For our last meal in Spain we decided to eat something nice and not just go for simple tapas.

I looked using the Yelp application for places near to us and found one called Petit Comite. This looked good so I checked up some reviews on TripAdvisor and found that someone mentioned the fork which we had used previously. This is a easy to book restaurants in Europe and sometimes with a discount. In our case 40% off.

The place was very quiet when we arrived at 8:30pm. We got a simple little snack after sitting at our table which was very nice. 

Pam ordered a Camembert in pastry - 5.90 euro, and I had a scallop dish - 16.90 euro

For mains Pam had her first and last Paella in Spain with Ham and Seafood 12 Euro

I had a pasta dish which was very fine pasta noodles where the top was a bit crispy but the bottom soft with Duck Confe and Froi Gras with artichokes. 17 euro

We had a wine and some water as well. 

As part of the deal with the booking we got 40% off the food which bought our whole mean down to 43 euro.

The food was great and by the time we left the place was starting to fill up.

We had a simple breakfast this morning of coffee and toast with tomato and olive oil at a little pastry shop across from the hotel. This is a very simple breakfast but was very nice and something we will do at home.

The tomato is either pureed or grated and basically that is it - along with a bit of olive oil. Really needed some Salt & Pepper which seems to be not the norm here in Spain.

The toast was simply a bread-stick cut length-ways and toasted.

The coffee was also very good after 2 terrible coffees since we arrived.

I found a recipe for this dish online but you don't really need a recipe and this is where it is shown grating the tomato.

We had a lovely dinner last night at a well known restaurant called Jose Maria, this restaurant makes the famous suckling pig. The poor little piggy must be between 4.5 and 6.5KG (not much more than Basil) and no older than 21 days - 3 weeks old. This makes me feel guilty but I guess they eat them by the hundreds in this area per day.

The poor little piggy in the window - he looks very peaceful but he will be dinner for someone.

The pig has a little label on their right leg which has the date and a code so I guess they can track it back to the original farm. Not that you see any farms or animals almost anywhere in Spain especially in this region. So maybe they are all living in barns?

We started our meal with a little soup which came without us ordering it and I think is just a welcome gift.

They bring a large basket of bread of which I ate a small slice later finding out it was about 3 Euro for the bread.

When it is time for the main they came out with the pug in a large pottery dish and a jug of juices.

We were very lucky as they bought the whole pig out and then cut it up for us - we got 2 pieces of the piglet.

They use a plate to cut the piglet to show it is tender

Pam's was a huge piece of the piglet.

The piggy was very tender and lovely with crispy skin. The pork was 26 Euro each, and along with Wine and Water the bill came to about 62 Euro.

For our last dinner we did a search on TripAdvisor to look for somewhere recommended and not too expensive.

We found on the list at #24 of 655 places place called La Cuchara de San Telmo 

It was a tiny little place with only standing room either at the bar or a little counter on the other side of the room although there was a few tables outside. 

Standing room only

Suckling Pig	Pulpo or Octopus
Foie Gras with an apple sauce	Beef Cheek

The food was all yummy - well recommended - All up with a couple of wines it was 21 euro.

I had put a post on TripAadvisor about what we should pay for Pintxos wile in San Sebastian and got a few replies along with recommendations on where we should eat.

So we went on the hunt for the places and found that 2 of them were closed - one until tomorrow but the other for 3 nights by which time we will have moved on and that one looked good and cheapish for the quality of the food.

Pam had done her own research and we ended up at  place call Sirmiri - http://sirimirigastroleku.com/

This was a small little place that was quite busy and had some Pintxos on the bar along with a menu of things we could buy. We decided to not grab anything from the bar but order from the menu - good choice in the end.

I guess they want you to enjoy the place and not waste your time on the phone   

We ordered 2 dishes and a couple of drinks. The first dish above was scallop and pork neck and was lovely.

The second dish was Octopus with a green sauce and was also delicious and very tender. The octopus was very easy to eat and not rubbery as is often the case.

The last dish was a lamb dish which we ordered later as the previous two were so great. The lamb was so tender and lovely it made us want to reproduce this dish at home. It was also very cute delivered in a little fry-pan.

