FoodVentures :: Bilbao Pintxos

Many of you are probably familiar with Tapas. Well...an overly trend-ified American version of it anyway, i.e. tiny plates with huge prices. Lucky for my law school budget (but not for my figure), tapas in Spain are amazingly affordable and absolutely delicious. And that's the way it should be.

Bilbao is located at the northern tip of Spain, in a region known as Basque country, which also encompasses parts of southern France (so there are Spanish Basques and French Basques). I will detail the particularities of the Basque region at another time. But for purposes of this entry, it is necessary to explain that there is an entirely differently language that is spoken in the Basque country. Castilian Spanish is definitely spoken here, however Euskara is the Basque language. Street signs, store fronts, etc., are first labeled in Euskara and then in Spanish.

In Euskara, tapas are known as Pintxos [peen - chos]. They are small, appetizer sized dishes that are laid out on the countertops of most bars and restaurants. At some bars, you grab the pintxos you want, and pay later via the honor system. Other bars, you pay for them as you eat them. And sometimes, you can get free pintxos if you order a drink!

Last week, my roommate and I went on our first pintxos crawl, known as Txikiteo [chih - kee - TAY - oh]. We went to 4 different pinxtos bars and sampled about 5 different kinds, plus some wine for about 9 euros per person. The pintxos are generally 1,50 euros and a glass of wine will set you back a whopping 1,60 euros! (The wine here merits its own blog post, so I won't get into it now).

I leave y'all with a few pictures of Basque pintxos. The first of many (I'm sure) to come.

The ham on the left was divine. Spain is know for its jamón ibérico. On the right, it´s a fried shrimp skewered onto a sliced baguette, with a slice of ham and a croquette.

These are different variations of tortillas españolas. The left is made of eggs, rice and onions with a slice of spicy pepper on top. The right is made of eggs, potato and onions.

On the right is a chunk of spicy chorizo sausage, on the left is another tortilla de patatas. Folks, this filling meal cost a little over 4 euros, including the wine!

A close up of the yummy chorizo! :D