San Sebastian food and wine

San Sebastian (Donostia in Basque) has the highest concentration of Michelin starred restaurants in Europe which tells you something about the food and wine on offer. We didn't head to any of the Michelin restaurants though, we found plenty in Parte Vieja (Old Town) to keep us happy, with one meal looking out to La Concha.

The must do in Parte Vieja is to hop from bar to bar, sampling a few pintxos at each. At some bars the food is all on show on the bar, you grab a plate, take what you like, and your barman will tally the bill at the end - somehow he just knows who you are and what you had. At others, it's all cooked to order and they shout out for you when your food comes out. We were a little timid to start, our Spanish being not so good, but usually when it comes to shopping and food any language barriers can be overcome - before we knew it 'Dos rioja and dos gambas' (two red wines and two prawns) came easily to our antipodean tongues...

Bulli very happy after a cerveza (beer) and some braised beef cheeks and scallops - most bars tend to have their own speciality. Txaoli was the drink of the region, they pour it from up high, I think it's to bring the flavours out to something like that

The lovely lady at our pension had the inside word on booking tables at La Perla - looking out to the beautiful La Concha beach. The Menu De Dia (menu of the day) was the way to go at restaurants like these - very reasonable set menus and it also got you trying things you might not normally choose

The first night we walked past this one it was packed with people spilling out the front, so a bit intimidating if you don't know your Spanish or what to order. When it was quiet we took the chance to go in there - best pintxos bar for me. All seafood cooked to order in front of you, best prawns ever, a house pintxo named after Juli the lovely owner, warm crab for just a couple of euros a little pot, all warmed up - yum yum yum

Wine at La Perla

Bar Martinez was a regular haunt over five nights too - good jamon and polpo (octopus) . The bar staff all work so hard at these places - from 11am they're setting up and at midnight they're still going shouting out pintxos orders and calculating plates. Borda Berri was another favourite - good pig's cheeks. They're all good!

Tarta de Queso - baked cheesecake - the speciality of Bar Vina. I have the recipe for this now - don't worry Marsy I won't cook it very often : )