Bilbao's Best Pintxos

Like I mentioned before, it is the summer and the news outlets take a break from the political related articles about the Euskal Herria and they focus on publishing notes about travel and culture, which includes the top notch Basque cuisine.

Here you have this one from The Telegraph about the best pintxos in Bilbao:

Bilbao: a delicious nibble in the city's bars

The winners of the contest to find Bilbao's best 'pintxos' - the Basque equivalent of the Spanish tapa - have just been announced. Nigel Richardson samples some of the dishes

By Nigel Richardson
Last Updated: 1:06PM BST 12 Sep 2008

The potato omelette had just emerged from the oven and lay blinking, as it were, on the plate. Juan Mari tasted and swooned.

“This bar doesn’t appear in any guidebooks,” he said, “but I think the tortilla is brilliant. Not like the thick brick they do in Spain.” Basques routinely refer to the rest of Spain as another country.

He was right. The egg was warm and moist, the potato firm and the onion slightly caramelised. We accompanied it with a white wine from Valladolid. It was shortly after noon in Cafeteria Concha, a bar in Bilbao, and my txikiteo with four Bilbaino friends — all aficionados of snacks on a stick — had begun.

A txikiteo is a Basque institution, a bar crawl involving the frequent eating of pintxos — roughly speaking, the Basque equivalent of the Spanish tapa. But whereas “in Spain” a tapa often comes automatically when you order a drink, a pintxo costs extra. It is also, according to the rules of the annual competition to find Bilbao’s best pintxos, something that you must be able to consume standing up, in a maximum of two mouthfuls.

The pintxo started life modestly, as a piece of tortilla or ham on bread but in recent years has evolved into many mouthwatering combinations.

This evolution is partly a by-product of the so-called Guggenheim effect — the tourism boom generated by the architect Frank Gehry’s futuristic museum — and partly a result of the aforementioned competition, the Muestra de Bares de Pintxos, now in its 11th year, for which bars compete avidly.

This year’s winners had just been announced when I arrived in Bilbao, so my partner’s cousin, Juan Mari, suggested we sample a few of them. Nine hours after that first wonderful tortilla, we ended the tasting in Lekeitio, a bar specialising in tortilla paisana, with spinach and chorizo. However, they had run out of this — a happy hazard of the quest for pintxos, which should be freshly made, so we ordered a ración, which we all tucked in to — a portion, bigger than a pintxo, of seafood salad. Juan Mari touched his lips and made that petal-opening gesture with his fingers meaning “very good”.

Alasne disagreed: “Too dry.” Juan Mari amended his judgement: “It could do with more tomatoes.” And so the food discussion continued, as around us 85-year-olds clinked glasses of txakoli — a local slightly sparkling white wine — and five-year-olds skittered at their feet.

“You can’t learn in a day what we have taken 40 years to learn,” Marivi chided me. Geri and Alasne agreed. The point of the txikiteo, they said, is that it is an intimate, delicate experience that changes each time, depending on different bars and days for culinary fancies.

On this particular day, our txikiteo had involved the following 10 bars, five of them close together in the old town, the Casco Viejo. Honourable mention should also go to Victor Montes, the Harry’s Bar of Bilbao, which we omitted only because it always is included in such gastronomic top 10s.

Expect to pay €1.20 to €3 for pintxos, from €1.20 for a glass of txakoli or wine. Most bars close on Sundays, or Sunday evenings, and opening times can be erratic. If a bar is closed, simply go to the one next door.

Cafeteria Concha, Calle General Concha

This modest bar, with flashing fruit machines, does not enter the Muestra de Bares de Pintxos competition — the owner explained that his wife, who makes the pintxos, can’t be doing with all the fuss. Consequently, its mouthwatering tortilla remains something of a secret.

Zuga, Plaza Nueva (Casco Viejo)

A trendy bar serving a young crowd in a corner of the Plaza Nueva, the heart of the old town, Zuga specialises in ambitious combinations including goat’s cheese with manzanilla sherry, dried fruit vinaigrette and honey; liver with red fruits and Modena vinegar; and turkey neck — surprisingly tender and delicious — in a filo parcel on bruschetta.

Sasibil, Calle Jardines (Casco Viejo)

One of several bars that excel in, and serve, just one thing, in this case productos del mar: grilled fish, anchovies from the fishing port of Ondárroa and shellfish. There is also a small restaurant.

Gatz, Calle Santa Maria (Casco Viejo)

Gatz is this year’s winner of “best bar” in the Muestra de Bares de Pintxos and certainly one of my friends’ favourite haunts. The speciality of the house is bacalao (salt cod) al pin-pil: succulent little bombs of fish, garnished with browned slivers of garlic. There is a print on the wall featuring a footballer in the red-and-white strip of Athletic Bilbao, chatting up a girl in this very bar. “Look at his legs,” said Juan Mari. “He looks as if he eats a lot of pintxos.”

Irrintzi, Calle Santa Maria (Casco Viejo)

Next door to Gatz, and named after the ululating Basque cry, with which people are said to have hailed each other across the valleys, this has the most helpfully displayed pintxos, each flagged with neat labels, so you don’t have to ululate above the din to ask what they are. The choice is imaginative, including onion stuffed with black pudding and peppers and croquettes made with squid in its ink — a new dish.

Eguiluz, Calle del Perro (Casco Viejo)

This is one of several excellent cazuelita bars on this street, a cazuelita being a hot dish served in a terracotta pot — bigger than a pintxo, smaller than a main course. Here, they include paella, grilled prawns, meatballs, tripe, and snails and cost between €7 and €15.

Bitoque, Calle Rodriguez Arias

This small, self-consciously fashionable bar was the winner of the “golden beret” for best pintxo in Bilbao, the champion being a somewhat pretentious concoction of egg yolk, potato, pancetta and an “air” of cheese, for a steep €4.50.

Like a cocktail barman, the chef made mine while I waited and it tasted disappointing, a triumph of style over substance. Other pintxos include grilled scallops “with violet and gold potatoes”.

Café Estoril, Plaza Campuzano

Among a clutch of bars popular with football fans before and after games, it is known for its Camparis and Martinis. Pintxos include ham and green peppers, bacalao with peppers, and bonito (tuna) with mayonnaise.

La Viña del Ensanche, Calle Diputación

Wood-panelled and cheerful, with a bar carved from a single tree, this is one of the oldest bars in the city (established 1927). It specialises in hams and chorizo, and has the feel of Andalusia, reckoned my companions. There is a shop and delicatessen attached.

Bar Lekeitio, Calle Diputación

Another classic bar of Bilbao, packed with young and old, and named after the pretty Basque fishing port of which there is a blown-up old photograph on the wall. Its star pintxo is the tortilla paisana but they are also proud of their tacos with raw bacalau, garlic and parsley.

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