Three restaurants in the town of 200,000
on Spain's northeastern Atlantic coast hold the gastronomic holy grail
of three Michelin stars -- only Kyoto has more Michelin-starred eateries
per square meter.
It's already pretty obvious why global gourmets frequently place it atop their must-eat list. And then you add the pintxos. Pintxos, or spikes in the Basque language that's proudly heard throughout the region, are tapas taken to a whole new level.
No sweaty chorizo or clammy calamari on cocktail sticks here.
San
Sebastian's pintxos bars are culinary tours de force in their own
right, delivering dishes that wouldn't look out of place in their
Michelin-starred neighbors.
The only challenge facing visitors to this gastronomic wonderland is not what, but where, to eat.
I took the route of long, slow restaurant lunches, followed by late night hopping between the pintxos bars.
Foie gras ice cream
My food quest kicked off with lunch at the venerable institution, Arzak.
It's here that 71-year-old Juan-Mari Arzak has held a Michelin star for 40 years and three stars for a quarter of a century.
Twenty-five
years at the absolute pinnacle of any profession is remarkable, but in
the uber-competitive world of fine dining, it's unprecedented.
Arzak the restaurant is the story of the Arzak family.
Juan-Mari's grandparents built the property as a wine cellar and tavern in 1897, while he started working there in 1966.
The
unassuming exterior on a suburban street leads into a modernist dining
room where the same menu is served at lunch and in the evening.
Calling it a meal, however, doesn't really do it justice.
It's a culinary joyride of beauty, complexity and even wit.
Foie
gras is served as an ice cream, featuring caramelized onions and green
tea, in an inverted yucca cone dusted with shellfish powder.
Fine dining laboratory
A deceptively simple but sublime dish features cubes of potato, egg yolk and white truffle.
For
an overload of smells, tastes, sights and sounds, grilled lobster with
charcoal-roasted zucchini is served on a translucent plate above an iPad
playing a video of waves crashing in to shore.
Seriously.
Arzak's
post-dessert petits fours feature a candy shop and workshop mash-up
called Ferreteria Arzak, or Arzak Ironmongers, with silver sugar keys,
cola bottle tops, chocolate nuts and screws.
As would be expected from one of the world's top restaurants, the wine cellar features terrifyingly rare and expensive vintages.
A back-of-house look reveals a laboratory where new dishes are created and a room featuring 1,500 different spices.
World's most popular tortillas?
The Arzak family have defined and owned Michelin-starred cuisine in San Sebastian and cemented the town's reputation.
Today
that reputation is as much focused on pintxos bars as Michelin stars
and, having gradually recovered from an epic lunch, it's time to
consider evening options.
While it's
possible to be led by your eyes into one of scores of pintxos bars, a
small group tour is an excellent introduction and allows you to get to
know some of the very best dishes and venues.
Englishman
Jon Warren ditched a career in finance to follow his passion, setting
up San Sebastian Food to offer tours of the bars, local producers and
vineyards that give the Basque region such an enviable reputation.
He explains that the pintxos bars "are the
cool, young siblings to the Michelin stars and offer ultimate
flexibility; informal dining, bite-sized portions, low prices and the
chance to switch at the turn of a heel from traditional to modern
cuisine."
An evening tour led by a
donostiarra (a San Sebastian local) takes visitors from one to the next
for small bites and pours of local ciders and wines, especially txakoli,
a slightly sparkling young white wine.
Countless
bars, some traditional, others more cutting edge in cuisine and
atmosphere, try to outdo one another with heaving displays or
specialties.
Bar Nestor serves a
famous tortilla, but only in limited numbers, at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m.
precisely. Turn up 15 minutes late and prepare to leave disappointed.
Legendary anchovies
The rare delicacy of percebes or goose barnacles at Goiz Barci are less punctual, but worth spending time on.
The boquerones (fresh anchovies) at Txepetxa are legendary.
Warren nails pintxos culture when he says it's all about the social context.
"Lining
the streets of the old town, everyone is there to have fun, between the
barmen, the locals and visitors, creating a lively camaraderie filled
with wine, food and chattering."
As if
the culinary gods hadn't blessed San Sebastian enough with Michelin
stars and pintxos bars, there are also scores of artisanal producers
dotted throughout the historic town.
The
central food market is a treasure trove of local produce, in particular
the rightly famous jamon iberico de bellota (ham from acorn-fed pigs).
In
those brief pauses between eating some of the world's greatest food,
it's worth taking a walk on the beautiful beaches or promenade, drinking
in the sea air and stunning vistas and dreaming of being a donostiarra.
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