Day 11: Anchovy Factory and Bilbao

Breakfast

Pouring rain this morning in Santander, so ducked into the first coffee shop I could find for a quick spanish omelette with mushrooms on top.

Anchovy Factory Tour

Stopped by the Ana María Galería de Arte de la Anchoa (anchovy art museum) for a tour of their factory. The fishing town of Santoña had a bunch of “conservas“ (tinned fish) producers and claim to produce the best anchovies the world. Something about the water temperatures and migration patterns in the Cantabrian Sea, allowing them to harvest the anchovies at peak flavor.

The process is actually pretty interesting. The fishing season is just in the spring, and then the anchovies are gutted and packed in salt for up to 9 months. Then they are all cleaned, processed, and packed into tins/jars by hand. Of course, got to taste and buy some anchovies at the end.

Bilbao

Moving from Cantabria into Basque Country. Spent the afternoon walking around, checking out the architecture, and some interesting building like one with 50 uniquely designed pillars and a rooftop pool with a glass bottom.

Pintxos

Pintxos (pronounced pinch-os) are the Basque equivalent of tapas, but pintxo bars are basically the best thing ever. They have a variety of premade items, usually on bread with a toothpick, and often some made-to-order hot pintxos you can order. Each one is like €3-5, so you can get a few pintxos and a drink, and then move on to the next bar. It’s like a choose your own adventure tasting menu.

El Globo

First pintxo bar I checked out was El Globo, one of the more popular in Bilbao. Started out with a spider crab gratin and creamed mushrooms with ham. They were good, so followed up with a carlmelized goat cheese, brie with roasted peppers, and creamy potato with truffle.

Gure Toki

Walked around for a bit and ended up in a different part of the city, Casco Viejo (Old Town) where there is a square confusingly called Plaza Nueva (New Square) which is surrounded by pintxo bars (including another El Globo location that I didn’t know about).