All up 3 dishes + 2 drinks was about 20 euro.

We would recommend this restaurant to anyone, top notch.

We went out looking for a restaurant last night that we looked up online but right before it as in on the other side of the street was all you could eat Pintxos with Palella & a desert for 15 euro each.

Once inside we checked out the offering and ended up with just the all you could eat Pintxos for 12 euro. There was no way I could eat a palella and desert as well.

Pam really enjoyed them but I thought they were a bit of a lower quality than we had the night before. Maybe it was the drunken pommy slobs who were too loud for their own good and distracted everyone else from having a nice meal.

Pam decided on a rather large Sangria @ 7 EURO 

What you did not see is that we mainly ate the toppings and left the bread behind.

Yesterday when we arrived and visited the Picasso exhibition we walked past this little bakery with a sign for Pizzaa for 2 euro. We went in and bought a slice of pizza for 2.50 (2.0 was for a Margarita which is just cheese & tomato) - our slice was Champignons which is Mushrooms.

They were very good mushrooms and also had a truffle oil I assume on the slice. We both thought this is the best pizza maybe ever we have had.

A whole Margarita and some champignons and another slice.

The champignon slice

and again the champignon slice

This was just a little bakery that did things well - it was very very good.

For dinner we wanted to try some Pintxos again, so I did a search online and found a place quite close that good reviews.

When you enter you are given a plate and you just help yourself and in the end they count up the number of sticks and charge you based on that.

Anchovies with a nice puree on top along with little sliced garnish

I don't really know what this was but it was very nice.

Sliced Pork 

This was a terrine placed in side a thin crispy wrapper.

A cheese with a jam and nuts

Another cheese with a green pepper and sliced chorizo

A moose of tuna stuff in a pepper along with a little garnish of pikelet.

A breaded goat cheese.

A mouse or cream cheese along with something like Cherry Jam on top

The Pintxos each cost 2.10 Euro which was probably OK. We got charged 4 euro for a beer and 4 euro for a simple wine which seemed expensive compared to Madrid.

We went to find the missing coffee shop today from yesterday but we found a nice church along the way - closed, but it looked nice from the street.

Instead of our coffee shop we found a market instead. It had the standard stuff of Fruit & Vegetables, Fish, Meat and a few nice shops that sold Sushi, and Pintxos.

We started with a coffee each (espresso at 1.20 euro each) - notice that nice little wine machine - I want one - it holds 4 bottles at a precise temperature - Cave Vinum - 156 Euro - so how do I get this and get it home?

We found a little place that did Pintxos and they were great, in fact the best thing we have had since arriving and cheap at 1 euro each - so much cheaper than the crap they serve in restaurants as Tapas.

After this feast we decided to walk to the local park and have a read and then go back and buy some food for dinner from the market.

Along the way back I needed a toilet stop so we stopped in another cafe and had a wine & beer and used their toilet.

Their wine was expensive at 4 euro per glass and Pam's beer was 2.50 euro so much better.

We went back to the market then and bought some bread, cheese, and ham.

We bought two types of ham so we could do a test with extremely different price points.

• Jamon Serrano - 29 Euro per KG
• Jamon Iberico Bellota - 195 Euro per KG

A master cutting the ham

Out ham trial with the cheaper Serrano Ham on the left @ 29 euro per KG, and the Bollota @ 195 euro per KG

Our results from our tasting comparison:

The two products are very different. The simple cheaper ham is very nice and easy to eat and is used on a lot of baguettes. The bolleto is a lot richer and has a lot more flavor and more interesting character with a sweet nuttiness. Is it worth 6 times the price? well try it and see for yourself.  

After a bit of a rest we went out to find some dinner and did not really know what we were looking for but basically something Spanish.

There is a lot of western/asian food places here probably due to a lot of British people who visit here. Places like Hard Rock, Irish pubs, Thai & Indian places.

We walked around and checked out a few places but decided on a place (see below - I can't remember its name)

A flat bread with octopus and red pepper - 6.50 Euro - it was a bit dry...
  

A Tuna Salad - 13.50 EURO

A few wines for Chris and beers for Pam and we were good....