Last 48 hours in San Sebastián

This blog post covers our last two days in the lovely city of San Sebastián. So don't think we ate all of this incredible food in a single day... we spread it out over two days, like sensible gluttons.

The city is Basque at heart and in the kitchen, but the architecture and monuments feel very Castillian-Spanish. This dude, for example, looks very Spanish:

We went to check the surf and found some nice feral kitties on the sea wall:

Turns out there is a feral cat community (retirees?) living on the sea wall rocks:

The streets are charming in San Sebastián:

And lined with restaurant/bars. All of those signs going on for infiniti are for pintxo bars:

Mornings (anytime before 11am) mean empty streets:

This place was on the forefront of the experimental avant-garde pintxo scene:

Very cool vibe inside:

I loved the open kitchen. Lots of lively banter going on back there. And the dog mannequin was a nice touch:

La carrillera (veal cheek) was excellent. A very very close second to Borda Berri's. The relative scale might throw you off.

On an absolute basis, this would be one of the most delicious dishes of your life. The kind of dish that makes you say "wow" after every bite.

There just happens to be one slightly more delicious 150 feet away:

This was a grilled goat cheese with sautéed vegetables. Spread over super fresh baguette and a crisp glass of Spanish red, our dopamine drips kicked into high gear:

We hit La Vina and really enjoyed the service. Aside from the friendly service we noticed it was a favorite with the older crowd. Notice the very satisfied old time Basque dude walking out:

Our bartender was genuinely stoked to be serving us. Felt great to be in there. He is pouring us the Basque wine

Txakoli, and smiling the whole way. Next time, we need to try the cheesecake:

We revisited one of our favorites, Astalena, for a few of the dishes we didn't get around to trying the night before:

"Solo millo" is a filet mignon and lightly fried vegetables. The veggies were some of the best we've ever had, ever, anywhere:

"Taco de bonito" was a seared tuna with mixed greens and gazpacho. Very good:

Finally, we stepped outside our comfort zone and got "La Manita" which, as you Spanish speakers can intuit, is a hand. A hand of pork, that is. With two slabs of foie gras on top. In some sort of ridiculous sauce. One bite was enough. Even for your adventurous travelers, this dish was just too rich:

Bar Nestor is one of our top 3 favorite places in San Sebastián. It is NOT a normal pintxos spot: there aren't pintxos lining the bar. There isn't even a menu. So it isn't really a sit down restaurant either:

They are specialists. The back of the shirt is essentially the menu. Wine, steak, tomatoes, and peppers. That's it. And man, do they do those things well:

Here is Nestor himself (who took a major liking to Cam) showing a customer the massive cut of chuleta (Porterhouse) that he was going to cook for him:

The tomatoes are to die for. Huge, perfect heirloom tomatoes in super premium olive oil, with four different kinds of salt on top. Tear a piece of fresh baguette and grab a tomato and float to heaven. So simple, so good:

The chuleta comes out sliced and sizzling on a hot stone. You can smell it three doors down. It takes over your salivary system:

Take a sip of Rioja and prepare for some magic. The nice thing about the hot stone is you can use it to cook your meat a bit more if it comes out too rare for your liking. And you can soak up the fat and salt on the side with each bite:

The best steak Cam has ever had and the second best of Jon's life (Jon has had a bit more steak so that is saying a lot). Cooked to perfection. May seem rare in the picture, but that is the color of heaven. Not chewy AT ALL. Every single bite melted in the mouth:

One of the cooler experiences we had was seeking out a guy named Gorka (seen keeping the bar). Our friend Josh spent a lot of time in San Sebastián back in the day and practically lived at Bar Desy (Gorka's bar). Josh told us to check it out, and drop his name. And Gorka responded by ducking under the bar and giving us a huge hug. What a nice guy. He then fed us some delicious pintxos and refused our payment. The Basques are truly a different breed. So friendly and trusting:

We finished last night at Zeruko, where on our first run through two days ago we had seen someone else ordering the pintxo postre (dessert) and it looked great. So we went:

And the pintxo postre of the week was called "Bob Limon" and it was to die for. The yolk was some sort of lemon-orange goo. The egg white was a sort of whipped cream yogurt concoction. The flaky thing was actually spongy and was like a perfect donut. In the upper right hand corner was a raspberry thing and the bottom left hand corner was chocolate sauce and an edible flower bulb that did sort of a pop-rocks fizz on our tongues:

Now we are taking an overnight train to Lisbon, Portugal. Here is Cam fully loaded up for the walk to the train station:

San Sebastián was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!