What is a Pintxo? (EP 37)

A pintxo is a small bite of food, two or three mouthfuls, eaten standing at a bar in the Basque Country with a drink in your hand and someone to talk to. It started a hundred years ago in San Sebastián as something to line the stomach between rounds of wine, a hard-boiled egg or an anchovy on a toothpick, and it grew into miniature haute cuisine, with its own competitions, its own culture and, since 2019, its own institute to defend it. Marti Buckley, author of The Book of Pintxos, explains how a pintxo differs from a tapa, follows the story from the bulk wine shops of the 1920s to the chalkboard at La Cuchara de San Telmo in 1999 that turned the pintxo into a meal, talks about the different types of pintxos, walks through the etiquette on how to eat pintxos, and explains the entire, delicious tradition. If you want more about Spain: ∙ Subscribe to Marti's Substack at https://substack.com/@martibuckley ∙ Follow her on Instagram @martibuckley ∙ Visit her blog at travelcookeat.com