking on a hot summer day. Another favourite is the local cider, usually poured from very high up to incorporate air into it, can be a taste to get used to as it can be a bit sour.


Probably the most surprising thing about most of these places is that they work on the honor system - that is you drink and eat and then tell the bartender what you had and he will charge you accordingly. Most pintxos are served with skewers and the bartender can sometimes just count these and charge you for that number.

San Sebastian is a very popular tourist destination and I heard more English spoken than Spanish as I was walking around the town. There is always something happening and people wander around all day and all night, eating, drinking and dancing.

It's great to hear aussie accents and chat with people about good places around town, but it's important to get past the obvious tourist places and find the exciting places that are doing something a little different and I'll be talking about a couple of these in the next update.