Fun on the Farm and in the Kitchen!

We did some fun activities in San Sebastian, that weren't actually ordering meals in restaurants, but were still related to food.

First we visited a pig farm, where pigs are raised for Iberian ham. Iberian ham is a very special kind of ham that comes from black Iberian pigs and is produced in Spain and Portugal.

We got to see the pigs at all different ages. We saw baby piglets with their moms, and older pigs that were in fields outside. These pigs get to spend four to five years roaming freely on the farm, which is a much nicer life than pigs have on an industrial factory farm.

Aren't the piglets cute?

After we saw the pigs, we went into a beautiful farm house for lunch. We had cured meats that came from pigs who had been on the farm. The chorizo was my favorite.

I think that this house looks like it could be in a fairytale!

You can see some of the ham hanging from the ceiling.

The pig farm was in the mountains and it was cold outside, but it felt cozy eating in front of the fire.

I thought that it was interesting to see where ham comes from. But I also thought that it was sad, knowing that the pigs were going to die. But I was happy that at least they got to live in a nice place and eat good food.

The next night we had one of my favorite experiences of the entire trip. We got to go to the restaurant Rita, and have a private cooking class and meal with chef and owner Ismael Iglesias. The restaurant was closed for the evening, so we were the only people there!!

First we got to go into the kitchen and cook with Chef Ismael. He gave us each an apron, with a napkin tucked into the waist. The napkin was very handy to wipe my hands on! To start, we made three kinds of pintxos. If you don't remember what pintxos are, you need to go back to the last post! First we made Pintxos Gilda, which are skewers with olives, and anchovy and pickled Basque peppers.

It was very fun threading the ingredients onto the toothpicks!

These are the peppers that we used. I want to try to find them in the US, so that we can make Pintxos Gilda at home! But if we can't, my mom said that we can find a good substitute.

Next we made pintxos that had tuna mixed with mayonnaise and scallions on a slice of toasted baguette and topped with an anchovy.

This is me in the kitchen at Rita, mashing up tuna!

The last pintxos that we made were mushroom caps cooked with olive oil, white wine and onions over toasts. This one was my favorite pintxos that we made. The mushrooms were delicious.

I liked how we just used the mushroom caps with no stems.

After we helped make the pintxos and the dessert (more on that later), we got to sit in the restaurant and Chef Ismael cooked us an amazing meal. My brother and sister and I got to go in and out of the kitchen helping too.

We had a tomato salad with onions and tuna, that my parents and our friend Rachel loved! My favorite was a squid dish, with baby shrimp and a lacy squid ink chip on top.

The squid ink chip was the best part.

You can see how tiny the shrimp were when you see one in my hand!

The entire meal at Rita was delicious, but the dessert was extra special. It was the first dessert that Chef Ismael ever made! He made it with his grandmother when he was a boy!! We put cream cheese, heavy cream, sugar, and egg yolks in a mixer and beat it until it doubled. Then it got refrigerated. Eventually Chef Ismael served it over graham cracker crumble. It was like a deconstructed cheesecake and it was amazing! We got the recipe and I cannot wait to make it at home!!

This is Chef Ismael torching the top of the dessert.

Cooking with Chef Ismael at Rita was a huge treat and one of my very favorite parts of Spain. Our last night before we came home, everyone in our family went around and listed his or her three favorite parts of the trip. Cooking at Rita was on every single person's list! If you ever go to San Sebastian, visiting Rita and Chef Ismael is something that you must do!