How to introduce and at the same time say goodbye to a Basque country where my family has lived for 5 years? How to describe a natural marvel and culinary wonder on one hand, and a human stubbornness and clan’s mentality on the other?
Not a single visitor we have had over those years left without being enchanted by the elegant charm, and the exquisite cuisine of its 16 Michelin star restaurants, of our temporary home, San Sebastian, or Donostia, as it is called in the Basque language. How to describe the life in this exquisite pearl of the Atlantic Ocean, sometimes called a little Paris or a little Rio, where it took a couple of years before we were invited to someone’s home or people felt comfortable enough to share their favourite places to visit or restaurants?
Be aware at all times that Basque country is a dual language country – Basque and Spanish. It all starts when you land in Bilbao and must look for a shuttle bus that runs every hour to Donostia, not San Sebastian. This dual language and resulting signposting can be quite misleading, I speak from experience! It happened numerous times that although my husband has a double tom-tom navigation system (first, the real device and second, natural, in his head), even he got lost, and not just once or twice.
Sharing and serving are not local virtues! When making your schedule, do not forget to always check out the opening hours and/or holidays in advance. It is very common that restaurants close down for 3 or 4 weeks at a time, mostly in the early months of the year, and most of them are closed on Mondays. Most of the local shops and businesses strictly observe daily siestas, with opening hours 10-14 and 17-20. Always keep in mind to also check if they are open on Sunday or Monday. In many cases you must make a restaurant reservation in advance as, although the restaurant is not fully booked, they simply do not take people who walk in off the street. After a couple of years, on the other hand, I find this fact of keeping very strictly their time and work schedules under control laudable!
Unfortunately, 5 years of experience in dining out with our 2 children, Flora and Leo, ages 4 and 6 at present, have not netted us much in the way of recommendations to give about child-friendly restaurants. Most of the restaurants do not offer accommodation for kids—such as chairs or menus for children. Sadly, those few in the old town that do are the closest places to tourist traps as you can get. You are not really forbidden to come to any restaurant with kids, yet do not expect a kind of infrastructure you might be used from your home country.
If you would like to read more about the history of this mysterious place in the English language then I recommend the book by Mark Kurlansky – The Basque History of the World I find worth reciting these lines:
We live in an age of vanishing cultures, perhaps even vanishing nations. To be a Frenchman, to be an American, is a limited notion. Educated people do not practice local customs or eat local food. Products are flown around the world. We are losing diversity but gaining harmony. Those who resist this will be left behind by history, we are told.
But the Basques are determined to lose nothing that is theirs, while still embracing the times, cyberspace included. They have never been a quaint people and have managed to be neither backward nor assimilated. Their food, that great window into cultures, shows this. With an acknowledged genius for cooking, they pioneered the use of products from other parts of the worlds. But they always adapted them, made them Basque.
A central concept in Basque identity is belonging, not only to the Basque people but to a house, known in the Basque language as etxea. A house stands for a clan. Though most societies at some phase had clans, the Basques have preserved this notion because the Basques preserve almost everything.
The Basque history of the world is far older that the history of France. The few hundred years of European nation states are only a small part of the Basque story. There may not be a France or a Spain in 1000years or even 500 years, but there will still be Basques.
The European Capital of Culture 2016 Donostia San Sebastian (ECoC 2016), the project that brought us to the Basque county, has as its motto: Culture to overcome violence. The idea of forgiveness and coexistence in the land wounded by many years of hatred and violence is indeed still fragile here!
Due to a symbolic 2016, I wish to share with you ours:
16 Basque Secrets,
16 favourite restaurants in San Sebastian,
16 favourite bars for pintxos in San Sebastian,
16 favourite restaurants outside of San Sebastian,
16 favourite recipes discovered in the Basque country.
In broad terms the restaurants here are divided into traditional and more avant-garde cuisine. Fish and shellfish normally take pride of place, in general hake (merluza), desalted cod (bacalao), monkfish (rape), clams, etc., but you will also find unusual cuts of beef and pork.
The steaks (txuletas/chuletas) can be great too, but don’t forget to order a side salad (lechugo con cebolla), piquillo peppers and patatas fritas as they do not normally come with the steak.
What I find admirable and enviable about this place that good food is not only for elite but for ordinary masses, too. Sure, you can find in restaurants where the prices are sky high, but on the other hand it is not at all mission impossible to find fine restaurants with affordable prices.