fulinary food tour – Darden Travels

After visiting the church, we explored the city and nearby harbor. It was a gorgeous sunny day.

We could see a kayak slicing through the water, and waaaaaay in the distance was a swimmer. OMG – the water was cold.

There was a staircase, leading down into the water. Naturally it needed investigation. Hmmm, what was Adrienne taking a photo of? Oysters and barnacles on the framework, of course.

Then these two gentleman walked past us – definitely looking like they were heading into the water. Yep, that was where they were going. Unfortunately, the gentleman with the black swim shorts changed while standing and it took me a second to see that he was naked and putting on his swimming attire. That second – I saw way too much. Really? Really! Eric said the look on my face was priceless.

City Hall was along the waterfront………….

……….along with a small park for kids to play in and others to set on benches to people-watch. I wandered over to these trees and noticed some were using screws to keep them from splitting apart. Interesting. Looks like they need some maintenance as one of the screws wasn’t doing much good.

Continuing our walk along the promenade, we came across these sand designs when looking over the railing.

But then we saw a sand artist at work.

The finished design:

And just in case one wanted to contribute to his cause……….Adrienne dropped a coin, but missed the sheet. Wop wop. You could also see the tools he utilized for his masterpiece – three rakes.

All this walking called for a bit of lunch. Instead of ordering some tapas and standing around table tops, we were looking more for a restaurant – and found Bardulia.

Iberian ham, roasted peppers, frites and veal cheeks. Enough to make us through until tonight’s adventure – a highly-rated food tour.

Walking through the town, they had some spring flowers in full bloom. We never see tulips in Florida and several beds were planted with them. Pansies were mixed in the same bed.

Also found this candy-stripe tulip.

Always drawn to purple flowers.

But let’s talk about one of the absolute highlights of our time in San Sebastian – a food tour. Not just any food tour, but one that has a 5-star rating after 574 reviews – that is nothing short of amazing……..and so was our tour.

We met our tour guide, Eski, a few blocks from our apartment and after some introductions, food likes/dislikes we were on our way. One thing extra special………we were the only ones on her tour that evening. That’s what happens when you visit a place in the off-season – which was perfect for us. 🙂

Our first stop was:

We learned the proper way to pour cider, which gives it some body and carbonation. This cider is not sweet at all. Eski provided the demonstration.

Then we all got to try it.

Since we are good with tasting and sharing food, every place we stopped, we got to try different things based upon our likes. We got scallops, braised beef and didn’t get a photo of the third item. 😦

Next stop:

I had a potato dish, similar to potato salad that was f.a.n.t.a.s.t.i.c. Throughout the remainder of our trip in Spain, when possible, we ordered it again. We’ve looked up the recipe so we’re expecting Eric to recreate it once we get home. The other two items were fried shrimp and a fried sardine.

We could also choose our drink at each of the stops. This time we all had local white wine.

Eski was quick to pivot on our tour to either expand our culinary options or find better choices. This next stop was a favorite of Eric’s.

It was all about the foie gras for those two while I had the grilled oyster mushrooms.

We were not done yet, we still had two more stops.

As we walked into this establishment, we were greeted like family and brought back to a table in the back. We either got a hug, or a kiss on our hand by the owner? Father of the owner? Didn’t matter, he was a real charmer. Our guide is well-known and has a fabulous reputation. She holds every place we stopped to a high standard. Here we had croquettes, octopus and Iberian ham.

By this time, I was done eating. It was way too much food for me. Add to the fact the tour was an evening tour and all that food would be sitting on my stomach. I had already switched to drinking water at this point.

Eric and Adrienne had been at our last stop the previous day and was underwhelmed by their pintxos.

She ordered two of the same ones and because the owners know her, they make her pintxos fresh. Oh, what a difference in taste – according to Eric and Adrienne. What were they? Truth be told, I don’t know. I was ready for bed and fading. Stuffed pepper? Salmon?