WOOO! (RR's San Sebastián Report, Pt. 1)

Hello kiddies!

Apologies for the long absence: tt has been increasing her stardom in the world of chef-ery and I (rr) have been kicking up my heels all the way to San Sebastián (capital of the Basque country, Spain--yes, the one with all the terrorists). WiFi is still a new concept here, and internet cafés are just so bleh, so hence the delays in reportage. Anyway, a quick 'n' dirty listing of my discoveries here might entail a list such as this following one.

San Sebastián--a summary: Adorable resort town with horrendous exchange rate and more bars per square meter than any other city in the world. Keep in mind, though, that these are tapas bars (pintxos bars, if you're cool & speaking Basque) that feature lots of loud, stout, happy old people. Beautiful beaches, unfortunate tendency to drizzle. Fabulous place to eat and shop (basically all you can do in the afternoon, when everything else closes for siesta).

What's IN:

• Mullets, especially on girls
• Skinny jeans, still
• Giant awkward jeans, unfortunatelyBright burgundy hair, on old ladies only
• Industrial-strength umbrellas (thanks to the crazy rainstorms here, everyone's got one)
• Fried potatoes of any sort
• Mayonnaise
• Mayonaisse ON fried potatoes.
• Optical shops (seriously, on every block is another "General Óptica")
• Cod (SanSeb. is basically the Spanish equivalent of Cape Cod, fishing-wise)
• Phone charms with mini Chupa-Chups racing helmets on them
• Zara (their navy paper bags are as ubiquitous here as Trader Joe's bags in Silverlake)
• Middle-aged women unsuspectingly wearing shirts with vulgar English sayings
• White asparagus (a must on top of any salad*)
• Fabulous flats that make me especially regret the heinous valuelessness of the dollar

What's OUT:

• Earth tones
  Vegetables (*"salad" =pasta, peas and canned olives held together by copious mayo)
  Pooper-scoopers
  Vegetarianism
  Flip-flops (hello, rain & slick tiles along the waterfront don't mix)
  The Atkins concept (everything here comes with bread on the side)
  Yet nor can one find decent bread (it looks like french bread...but is SO not)
  America (pretending you're Canadian is always helpful, to avoid the accusatory exclamations of "BUSH!")Comfortable shoes, even for old ladies
  Spending too long on the internets when one could be downing more tapas with various irresistible combos of goat cheese, foie, olives, etc...)

Speaking of which, off I go, then--

> r r <

Note: My gleeful tone and sloppy list-making has nothing to do with the abundance of sidra, the local fermented apple drink. NOTHING whatsopoever. Yeah, I said it, WHATSOPEVER.