By Sheila Sobell and Richard N. Every
Even though Rita Hayworth's striptease in the 1946 film "Gilda" never went beyond removing her arm-length gloves, her taunting sensuality was enough to provoke the wrath of the Spanish Catholic Church. Irate clergy actually demonstrated outside cinemas, warning ticket-holders that they were on a "one-way journey to eternal damnation," according to Spanish film historian Rob Stone.
In the elegant northern Spanish resort of Donostia-San Sebastian, restaurant owners who kept husbands busy spending their pocket money at the bar while their wives cooked lunch quickly capitalized on the film's notoriety by inventing a spicy snack they christened "Gilda" — salt-cured anchovies wrapped around pickled peppers skewered between a pair of olives.
That one salacious bit of U.S. cinema sparked a culinary revolution because that's how the northland gave birth to "pintxos" (pronounced pinchos). Clever entrepreneurs soon piqued palates and boosted takings with a tantalizing array of miniature cuisine.
Today San Sebastian is the undisputed king of making pintxos (called "tapas" elsewhere), which has become an industry unto itself. Some bars are just small storefronts where patrons belly up to the bar for hot or cold tapas costing a few euros and washed down with a "zurito," a small glass of local white sparkling wine, cider or beer. Larger premises have tables but never enough. Most open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., reopening from 7:30 to 11 p.m.
Enthusiasts from around the world can't get enough of them. They take pintxos tours, visit luscious markets to learn how to select the best ingredients and find out how to make pintxos so they can show off their new cooking skills at home.
"I love cooking and needed some help deciphering the foods I'd been eating the past week — preferably in English instead of Basque," said Texan Martha Hopkins, who took a pintxos class in the Hotel Maria Christina's newly opened San Sebastian Food in April 2015. "When I got home, lo and behold, my grocery had loads of whole octopuses in the case, something I'd never seen here before. So I bought one and tried to remember how to prepare it from scratch. The final dish was so restaurant-worthy that I've already alerted friends to an octopus party next Thursday!"
The walls of Bar Txepetxa in the city's old town are papered with awards and photos of celebrity fans such as Glenn Close and Ian McKellen. Here's where the pintxo was elevated to a competitive art, sweeping the gold, silver and bronze plates for three different presentations in the city's first ever cook-off in 1997. Its slogan - "the anchovy is queen of the house" — tempted us to try marinated anchovies topped with green and red pepper or spider crab. Not too salty, not too fishy, meaty like trout and fresh from the sea.
With more Michelin-star restaurants per square meter than anywhere else; 42 traditional cider houses within a mile plus a museum about its production; culinary courses; the International Film Festival that features "delicious" food-related movies where visitors can sometimes feast on what they view; and fish, flower and produce markets, it would seem the only thing to do here is eat.
Not so. Next year San Sebastian struts all of its stuff as Europe's 2016 City of Culture. As the capital of Basque Spain, high on the list is the preservation of its heritage. Spoken on both sides of the Western Pyrenees in Spain and France, Basque is unrelated to any other language group. And locals do everything to keep the culture alive.
"Everyone has a brother, husband or father who belongs to a "txoko" (pronounced CHO-ko) where they cook only Basque recipes and speak only Basque, " said our guide, Esther Vazquez. "Traditionally in these Sociedades Gastronomicas (120 in San Sebastian) only men can be members, but you can visit some with a professional tour."
Host to one of the largest, lowest-budget and most prestigious cinema competitions, the city's 63-year-old International Film Festival approaches moviemaking from a 360-degree perspective. Every September movies in 15 different categories such as action and adventure sport, new directors, retrospectives of seldom-seen films plus new international features are in the mix. Here "Star Wars" and Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda" premiered. Alfred Hitchcock even appeared in person to screen "Vertigo." Ancillary competitions of films about surfing (June), horror and fantasy (October-November), human rights (April) and music ("Dock of the Bay" in January) complete the schedule.
Year-round the whole city is an open-air art gallery of some 56 contemporary sculptures. For Concha Bay, legendary sculptor Eduardo Chillida designed the massive iron "Peine del Viento" ("Wind Comb") that interacts with the beach's natural elements of crashing waves, rock, sand and light to create an ever-changing silhouette.
San Sebastian is a surf mecca both for serious boarders and those keen to learn, and it offers glorious clean sandy beaches ideal for families and gentle swimmers, but the city has avoided becoming a vacation cliche of tasteless high-rise hotels. Sophisticated, easygoing and environmentally stunning, it is simply Spain at its best.
While there aren't direct flights to San Sebastian from the United States, air connections from Biarritz and Bilbao are available. Because we were interested in food, we chose to sail to Spain with Brittany Ferries from Portsmouth, England, to experience their fine dining. Vessels sail to Bilbao, where a direct bus takes passengers to San Sebastian. Another shorter ferry crossing disembarks in Santander, where passengers can rent a left-hand-drive car for the two-hour trip to San Sebastian, stopping en route to explore.
With their large feature atriums, Brittany vessels have many of the same amenities as large ships - swimming pool, spa, two movie theaters, live music, games, duty-free shopping, and child-friendly entertainment and play equipment.
Whatever the age, the best part of ferry life is just chilling.
"When you're on the ship, you don't need to walk at all," said 7-year-old Ruby as she whizzed around the decks on her trainers with wheels. "And you get more time to play with Mom and Dad."
WHEN YOU GO
A member of the Sercotel Hotels group, the Hotel Codina, (www.en.hotelcodinasansebastian.com) where we stayed lived up to the group's promise: "People come first." Located in a quiet neighborhood near the university and affordably priced, the rooms are commodious and clean. It's a quick bus ride to the city center. Closer to the action of the old town are two well-recommended small boutique properties — Casa Nicolasa (www.pensioncasanicolasa.com) opened in 2014 and Pension Aldamar (www.pensionaldamar.com), just renovated.
For general information: www. sansebastianturismo.com
For pintxos: www.bartxepetxa.com
For film: www.sansebastianfestival.com
For pintxos classes: www.sansebastianfood.com/en
For tours to Sociedades Gastronomicas, send email to info@hagoos.com.
For ferry bookings, www.brittany-ferries.co.uk
Sheila Sobell and Richard N. Every are international travel photojournalists. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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