Food Tours · Tour

The First Pintxo Ever Made, and a Burnt Cheesecake to Close

Three and a half hours, at least four stops, twelve people at most, and by the end you will have eaten the equivalent of a full meal. You meet in front of the city hall, which was built in 1882 as a casino and only became municipal offices after gambling was banned in the 1920s. The first thing you eat is the gilda, and it is the right place to start because it is where pintxos start: a green guindilla pepper, an anchovy and a green olive on one stick, invented in a bar here in the 1940s. Spicy, salty and sharp in one bite, and everything on every counter in the city is a variation on that idea. Behind the Plaza de la Constitución, a square ringed with nineteenth-century arcades and balconies numbered from when it served as a bullring, there is a specialist shop for jamón de cebo, tasted properly with bread. Then a stroll through the Casco Viejo and a selection of gourmet pintxos, each paired with something Basque: cider, txakoli, a Rioja red, or patxarán, the sloe liqueur made by steeping wild blackthorn berries in anise spirit and drunk cold after eating. The walk ends near what is thought to be the oldest church in the city, early sixteenth century and Basque Gothic, with the cheesecake. Basque cheesecake is not the American kind: no base, no gelatine, baked hot enough to scorch the top, and the burnt surface is the flavour rather than a mistake. English-speaking guide, though they may switch between English and Spanish. Water and fixed amounts of alcohol included for over-18s, with non-alcoholic options. Vegetarian versions available; contact them before booking about restrictions. Severe allergies cannot be accommodated. Moderate walking. Stops vary with the season.