Had some friends visit this week - Danica and Daniel, from Melbs. This shot was taken after early evening drinks, but before late night pintxo crawl. Being first timers here in San Seb, they were pretty much rocked by the food; I forget how this place is one of the world's culinary spearheads; so many Michelin star places that if it's less than two (stars), it's not worth mentioning. And the brilliance trickles down the food chain (bad choice of analogy) into the pintxo bars in Parte Viaja. These two charming foodie adventurers had a few nights here before I caught up with em. The night before they spent absorbing 18 courses at world number two Mugaritz, and I do mean absorbing - food at this level encompasses all six of your senses in equal measure. Yes six. 
The night before that, however, they said they went to a pintxo bar down....what was it.......Calle Pescado? Yeah, fish street. Anyhoo, it was highly avant-garde. A slide show of brightly coloured and highly infamiliar dishes graced the screen of Danica's i-phone, so I said "let's do it".
I'm just gonna cut to the chase of this story - guindillas. If you have been following this blog and you don't know what a f***ing guindilla is then.....sigh.....I am wasting my breath......or fingers, as it may be....
Moving on, we are in this pintxo bar, crowds are surging in, Daniel and I are sharpening our elbows, Danica is assuring us she has the sharpest, and we are absolutely surrounded by plates, piles, platters, mounds and mountains of brightly coloured, highly dis-informaluar and totally unrealistic food; like Mr Wonka's chocolate factory if you threw in some salt cod.
Now at this point, being kind and generous people that they are, my friends informed me that anything that I want to eat comes free of charge, courtesy of their pockets. Sweet!
I surveyed the bar; my head bobbed, my neck twisted, my eyes squinted, my retinas dilated, but I couldn't see anything I wanted. Sure the self-smoked salt cod with the green thing and the test tube shooter of green stuff chaser sounded good......but.... I have a problem - I work in Wonka's factory up on the hill, with those little purple men.....Umpa Lumpas? (I think so) and I see this crazy world of unreal food on a daily basis, and after working a day in the chocolate factory the last thing I feel like is a plate of....
So, my gaze passed once more over the selection in front of me and then I saw it. THEN I SAW IT!
Over there, tucked in beside the cash register, a nice little plate of.........FRESH GUINDILLAS!!!!!!! OH YES OH YES!!!!!
We ordered a heap of food - salt cod on smoking coals and stuff (as above), strange mold-set concoctions of unidentifiable fruit, nuts and cheese (what was that??) a surprisingly simple slab of steak with foie (delish!), ice cream cones of baby eels (??)..... the list goes on - these Melbourne foodlovers do not take dining lightly - love em!
But, the highlight was, and always will be...... guindillas, fried in olive oil and salted (with two types of salt at this place). But don't take my word for it - ask my mates - they will tell ya!
The next day it was time for lunch......... CIDER HOUSE LUNCH

The most fun you can have with your pants on - CIDER HOUSE!
But if you did take your pants off....no problem. Seriously, there are cider breweries all through these hills, and for a very small price you can snag a spot on the communal table, with a baguette, plates of tortilla de bacalao, txuleta ternera, an empty glass and a license to ill. Seriously, worth a ticket over here just for this. Those barrels above are full of luscious cider, all of em full and tapped, and you just do as you please. All you have to do is work on your 'catching style'........

I call this one the 'George Gregan Sugar Plum Fairy'.....Why?.......cause its like pulling a rugby ball out of a scrum, but then the right hand draws the glass all the way up to the tap in a single seamless movement that concludes with the most delicate of pirouettes. Fruity.
So this more or less wraps up a week or so of cider worship. It did occur to me that, being a chef, I should probably find more productive things to do with cider than simply drinking it. So I did.

Your looking at pork ribs. Costillas de Cerdo con Manzana.
These were good. Hard to go wrong with ribs, really, provided you give them the appropriate treatment; braising n all that. Actually these were really good, wish I had someone to cook for - wasted talent people!!!!!!!


Drawing the week to a close, two new guys moved in today - one guy is Luis from Uruguay ("it's in South America) "oh, really? i'm from Australia - it's in the southern hemisphere.....".....dick. The other guy is....who cares.
Something to think about: nup, lost it. Too many bottles of cider.


Hasta Manzana
Jahan