San Sebastian pintxos bars - 2013 update along with other notes

Below is a list of all the best San Sebastian pintxos bars visited and pintxos eaten so far in my short but hungry life. This is for anyone to enjoy if they find themselves in San Sebastian and are looking for a list of tried-and-tested tasty top tips! Try saying that with a mouthful of toasted txangurro....

This list, now fondly known as 'El Listo', was first created in 2008 and originally based on a list given to me by Elena, chef/patron of the 3 Michelin starred restaurant Arzak. We visited all of her suggestions, tried the recommended pintxos and made a few discoveries of our own. After returning to San Sebastian over Easter this year I thought it would be churlish not to update the much loved El Listo and so below you have El Listo in it's fully updated, colour-photographed glory. Enjoy...

Zona parte vieja (old town)

Ganbara (2013)

San Jeronimo 19 

Tel: 943-422575

The txangurro tart (crab tart) is reputedly the main star, although we preferred the one at Bernardo Etxea. I loved the simply cooked cod’s roe, served cold and garnished with onions and parsley. We also had a lovely racione (a larger portion than a pintxo) of clams with baby artichokes that were stewed into soft submission and flavoured with clam juice.

La Viña (2013)

31 de Agosto 3 

Tel: 943-427495

You have to come to La Viña and have one thing, at the very least, if you eat no other pintxos at all during your visit to San Sebastian. And that is the canutillo de queso. It is a cone made from brik pastry, filled with cream cheese and one anchovy fillet. It is cheesy, creamy, fishy, oily and crisp. It is also unexpectedly delectable. Like a savoury man’s ice cream delight. If you are adventurous then try the patitas de cordero – lamb’s feet. These are quite special but not to everyone’s taste. The torta de queso is wonderful – sweet cream-cheesy custardy curds just held together to form a cake.

La Cuchara de San Telmo (2013)

31 de Agosto 28 trasera (junto a la entrada lateral de San Telmo)

Tel: 943-420840

This was one of our favourite bars on our first visit. We had mollejas (veal sweetbreads), foie gras, pulpo, txiperron (baby squid), oreja (pig’s ear)…in fact everything we ordered from the short menu was delicious.

On returning in 2013 the carrillera (ox cheek), foie gras a la plancha and risotto with goat’s cheese were still wonderful, but the service was less impressive.

Txepetxa (2013) – known for excellent anchovies

Pescaderia 5

Tel: 943-422227

The anchovies come with a wide selection of unusual partners.  You can find anchovies topped with sea urchin (erizo del mar), spider crab, salmon, trout roe or even blueberry jam. In season fresh anchovies caught off the coast are hand filleted and then marinated in vinegar for 24 hours before being served. These are prized for being larger and tastier than their imported counterparts. In 2013 we tried ‘antxoas mundiala’ or ‘anchovies of the world’, not on the menu and a concoction of anchovy fillet with crab mayo and sea urchin eggs (huevas des erizo del mar). Another classic is a Gilda (pronounced Hilda) – named after the movie Gilda starring Rita Hayworth. This pintxos combines an anchovy fillet with a stoned green olive and a guindillo pepper on a toothpick.

La Fuego Negro (2013) – known for pintxos modernos (modern tapas)

31 de Agosto 31

Tel: 550-135373

Another top contender for the best pintxos in ’08. 2008 highlights included pancetta Iberico con ajo, txangurro (crab), avocado ice cream, aniseed ice cream – amazing together.  Makobe con txips ( mini hamburger with chips), txupitos (like veloute amuse) salmurejo (salmon custard) con brote (onion sprouts), flore (flowers), anchovies, pickled garlic cloves, roasted cherry tomatoes.

On our 2013 return we had a glass of mussels in tomato sauce with béchamel foam and pork scratchings, along with a dish of lamb’s tongue (lengua)andf red wine pickled spring onions.

Bar Martinez (2008) - recommended: pintxos frios (cold tapas)

31 de Agosto 13

Tel: 943-424965

Bacalao and salmon on toast. Stuffed peppers, anchovy, egg and jamon, boquerones with red pepper and onion sweet sour relish, anchovy, tuna, gherkin and pickled green chilli.

Goiz Argi (2013)

Fermin Calbeton 4

Tel: 943 425204

Brochetta de gambas – prawn, bacon and spicy sweet sour salsa – incredible, one of the best pintxos. Morcilla, , txangurro a la calenta – hot little dish of crab, polpo.  Only disappointment was the chiperrones.

