Tapas in Bilbao

We took the train to Bilbao from Sevilla and we had one thing on our minds, well beside the sinuous Guggenheim Museum and its unreal stunning curvatures that boggle the mind.We had just been in the Canary Islands and while I wanted to take a canary with me (well, I got a Panama hat when I went to Panama. I suspect I will will want Cuban cigars when I go there as well) all that tropical oceanicbeachy-ness was a great first leg of our honeymoon, we were ravenous for tapas. Known by the Basque name pintxos these little bites are eaten pre-dinner, with hopefully Spanish wine, some found in the luxury hotels Bilbao offers. Founded in 1300 or so, and wonderfully, and hour from the famous wine region of La Rioja, and we decided to sample as much of the wines as we could, along with the famous food. We had terrific cheeses like “Idiazabal”, the local olive oils, truffles, lobster in a salad, and other Basque treats. This once gritty industrial town that was the heart of Spain’s smoke stack industries fell on hard times but then reinvigorated itself with the Museum. It had always had the food, the cod, the ox tail, farm products in the traditional styles. the city had refashioned itself, a modern place with history and tapas, with more Michelin chefs than anywhere in Europe. The area is renowned for its fresh vegetables, its fish, its meats, until a kind of Basque Nouvelle Cuisine had emerged in the shadow of the effect of the Guggenheim. We checked out the numerous pubs along Calle Garcia Rivero, where we tried the cod and beef dishes and some of the bitter traditional wine, called txacoli. We had a wonderful time in Bilbao, grateful we could share in the gastronomic happenings of this vibrant Spanish city