Taste of perfection

Every time I pass the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, I have the feeling that Frank Gehry might a bit miffed about Jeff Koons’ ‘Puppy’; that’s what people are really photographing, with the museum just as background.

It is one of those old steel cities that suddenly woke up to the fact that a river runs through it, and a river is a good thing to have in a city

The puppy, made of steel, soil and flowering bedding plants, was brought to Bilbao for the temporary exhibition to mark the opening of the museum in 1997, but has now become part of the permanent Guggenheim collection in Bilbao.

It was the building of this bright, shiny, titanium-clad structure, representing a ship in sail to mark the city’s shipbuilding past, designed by Gehry, which set the seal on the redevelopment of the city.

Bilbao has become one of my favourite cities. I like it better than San Sebastian, more edgy, less bourgeois. It is one of those old steel cities that suddenly woke up to the fact that a river runs through it, and a river is a good thing to have in a city.

The steel mills have been replaced by spacious river walks on both banks.

Unlike many cities, and London is a good example, the river does not divide the city, but, rather, stitches it together like a silver tacking thread.

An elegant Santiago Calatrava foot bridge joins the east and west bank, and brings you, within a very few streets, to the foot of Mount Aratxanda.

The top is reached by a funicular and from the pleasant park one has a spectacular, panoramic view, especially at sunset; it is worth timing your ride up the funicular to make the most of this.

The little paper napkins on the city’s bars say ‘Eskerrik asko etortzeagatik’ instead of ‘Muchas gracias por su visita’, which reminds the visitor that Bilbao is a Basque city, and proud of being so.

Kafe Antzokia, for example, formerly an old cinema, is an intriguing place, bar, theatre, concert hall, meeting place, almost next door to our hotel and we wandered in a few times, before going to the bar for a drink, and then going for lunch one day.

It is a purely Basque establishment, and I felt more comfortable speaking English there than Castillano, as I did on a few other occasions inBilbao. But we were made to feel very welcome.

The food reminded me of old Basque restaurants in San Francisco where you sit at long tables and eat very hearty plates.

Here the tables are laid in the former auditorium, and sometimes, when the place is full, tables are set up on the stage. Lunch was €17 each.

The Basques are fantastic cooks, as we discovered morning, noon and night, from the very first café con leche with pastries to the last tapa.

In fact, the Basque tapa is the pintxo, which takes its name from the small wooden skewer which holds the topping and bread together, rather like a club sandwich.

Pintxo and zurrito are the two essential Basque words to remember, once you have mastered ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, eskerrik asasko and mesedez or arren.

Zurrito is a small beer drawn from the pump, and generally the drink of choice in the bars.

The easternmost part of the Basque country falls within the Rioja region, so you will find these wines, as well as the local white wine, Txakoli.

We found the best of these to be the 2010 Gorkaizagirre Larrabetzu Bizkaiko Txakolina (almost as difficult as Maltese, no?) and learnt that one needs to drink the wine within a year of bottling, looking for either Bizkaiko or Guetariako on the label, indicating that the wine is from the provinces of Biscay or Guetaria.

Unfortunately, if you just order Txakoli in a bar, unless you ask to look at the label, you may be served a thin, sour old wine.

We noticed that cava was widely available, some very good ones too. At Metro Moyua, for example, on Gran Via, a very pleasant café for breakfast or aperitifs, a generous glass of cava was €3.

Bilbao may not have the array of multi-starred establishments of San Sebastian, but with one exception, we were thrilled with the places we ate, bars and restaurants alike, especially a Sunday lunch at URbare, just across the Calatrava bridge, or Ponte Zubiguri.

Only open a few months, the restaurant is owned by JosuGarmona, who attended local college where he learnt cooking, front of house and business management. He cooked our lunch but told us that he was just as likely to be found running the front of house.

He has a very light touch with fish, with seasoning and with garnish; in the €44.95 tasting menu, which was beautifully paced and portioned, there were rarely more than three flavours on the plate.

That he has not worked with any famous chefs shows in his cooking; nothing was ‘in the manner of’ Ferran Adria or ‘according to Arzak’ or ‘Subijana-style’, and all the better for it. URBare is a one-off; highly recommended.

The Basques are fantastic cooks, as we discovered morning, noon and night, from the very first café con leche with pastries to the last tapa

It made up for the one disappointment the previous evening when we had supper at Atea, the casual/trendy bistro off-shoot of Zortziko, whose chef/patron, Dani Garcia, is the local ‘star’ chef. We found the food very ‘production line’, with little taste or texture and even the location, on the river walk, did little to redeem the evening.

Of the many places we sampled, I would recommend, in the old part of the city or Casco Viejo, Bar Irintzi for its inventive and delicious pintxos; bunuelos de bacalao (salt cod fritters), tempura de verduras (vegetable fritters), quince paste with cream cheese and layered foams in shot glasses.

And the Mercado de Ribera is not to be missed. Undergoing restoration work, the market is nevertheless in full working mode, with fish stalls that will leave you gasping at the variety and quality of fish and seafood from the Bay of Biscay.

For places to stay, I would choose between the Hotel Carlton, which is the city’s ‘grand hotel’ in the very central Plaza de Moyua, Hotel Abando, a modern hotel conveniently placed between the river and the Gran Via and the one we chose, Husa Spa Hotel Jardines de Albia.

I question its four-star status, but it is convenient, not expensive, (check the website for good deals) very close to the river, and also to the Gran Via, as well as the eponymous gardens.

This is a very pleasant small green space in the centre of the city, with a number of bars and restaurants nearby.

On one corner of the square is Café Iruña, and on another, Bar Bitoque. These were the two places we kept returning to: Café Iruña for coffee, orange juice and a breakfast pastry (€3.60 each), and then again for their evening speciality, authentic pinchos moruños, char-grilled lamb kebabs served with lemon and cumin sauce (€2.20).

Bar Bitoque is a new establishment, and already winning prizes for its pintxos, the best we tasted in a city devoted to pintxos.

If you go for an early lunch on Saturday around 2 p.m., you will be able to get a seat at the bar and take your time choosing what you want to eat.

The miniature hamburguesas are notable, as are the tuna versions, topped with salmon roe. But the best was the brandada de bacalao, tapenade y ‘skins’; a miniature black casserole full of creamed cod and potato, a small glass dish of olive and caper paste and a pile of strips of cod skin, dried and crunchy to scoop up the white brandade and the piquant black tapenade.

There are many more bars in nearby Calle Ledesma with their own specialities and particular atmosphere.

For shopping I recommend the department store El Corte Inglès on Gran Via, the main city street, lined with excellent shops and boutiques, both Spanish and international. But the department store will furnish all your needs, from wonderful Spanish leather bags, coats and shoes, as well as fans and shawls to a few packs of jamon iberica and chunks of the best Manchego and Cabrales cheeses.

For the fiesta-minded, the only week with nine days happens every August, starting on the first Saturday after August 15. Fireworks, a major bullfight festival, concerts and general merry-making, not to mention copious feasting will be the hallmarks, as they are of most fiestas in the Iberian peninsula, of la semana grande.

Vueling flies from Malta to Barcelona, and from there, plenty of internal flights will take you to Bilbao. It is an easy airport to get in and out of, and Bizkaibusa number 3247 takes you to Plaza Moyua in the city centre in less than half an hour, for €1.30.