Bernardo Etxea (2013)

Puerto 7

Tel: 943 422055

www.bernardoetxea.com

One of our favourite destinations for a long seafood lunch. Especially for hot boiled percebes (120 euros per kilo! or €30 a racione), or dinosaur feet/goose barnacles. Other delights included native oysters, langoustines, almejas (clams) – all available either raw or cooked and both options were delicious…but relatively expensive compared to standard pintxos. Otherwise there was -

Tartaleta txangurro – blind baked shortcrust tarts with a rich, almost burnt, buttery taste, filled with a warm mixture of white and brown crabmeat, nothing else. This was elegantly simple yet luxurious at the same time. One of the highlights.

Jamon de Jabugo – thin slices of classic Iberico ham

Kokotxas en salsa – Hake throats in a white gelatinous sauce flecked with parsley.

Pulpo a la Gallega – Slices of soft octopus with paprika

Cigalas a la plancha – Enormous langostines, split open lengthways and quickly cooked under the grill with a smear of butter.

Chipirones a la plancha – These should have been tiny little squids but were larger than expected in late March/early April, perhaps due to the season.

La Cepa (2013)

31 de Agosto 7

Tel: 943 426394

Reputedly Ferran Adria’s favourite bar.

Jamon de Jabugo – wonderful Iberico ham and hongos a la plantxa – wild ceps grilled and served with an egg yolk.

Borda Berri (2013)

Fermin Calbeton 12

Tel: 943 425638

Translated as ‘New Hut’. This bar was a new discovery in 2013. Apparently owned by one half of the pair who opened La Cuchara de San Telmo following an acrimonious split. The food was fantastic – everything we tried was impressive. Highlights included:

Risotto de idiazabal – the ‘risotto’ was in fact orzo pasta, glazed with the local idiazabal cheese. It was wonderfully creamy and rich.

Kebab de costilla de cerdo – pork ribs, slow cooked to tender meaty shreds

Carrillera de tenera al vino tinto – ox cheek, again forkably soft and savoury sauced.

Atari Gastroteka (2013)

Calle Mayor, 18 Nagusia (Calle 31 de Agosto)

Tel: 943 440792

Foie artesano – Warm foie gras, banana cream and slices of caramalised apple.

A slate with flakes of cooked bonito (tuna), anchovy fillets and spicy pickled guindillo peppers.

Bar Tamboril (2013)

Arrandegui 2

Tel: 943 423507

Txampis Tamboril - fat button mushrooms stewed in their own juices, with garlic and olive oil and served with a piece of baguette to mop up the sauce. Also recommended are the gambas a la gabardina.

In new town – Zona Gros

Alona Berri (2008)

C. Bermingham 24

Tel: 943 290818

Interesting ‘modern’ tapas – unusual combinations, and friendly service.  Not the cheapest but worth it.

Erizo de mar (sea urchin – served hot and in the shell)

Chipiron en equilibrio de mar

Entecote atun – tuna with sesame ‘salt’ and honey

Txirristra – mackerel

Bar Bergara (2008)

C/ General Arteche 8

943 275026

Bacalao a la Vizcaina is a speciality, lots of pastry and tarts, not bad, but we preferred Alona…

In Centro

Hikamika (2008) – Pinchos in general

C/ Etxaide

Tel: 943 431335

This was recommended on Elena’s list, but we have yet to try it….

Restaurants I went to and loved

Rekondo (2013)
Fantastic traditional Basque cuisine and a culinary classic for locals. Also boasts one of the oldest and most extensive wine cellars in Spain.

Arzak (2008 and 2013)
Three Michelin starred gastronomic powerhouse.

Azurmendi (2013)
Three Michelin stars and a kitchen garden thrown in.

Mugaritz (2008)
Two Michelin stars and wildly innovative - much loved by chefs.

To try next time (from 2013)

Astelehena - The pan seared foie gras is supposed to be amazing.

Akelarre - Three Michelin stars 

Martín Berasategui - Three stars too

Zuberoa - One star

Miramón Arbelaitz - One star

Kokotxa - One star

Mirador de Ulía - One star

Alameda de Hondarribia - One star

Aldanondo - Traditional Basque cuisine

Juanito Kojua - Traditional Basque also

The Basque cider houses located in the villages of Hernani and Astigarraga

Spanish/Basque food words

Lumagorri – a classic Basque dish

Canelon - cannelloni

Carrillera - cheek

Cochinita - suckling pig

Hongos - ceps

Ternera - veal

Kallos - pig stomach

Kabra - goat

Carri-kabra. – goat’s cheese and beef cheek

Idiazabal - local sheep’s milk cheese

Arandanos - berries

Bocarta - local fish

Oneggin – cheers (like Salute!)

