🇪🇸 San Sebastian

Tony went on a poteo (bar crawl) with the famous chef Juan Mari Arzak and his daughter Elena. They ate a lot of pintxos and drank beer. They did not specify the places they visited except for this one, because this was Tony's favorite place to get pintxos, and the first place someone brought him to when he first visited the Basque area. Iberico ham with mushrooms on toast, crab tartlets, seared wild mushrooms and foie gras with egg yolk (house specialty, and Tony's favorite)

Tony and Xabier had Rock prawn (head and body cooked separately—head grilled and body served semi-ceviche), grilled squid with onion-green pepper sauce, cocochas (hake fish jowls or chins), and grilled turbot (this is the dish people travel to this restaurant to try)

One of Tony's favorite restaurants in the world. Tony said this restaurant made him feel like he was home.

Tony met with a group at this place. They discussed "txokos" or "private and historically all-male gastronomical societies, though that gender rule has changed with the times." The menu for the evening: "diced raw tuna, grilled prawns with green sauce" to start, then "for the main, fried hake cooked with txakoli and steamed clams."

Tony ate here with Olatz González Abrisketa, a documentarian and professor of social anthropology at the University of the Basque Country. "Seared mushrooms with egg yolk and pine nuts... grilled tuna with marmitako sauce, a reference to a classic fishermen's stew;  peas in a consommé of Ibérico ham," and squid with a white bean cream. 

Tony had pinchos and Chacoli (a local sparkling wine that is very light and low in alcohol)