A Lady in London

I love to travel. I love to eat.

Anyone who has read more than a few posts of this blog will have noticed that my main obsessions in life are food and travel. Anything that combines those two is my own personal heaven on earth (note the Jesus statue).

Enter Basque Country. One part separatist movement. One part world-famous art museum. Two parts most-Michelin-stars-per-capita-of-any-city-in-the-world (aka San Sebastian). A sprinkling of France (because when the point of one’s journey is to eat who could resist going to the culinary capital of the world?). Add water (Atlantic beaches, anyone?). Mix for two and a half days.

The result:

My weekend in food, or heaven on earth.

Friday (Bilbao and San Sebastian):

Very late lunch at the Guggenheim Bilbao Restaurant. Menu included tender and wonderfully salted calamari, perfectly prepared sea bass and a lemony ice cream concoction for dessert.

Very late dinner of pintxos at three great bars in San Sebastian’s old town: La Cuchara de San Telmo, Gandarias, and La Cepa. We feasted on little bites of long-grain rice risotto, beer-battered bakalau tempura, tiny prosciutto sandwiches, golden ham croquettes, mushroom toasts and sizzling pork skewers. All washed down with some vino tinto and a Kalimotxo (red wine plus Coke…sounded sketchy, tasted like Cherry Coke. When in Rome…).

Saturday (San Sebastian):

Stared the day off right with a cappuccino and a racion of patatas bravas.

Late lunch of more pintxos at Gandarias. We couldn’t get the little prosciutto sandwiches from the night before out of our heads, and our willful lack of willpower forced us to go back for more.

Dessert of chocolate gelato. Simple yet delicious.

Dinner at Akelare, one of San Sebastian’s three Michelin star restaurants. If Basque Country is heaven, Akelare is what you eat when you get there. Molecular gastronomy plus great wine pairings meet gorgeous ocean views. A few of the courses on our menu:

Bonbon, Egg with Caviar; Lamb in a Potato Cloud

Squid, Onion Soup with Parmesan; Rice Venere and “Camaron” Little Tortilla

Little Pearls of Foie Gras and Sour Salad

Wild Mushrooms and “Egg Pasta”

Squid in Warm Salt, Broth, and Ink Sand

Sole in a Sea of Coral

Apple Tart (with edible paper…it was chocolate!)

Post-dessert chocolate sausage, brioche, anis chips and “wine” with the alcohol removed

Sunday (San Sebastian and Biarritz):

A giant whipped cream-topped cappuccino to guarantee sugar buzz all day. Paired with a giant tortilla de patatas.

Lunch in Biarritz. In an effort to dispel French stereotypes about American eating habits, my boyfriend had the assiette geante (giant plate). I went for the daintier but no less artery-clogging croque monsieur.

Dinner of pintxos from La Cuchara de San Telmo, Gandarias (couldn’t get enough of those prosciutto sandwiches), Casa Alcalde, and the winner of the evening, El Fuego Negro.

The best pintxo? A tiny Kobe beef burger on a teeny ketchup-flavored bun served with banana txips (chips). We ate one and immediately ordered another.

We rolled ourselves home from Bilbao and are now in the process of sorting through our closets for any clothes with elastic waistbands. Good thing we can see the gym out our kitchen window. This will be a good week for exercise.

But. (There’s always an excuse!)First we’re going out for an Argentine steak dinner at Gaucho with some friends from Hampstead. As my mother always says, the diet starts tomorrow…

This post appeared in the Lonely Planet Blogsherpa Carnival “Food Around the World” in October 2010 on Tye Dye Travels.