Guindillas – thin curly green peppers, usually pickled and slightly spicy

Vieira - scallop

Molleja – veal sweetbreads

Morro de ternera – veal lips

Puerro - leek

Arzak revisited 29.3.13

We came, we ate, we raved about Arzak. Four years on and we returned.

This time the dishes were very different. The trademark egg course remained, but the style of the cuisine seemed to have moved on. A touch of Danish/Noma influence perhaps? Overall I'm not sure if it's a case of gastronomic nostalgia always winning out, but we felt our first visit had greater momentous impact.

We sat at the Chef's Table this time, under rainbow shards of coloured glass and facing the brightly lit main pass. Elena and her father Juan Mari Arzak both came to say 'hello' but were otherwise rarely seen, leaving explanations of each course in the hands of a waitress whose heavily accented English was often difficult to understand.

The language barrier weighed heavily on my appreciation of dinner, as it was often impossible to understand exactly what we were eating nor to appreciate the flavours and technical skills woven into each dish. While some dishes stood alone in being delicious, others were lost on us.

On my first visit to Arzak the dishes seemed complicated at first, with foams and pastes and other forms of kitchen wizardry very much in evidence. But in fact simplicity won out as the tastes and compositions were classic, easy to understand and often locally inspired. We could relate to what was on our plates. This key aspect of our dining experience was sadly missing this time.

Dinner was still enjoyable, certainly, but disappointingly not the tongue tingling sensation I remembered from my first experience. Perhaps three time's a charm?

Beans, bacon and chestnut. I tasted black beans and the thin crisp of iberico fat floating on top. Chestnuts added a subtle sweetness.

Anchovy and strawberry. Served on a slick of fruity balsamic flavoured something. Fragrant, salty sweet and delicious.

Red codfish. On a spiral of crisp pastry, with onion seeds I think? Some kind of emulsified sauce. Salty fish really. With crispy bits.

Kabrarroka pudding with kataifi. Local fish mousse wrapped in fine kataifi hairs and deep fried. 

Chorizo with tonic. A purée of chorizo wrapped in a thin slice of mango and bathed in tonic water. Rather recycled presentation, but a lovely little mouthful.

Cromlech, manioc and huitlacoche. Y'What? Okay a cromlech is apparently Welsh for a megalithic or large stone structure. Manioc is better known as cassava, which formed the casing of our mini megalith and was apparently 'hydrated with huitlacoche', a corn fungus used in Mexican cuisine that has a smoky, earthy flavour. Having never tasted this before I couldn't identify it. I did taste the strands of sweet caramalised onions inside the cassava casing and the smooth foie gras paste, but none of the green tea mentioned on the menu. 

Hemp, mustard and lobster. With crisp hemp bread and mustard vinaigrette. Lovely lobes of butter poached lobster, paired with sorrel leaves hiding an English mustard emulsion, crunchy hemp seeds baked into a sweet salty crisp and lobster stock clothes pegs. We weren't sure about the relevance of the latter! The dish also came with a refreshing little salad of micro leaves with tapioca pearls, hemp seeds and pink slices of grapefruit.

Oysters with a sea crust. The alternative to lobster. These were browned on one side giving them a half cooked texture and served with paprika fronds. The whole effect was rather too salty.

Ovo-lacto. Egg with a semi crispy shell and baobab, served with lactic leaves and curds. Again y'what? So as far as we could decipher, the egg was low temperature poached and coated in breadcrumbs. The greyish crisps were dehydrated milk, served with a bubble of liquid gorgonzola, a slice of idiazabal cheese marinated in port and an 'oca de lada' leaf. There was no trasnlation for the latter, sourced from Koppert Cress, who import the leaf from Thailand under their own brand name. According to Arzak with was to prevent anyone from identifying it. Stranger and stranger.

Monkfish green witch. Or monkfish served in a green balloon.

Following removal of the rice cracker balloon. The monkfish was beautifully cooked - soft and juicy, meaty without any rubbery bounce. Served with cloves of confit garlic and a parsley seaweed sauce.

Alternatively, there was white sole served white seaweed and a green sea vegetable sauce. The firm and flavourful sole fillets became the highlight of dinner for those who had it.

The Kobe's beer. Another hard to understand wordplay description. What looked like a large lollipop or a cutlet of some sort turned out to be a patty of minced Kobe beef, sourced locally from the first generation of Wagyu cattle bred from a herd imported from Japan. It was cooked medium rare and served with a liquorice bark 'bone', beetroot onions, pomegranate seeds, parmesan crisp and a mildly bitter beer sauce. I found the minced meat to be tender and tasty, but nothing extraordinary. It surprised me to find that the main dish was effectively a burger filling.

