Day 53: Ain't No Party Like A Pintxos Party

Today was the day we would get our fill of pintxos. We made a map of all the best pintxos places in town and had notes on what they were famous for. We were ready and excited. One pintxos and one drink per place. Well, that was the plan anyway.

We started the day with a walk around the markets. It's one of my favourite things to do when I go to a city and Mercado de la Bretxa didn't disappoint. There were so many places you could buy cured meats, cheeses and all sorts of delicious things.

Case in point.

There was also a whole section for super fresh seafood.

OMG green juice! I haven't had a juice or a smoothie since LA and was missing it. Is it the Sydneysider in me? Not sure, but my body was thanking me for this.

We couldn't resist the lure of tortillas in the morning, so stopped by Bar Azkena which had a bunch or people enjoying breakfast pintxos (some even having a glass of wine with it). 

There were a few options available and you could get a tortilla and coffee set for €3,50. Not bad!

We chose mackerel, potato and chorizo which were all awesome. 

We like a Spanish breakfast.

While walking around the old town we spotting a place selling cured meat in a cone. Naturally, we got it. 

After a bit of window shopping we went back to the original pintxos place for one cheeky pintxos and a txakoli because why not?

Walking off all the food.

Not quite warm enough to swim although it does look inviting.

We took the funicular up the hill to an old theme park with an amazing view.

An American couple asked us to take a photo of them, which we did. Adam took it upon himself to art direct the shoot.

And we got them to take a photo of us. Tit for tat as it were.

After a nap and some preening, we were ready for our pintxos crawl. But first, sunset photos of the beach.

Finally using my GHD.

First stop: Bar Txepetxa for their famous anchovies.

Happy campers with our first pintxos for the night.

Buuuut they were so good that we had to get another couple. We already failed the one pintxos, one drink rule but that's okay, they were worth it. The one in front was trout roe on top of an anchovy and the other one was anchovy with foie gras. So good.

These guys were comfortably busy. Unlike...

... Zeruko. You can't tell from the front but it was bedlam inside.

These guys do modern pintxos that are as tasty as they are interesting. You ask for a plate, and choose what you want. Then you hand back your selections to the staff who warm it up and plate it for you. It's a bit of a fiddly process, but the dishes are fantastic.

So many choices!

This is their signature dish. There is codfish grilling on the skewer and you have to turn it after ten seconds. Then you put it on the toast and eat it. And then you shot the green stuff. Incredible.

Bar Goiz Argi didn't look like much but oh boy...

Their grilled prawns were some of the best prawns to ever grace my mouth.

Ganbara Bar was hectic and we were actually getting full, but we soldiered on and found ourselves a little spot inside.

Even though they were busy they were very friendly. Adam was in charge of the kitty (we all put in €30 to make it easier to pay the bill) and did the ordering. Unfortunately we got upsold to the more expensive mushrooms without looking at how much they were on the menu because how expensive can mushrooms be, right?

€20 friggin' euros each. That's how expensive they can be. And we got two plates! While they were amazing mushrooms, I don't go nuts over them so we nearly fainted when the bill came. We just spent about $60 on mushrooms. FFS.

After that we were full of pintxos and txakoli so found a bar with no pintxos to recover from the mushroom incident. We picked up a cheap (real cheap) bottle of wine, some wafers and some Pringles and went home. And that was our pintxos crawl. Goooood night.