Walking through the streets of San Sebastian with spring in my step, part hunger, part excitement. I pass wetsuit-clad surfers returning from a sunset session,, I must be nearing Playa dela Zurriola I think to myself, a famous surf spot and city beach in the heart of San Sebastian which at this time of year gets pounded by North Atlantic swells.
It's 8:30 and the bars are already filling up, I'll never know if it was my hunger or my excitement that got the better of me but I found the temptation too much. My mission was to end up at Bar Ganbara, of Anthony Bourdain's favourite haunts when he visits, describing it thus: “it's the first place I head to, like a heat-seeking missile”. Now that's a restaurant recommendation that you struggle to match on Trip Advisor.
I had recently watched an episode of his show, Parts Unknown that was dedicated to San Sebastian and the Basque Culture. Being a short drive from Biarritz, I had visited the city on a few occasions but this time I felt I had insider knowledge, all the guidebooks in the world can offer recommendations but none have the gravitas that comes from Bourdain's seal of approval.
Recently, there has been something of a Basque renaissance, after years of persecution, especially on the Spanish side of the border under the dictator Franco. On the French side of the border, the Basque culture is somewhat assimilated and has come to be regarded as what makes the southwest some unique. In Spain, the difference is more distinct, more pronounced.
As following the wafts sea air I head towards the Zurriola bridge that would take me into the old town an into the heart of has become the San Sebastian Culinary experience. The lure of bar tops laden with prepared 'pintxos' proved to be too tempting, I found myself pressed against the counter of “Bar El Lobo” drinking a beer and ordering a plateful of pintxos hoping that I'm not going to peak too early, I mean who in their right mind eats dinner at such an early hour.
What makes San Sebastian so unique from a culinary perspective is hard to pinpoint, a city in a remote part of western Europe that has more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else in the world. the answer could be as simple as the use of fresh simple ingredients or the sense adventure that would come up with something so mouth watering as Red Tuna tataki, caramelised onion, with wasabi, crunchy algae and soya. Perhaps after all those years of persecution, the Basque people forced to express their identity in subtle ways threw their energy into their food. Anthony Bourdain went on to extol the virtues of SanSebastian asserting that “ you'd be hard pressed to have a bad meal in the city”, yet, at the same time he urged his viewers not to go there, as he wanted “to keep it all to himself”.
I muscled my way to the front of the bar and the excitement and possibly the alcohol left me tongue-tied I struggled to remember any Spanish and resorted to pointing at various pintxos and saying “este, este, y este, gracias.” At Bar Ganbara you first eat with your eyes and the other senses will follow closely behind, I was beginning to think my eyes were too big for my belly. Enroute to Bar Ganbara I had stopped at a couple notable pintxos bars, Borda Berri was a standout. I gorged my through several plates of pintxos all living up to my high expectations, but nothing could prepare me for what came next. A dish so simple yet so elegant it defies rationale, a little worse for wear from one too many beers but I felt the emotion welling up in me, the thought of Anthony Bourdain describing this as one of his favourite dishes, that and the thought of his untimely death a few months earlier. Quite how a dish of fried mushrooms and topped with a raw egg yolk could reduce a grown man to tears I'll never know but I know it couldn't have happened in any other city.