Served alongside the Kobe beef, a dish of sweet leek cake and deep fried leaves. Again, nice but not really much of note. 

Playing marbles with chocolate. Chocolate marbles with amaranth and oregano sauce. The chocolate balls contained liquid in their centres. I have always liked puffed amaranth, which looks like tiny baby pieces of popcorn, but the chocolate tasted a bit strange, I suppose this was the oregano influence.

The alternative to chocolate marbles - Roots, fruits and seeds. A thin layer of white chocolate flavoured with parsley filled with black chocolate emulsified with kuzu (a starch used by the Japanese as a thickener) and lime flavour, served with Frangelico and Aperol balls.

Golden footprint and ladybird. Caramalised fruits served under black sesame bread (the footprint), pepper and liquorice ladybird filled with vanilla yoghurt pannacotta and olive oil cristal. Caramel crumbs. Served alongside was an Indian gooseberry ice cream.

The alternative to the ladybird dish - Black apple. Sautéed apple finished with an aspect of truffle and apricot. Served alongside a basil sorbet with sweet seeds.

Cinnamon curls

Chocolate ironmongery petit fours.

Hot and numbing chicken slices

This recipe is from Fuchsia Dunlop's Sichuan Cookery. It is probably the one dish from all of her books that I have made the most often over the years. It is so easy to make and yields deliciously addictive results every time.

You can use it to spice up shop bought cooked chicken to satisfy a craving, put leftover bits of chicken to exciting new use or throw it together and impress friends, whether they are novices to Sichuan cuisine or not. The dish can be made saltier or sweeter, chilli hot or mild, mouth-numbingly electric or gently tingling.  Served alongside a dish of garlicky smacked cucumbers and salty sour pickles (as pictured above) its a lovely cold starter before a spicy Sichuan feast.

In order to make the ground roasted Sichuan pepper, gently heat Sichuan peppercorns in a dry pan until they start to smoke and smell very fragrant. Be extremely careful not to keep the pan on the heat for much longer or you will burn the delicate spices - you will know this has happened as the ground result will taste bitter and not very nice at all.  I tend to roast and grind small amounts at a time, so it's not too devastating when I do burn my spices and to keep the ground Sichuan pepper powder from becoming stale and tasteless as it loses its flavour over time.

To grind the Sichuan peppers I use a brilliant Braun spice grinder from the Eighties that my mum handed down to me, but a pestle and mortar is just as good. Shake the ground powder through a relatively fine meshed sieve afterwards to get rid of the tougher, woodier bits of the spice and store any unused peppercorn powder in a tightly sealed jar.

The chicken is easier to slice when cold, but I prefer eating the dish at room temperature, or even lightly warmed in an oven on colder days.

Ingredients:
about 350g of cold chicken - a mix of leg and breast meat is ideal
4-6 spring onions, white and light green parts only
4 teaspoons of white sugar
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
3-6 tablespoons of chilli oil with sediment (Lee Kum Kee Chiu Chow Chilli Oil is my favourite)
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
a teaspoon of ground roasted Sichuan pepper

Slice the chicken across the grain of the meat as it will be more tender to eat. So for example with the breast you want to make slices across the breast not down along the length of it. Slice the spring onions thinly but diagonally so that you get relatively large slivers rather than little rounds. These slivers will be more similar to the chicken slices in size, making it easier to pair similar sized pieces of both together when you eat them. Cover the bottom of your serving dish with the spring onions and then add the chicken over the top. At this point I like to either warm the chicken pieces a little or leave them covered for 20 minutes to come up to room temperature before continuing.

In a smaller bowl, add the soy sauce and sugar and stir it will a spoon or a finger until the sugar dissolves. Add the chilli and sesame oils, stir again and taste the result. Adjust the seasoning if you prefer more salt, sweet or chilli.

When you are happy with the dressing, pour it over the chicken and toss everything together. Sprinkle over the Sichuan pepper and serve immediately.

Lobster Night

9 minutes in boiling water salted so it tastes like seawater. Happy Valentine's Day!

Bo London

A bunch of us went to check out Bo London last week.

