Monday, 10 November 2008

Vegetarian?! Ehm.... Tuna??

YES! I do love the food out here! Basques are supposed to have the best cuisine in Spain, and so far I can't really disagree. However, I began to look upon it differently after a few experiences I've had since last week. My girlfriend is visiting me, and just like me and the Basques, she greatly enjoys those good things in life. All of that, exept for the carnivorous part. Yes, my girlfriend is a vegetarian, a rarity around here.


Being vegetarian means asking for trouble we discovered. Even in the culinary capital of the Basque Country, Donostia, we could't find more than one or two veggie pintxos in each bar. So while I happily shove another fantastic creation with 'bacalao'(cod) or 'jamon Iberico'(famous cured ham) inside, she saw the barmans finger pointing at the tortilla patata, again..

Good Samaritans as we were, we even tought the barmen that tuna isn't growing from trees, as they recommended the tuna salad more than once. Yes, I think a lot of them had conversations at home like: 'Hey honey, I found out what a vegetarian is, and did you know there's no such thing as a annual tuna harvest!'

Luckily, we found one finger that wasn't pointing to another bar with 20 hams on the ceiling. Just outside the meat-loving old town, we were given directions to a vegetarian restaurant! Guess what, they nearly convinced me to become one of them.. The food just was excellent, accompanied with ecological txakoli, we had a great time.

Unfortunately though, I don't have a chance to be a vegetarian yet.. There's just so many pintxos and Basque dishes I didn't trie jet, we'll talk after that!

1 comment:

Joxe Aranzabal said...

Too bad you didn´t try a new restaurant in Leintz-Gatzaga, about five km. from Eskoriatza, towards Vitoria. There you can eat vegetarian dishes.