1.
Astelena fish cake from La Jarana tavern
Although San Sebastian society experienced significant economic and demographic growth in the 1960s, the majority of the population used to spend their limited leisure time in simple, traditional bars and taverns. Social meeting places where people gathered to have a drink, eat simple dishes and, above all, chat. In this context, the first Astelena arose in a small place in the Plaza de la Constitución in San Sebastián, using an adjustment recipe that used products like mothers of that time used clothing: ironing inside out to protect the fabric, and changing the hem or collar to make it look like another dress. Those same hands, usually women's, familiar with the obligation to recycle and reuse, were the ones that cooked offal and, with the leftover broth, prepared old clothes, croquettes or meat with tomato. In the same way of using any resource to multiply the loaves and fish, a hake pie was prepared with what was left of the fish soup. The pastry was nothing more than a juicy hake pudding with egg and a dollop of tomato sauce with vegetables, served on a slice of bread. The acceptance of this snack was immediately apparent from the public's reception. However, its diffusion and elevation came hand in hand by Juan Mari Arzak, who served as inspiration to create the well-known scorpionfish pie, which gave one of the starting signals to the New Basque Cuisine movement. Two generations later, the celebrated chef Ander González accounts for this pintxo at the bar of the La Jarana tavern, after his amona (grandmother) and her aita (father) will polish it for decades.
🍽 La Jarana Tavern. Mari kalea, 3. Old Town. 20003 Donostia. Telephone: 943 54 70 01.
2.
Antxoas with crab cream at Bar Txepetxa
As a culinary student in the early 1990s, few things displayed as inclusive and cosmopolitan a spirit as sport and cooking. At that time, in a context in which the enthusiasm for gastronomy was dispersed in all corners of a city in need of alleviating the permanent tensions of the time, radio programs, articles about restaurants, reports, books, fairs burst forth with force. and competitions that designated the best young cooks, highlighted the finest enthusiasts of gastronomic societies, and applauded the outstanding domestic potato omelettes. In that atmosphere of a culinary Olympics, for an establishment to win the first three prizes in a competition pintxos It was something unusual, never seen before. Even though the Marañón family's history with anchovies went back a century, with a grandmother who harvested anchovies in Zarautz, a father obsessed for decades with achieving the perfect marinade and several generations providing the audience with the “effect ratatouille”. The public is enthusiastic about learning and is attracted to ephemeral and limited proposals. Hence the paradox that the hermeticism around the marinade formula and the secrecy with which the recipes are preserved in Txepetxa go hand in hand with a disputed specialization to a stack of calendars that paved the way for reliability. Another irony: it takes years to win the struggle over time; to reduce the interval from catching the fish to its arrival in the kitchen; to fine-tune the speed with which the silver spines are cleaned and immersed in the acid bath; to master the exact deadlines required by each rhythm in order to place the result in front of the client on a portion of hot bread that contrasts with the fresh cream of the spider crab. So simple, so easy, that it takes a lifetime to achieve it.
🍽 Bar Txepetxa. Arrandegi Kalea, 5, 20003 Donostia. Telephone: 943 42 22 27.
3.
Shrimp with a raincoat in Paco Bueno
Fortunately, there are still time capsules with the door open and a bar on one side. Stores that preserve their character with old boxing posters and rugby photos pinned to the walls, along with old oval leather balls and worn-out gloves. sparring spread across the shelves.
Paco Bueno, a figure in Gipuzkoan boxing in the 1930s, won 26 of his 31 professional fights, 15 of them by KO. He was champion of Spain in the light heavyweight and heavyweight categories, and was selected for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, in which Jesse Owens elevated the black race before the astonished gaze of Adolf Hitler. However, the Spanish Civil War prevented him from participating in the Olympic event. In front of the entrance, the hooves of the horses pulling the carts that made the delivery the morning the blinds went up for the first time that August 1950 still resonate in memory. Cola did not exist, draft beer was a rarity and the refrigerators were improvised in stone coolers with blocks of ice. Even today, edible relics from that period are vividly preserved, such as the flag of half a boiled egg. Today, the great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of those first customers continue to lick their lips over what for many is the key to this emblematic establishment in the Old Town of Donostia: its famous shrimp with a raincoat. Barely crispy on the outside, fluffy and addictive on the inside, with a topping vintage that combines perfectly with timeless tones tinged with nostalgia.
🍽 Paco Bueno. Calle Mayor, 6. Parte Vieja, 20003, Donostia. Telephone: 943 42 49 59.
4.
Txangurro tartlet in Ganbara
The researcher Berta Echeberría in the doctoral thesis, Le Petit Paris. French presence and influence in the configuration of modern San Sebastián (1864-1920) argues that what turned Donostia “into an icon of modernity” between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th was finding in the French mirror a model in which to look at oneself on the path to progress. The traces of that desire were fixed in the architecture, urban development, services and ordinances, management, even in the city's economy. Without a doubt, cuisine did not escape the centrifugal force that French sophistication and elegance exerted on all cultural expressions. One of the pioneers of haute cuisine of that period, José Félix Ibarguren Galicano, created a preparation with crab based on the American-style lobster, so popular in the Belle époque. Nowadays, the recipe that “Xixito” created is usually prepared with slight variations in all stoves. It consists of a warm and enveloping sauce in which the crumbled meat of the cooked crustacean is sautéed. It is flambéed with brandy and baked in the oven with breadcrumbs, chopped parsley and butter. A translation in version pintxo which respects the original style and expression is served at Ganbara, one of the reference points for its quality and commitment to seasonal local produce in the Old Town of San Sebastian, which has made it one of its most established snacks.
🍽 Ganbara. San Jerónimo, 19. Old Town. 20003 Donostia. Telephone: 943 42 25 75.
5.
The scallop with ajoblanco at Casa Urola
In the eighties, the pintxo took a turn towards sophistication, abandoning the occasional and casual offering of pickles and cold bites, and moving closer to restaurant cuisine.
The emergence of a new type of customer, the presence of more women and the resonances of what was happening in the renowned kitchens, caused new ingredients, techniques and stimuli to be introduced into the display cases on the counters. The banderilla was diluted in favor of miniature cuisine, and it went from alternating txikiteando to get out of pintxos.
The historic Casa Urola restaurant is a direct witness to the evolution of the tastes, attitudes and behaviors of society from its foundation in 1956 to its transfer to chef Pablo Loureiro in 2012. Currently, the dining room's traditional recipe book, masterfully renovated, extends to the bar at street level, where the traditional offering of the old town is combined with pintxos more up-to-date, elaborate on site. The scallop on white garlic with truffled chives is an example of the potential of this casual way of eating, which maintains sociability as one of its hallmarks. Precisely in this informal context of interpersonal relationship, of hospitality and friendship, an imaginary is articulated that still has much to offer in its culinary dimension, as can be seen in this proposal.
🍽 Urola House. Fermín Calbetón 20. Old Town. 20003, Donostia. Telephone: 943 44 13 71.
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