This is Alvin Leung's foray into the London market following his success in Hong Kong with Bo Innovation - two Michelin starred and 52nd in Restaurant Magazine's 'World's 50 Best Restaurants' listings. In Hong Kong, Alvin Leung as styled himself as a 'Demon Chef', general rock and roller and master of what he calls 'Xtreme Chinese' cuisine. Certainly he may be one of the first to more successfully break down the fundamentals of Chinese cuisine and attempt to build something more modern and different, without the result appearing to be a trite form of cultural cut and paste. But as with all fusion it seems to me that it is hard to judge what true culinary symbiosis should look and taste like. Visually, Leung's cuisine resembles Western fine dining more than Asian banquet, but his dishes use Chinese flavours and are evocative of classic dishes and traditions. His methods appear to employ Asian and Western techniques, although I doubt you would see a wok in his kitchen, and more likely a sous vide machine and a dehumidifier.

Having been, and eaten, and thought, Alvin Leung's food is indeed very good. Pricey. But good. It seems to me he is trying to do two things - in Hong Kong he is trying to dare the conservative Chinese palate to accept new twists on a cuisine that is steeped in history and tradition. And in the West he is trying to demonstrate that a chef serving Chinese cuisine can move beyond Lazy Susans and monkey's brains and into the same space occupied by globally recognised masters such as Ferran Adrià, Thomas Keller and Alain Ducasse. Its a big challenge, and I'll be interested to see if he can achieve it.

We went for the Ode to Great Britain menu, despite some hard selling to opt for the 14 course Chef's Menu, priced at £138 and described as being more representative of his cooking at Hong Kong's Bo Innovation. Comparing the Hong Kong and London menus I found roughly seven dishes that definitely appeared on at least one menu in both cities, but since the 12 course Ode to Great Britain contained three of these, along with some newly developed dishes, it sounded more interesting. And cheaper.

Definitely looked like a dead English winter garden. And a nod to Rene Redzepi's dish at Noma of vegetables planted in malt soil. It was unexpectedly delicious - morel mushroom 'soil' over a foamy, light-as-air avocado and lime purée, littered with dried green onion (a very common Chinese veg) stalks and planted with dehydrated enoki mushrooms. Considering how mildly flavoured enoki are I was surprised to find them were very tasty dried. The savoury tang of dried mushrooms worked well with the lime and green onion flavours.

How could this not be my favourite dish? More Oscietra caviar than I have seen all year, and delicately piled on top of a sandalwood smoked, soft yolked quail's egg, nestled in fried taro like a luxury dim sum. Salty, eggy, smokey and crisp.

Raw mackerel, hint of sesame and salty sour ponzu foam. A lovely bite, though I missed the rose note mentioned in the menu. On the Hong Kong version it's called 'parfum de Hong Kong' - a play on Hong Kong not exactly smelling of roses?

Oops. A very fine take on classic xiao long bao - the steamed buns that contain a liquid soup as well as filling. These were meaty with kidneys and steak, balanced with ginger and fishy reformed herring's roe.

Tomato - part one. Peeled and poached in sweet Chinese Pat Chun vinegar. Sweet and sour, soft and savoury. 

Part two of 'Tomato' - a peeled soft cherry tomato encased in Chinese puff-like pastry, which exploded in your mouth in the same way a ripe summer's tomato does. A shame that tomatoes are not currently at their best, as in season no doubt its flavour would be even more satisfyingly intense. 

And finally (for tomatoes anyway), tomato marshmallow - a puff of tomato air. 

Juicy langoustine, chewy salted yolk, cauliflower-crunch and mild English mustard spike. An unusual composition and faultless.

A surprise extra course, introduced as a dish in development, with our thoughts welcomed. The salmon was too salty but otherwise delicious, cured in salted kumquat and served with firm yet bouncy wasabi noodles

Hawthorn bubble tea, with passion fruit purée, tapioca pearls and dramatic LED uplighting - lights, camera...

Pigeon breast, rich and meaty, with tortellini-esque dumplings labelled as Chinese jiaozi but very different in shape. These were quite stodgy and less impressive than the beautifully cooked pigeon and its accompanying broth. 

A far more elaborate toad in the hole than its original. The Chinese yorkie was a type of Chinese style fried batter which while wonderful in its own environment did not match up to the traditional Yorkshire pud. I enjoyed seeing lotus seed, leaf and root all appear together on a plate, but my Western friends did not appreciate the significance. While the dish was delicious it was hard to see any resemblance to classic Toad in the Hole, or any Chinese equivalent.

Beans on toast as you have never seen them before.

One of the four little dim sum we finished with - a classic glutinous rice ball with black sesame filling.

My favourite little finish - white chocolate with preserved mandarin filling - a really clever take on a classic Chinese preserved snack. Not everyone liked this, I think the flavour of the filling probably seems quite weird if you haven't tried it before.