San Sebastian Day 1 – Food Foreplay/Everyone has a beard

I made it back alive. I didn’t want to come back, but I did. Besides San Sebastian stealing my heart, it provided me with more delicious food and drink than I have ever had the delight of sampling before. Everything was amazing and for whatever reason almost all the men had ridiculous beards or mustaches. I left for Pais Vasco with big expectations and they were all shattered. This is one place that I will have to revisit one day; once I have the time and money, I plan on eating my way through the Basque Country and having the adventure of a lifetime. Although that sounds like some sort of shoddy promise to myself, it is one thing I am certain I will happen.

I spent four glorious days in San Sebastian. The best part about the place is that no matter what you do there, it is incredible easy to involve delicious food. I experienced this first hand the night we arrived. After the seven hour drive and getting settled into the hostel, we were finally ready to check out the city. Before leaving I asked the fellow from the hostel where we should go for some pinxtos. He raised his eyes to meet mine, pointed towards the old city—a mere block from our hostel—and informed me that every single piece of food in every single bar on every single street was delicious.

Wow. Bold words.

I’ve heard of the pride of the Basque people but something was telling me this guy wasn’t just stuffed with ignorant pride. We followed his advice, ventured out into the night and turned down the first busy street. My eyes were set aglow.


The first placed we passed was packed with people. Everyone was standing with a plate of food and a glass of one of many delicious drinks. The bar was stuffed with plates of various pinxtos—small pieces of bread piled high with various sorts of goodies. Behind the bar were two large chalkboards advertising the hot foods in both normal Castellano and Euskera—the official Basque language that, depending who you ask, comes from Latin, Portuguese or some obscure eastern European tongue. The only Euskera I remember sounds something like "zara-gas-ko", the word for gracias. Fortunately for me, “thank you” was all I needed to say as I inhaled my body weight in delicious pinxtos.

I could go on and on about variety of finger foods. There was sumptuous goat cheese with apricot pulp, hearty sprout salad with tuna and béchamel, impressive roasted peppers piled with jamón iberico, blue cheese and anchovies or my personal favorite, the smoked sausages wrapped in bacon. That is only the tip of the iceberg but I’ll let the pictures make you drool instead do the explaining instead.





Accompanying all of this delicious food were beautiful glasses of sidra natural, a Basque staple for hundreds of years. According to a few pamphlets I picked up on Sidrerias—or Sagardotegias in Euskera—every town had its own cider house back in the day for its inhabitants to bask in each other’s company, eat local specialties and drink sidra straight from the barrel. I would make it a personal mission to try one of the many sidrerias scattered throughout the area but until then we stuck to the more common bottled variety. Cider in Basque country is very different from the British of American version. It has less carbonation and more of a smooth, wine flavor. It’s light in carbonation and goes down smooth; sometimes a bit too smooth considering it’s more practical to buy the stuff by the bottle (more on the proper way to drink sidra on the post for day four). Another local beverage is Txakoli, a light, fizzy white wine that tastes like a sweeter (and a thousand times more delicious) champagne. Txakoli is tasty, but Sidra is heavenly.


I sampled both Basque beverages as we ate our way through a few bars. After having our stomachs stuffed with deliciousness, we worked our way into another sector of the old city. We bellied up to a simple looking bar when my friend Joe ran in announcing that a large, bearded man wearing a flannel shirt was pouring tasty German, Belgium and Czech beers next store. It was the moment I’d been envisioning since I got to Spain—a BEER BAR! We quickly hurried over and after squeezing into the small bar, I cried a little inside as I perused the menu—the beer menu! There was a superb little collection of beer to choose from and the menu was lovingly detailed with origins, alcohol content, styles and compliments. This was the first time since the states that I held a beer menu in my hands and I quickly got to chatting with the jovial owner about the stuff. Between customers I asked him about his beers and the beer culture in Spain. He concurred that I need to head towards Eastern Europe for the best of the beer world and poured me a few samples. Perhaps he could sense my love for beers and beards as he gave me free lighters, cards and pamphlets on the Siderias of the area. I then received a tall, dark and handsome glass of Louny Tostado, a deliciously chewy and well-balanced brew from the Czech Republic. After the first sip I knew that San Sebastian had everything I’d ever need.


After sufficiently tasting as many beers as we could, the five of us happily stumbled back to the hostel and crashed in preparation for day two of the best trip ever.