Pintxos route to the rhythm of jazz

Plaza de la Trinidad (Trinidad square) is the soul of the “Jazzaldi”, the Jazz Festival of San Sebastián. Some meters from where you can taste some of the pintxos selected by the Michelin star chefs in Gipuzkoa.

Tomorrow starts the 54th edition of the San Sebastian Jazz Festival, one of the summers mail events in Donostia/San Sebastian, which brings together thousands of people to enjoy live music.

There are many stages and time slots to live those concerts until the next July 28th , but if we have to choose a single space, this would be Plaza de la Trinidad in the Historical Quarter, due to its historical and musical relevance.

Located between the Basilica of Santa Maria and the San Telmo Museum, this medieval square offers a proximity to the stage and unique acoustic properties. Although there is an audience of more than one thousand, this unique space and stage offer outstanding features to performers.

Many of the great names of the genre have performed in “La Trini”, as it´s known. And many of them wanted to repeat. This year, we can enjoy the performances of Donny McCaslin, Maria Schneider, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall, Toquinho, Charles McPherson or Silvia Pérez Cruz, among others.

The Plaza de la Trinidad is accessible from “31 de agosto” street. Taking account that main concerts starts at 9:00 p.m. (except for Sunday, day 28, which will start at 8:00 p.m.), we propose to go our for some pintxos before accessing the site. The offer in this area is very wide; in fact, in just 100 meters you can taste up to 14 pintxos from our list Pintxos – The Starred Chefs List – The 99 Best. Here they are:

• The Mixto caliente de jamón serrano (Freshly-baked sandwich filled with Serrano cured ham and cheese, from La Cepa bar (31 August street, 7).
  
• The Charlota de calabacín relleno de centollo (Stuffed courgette Charlotte from Martínez bar (31 August street, 13): this pintxo is arranged on a slice of bread, consisting of a zucchini charlota stuffed with crab cream.
  
• At the Ormazabal bar (31 August street, 22), we can take Morros de ternera, classic veal snouts stewed according to a family recipe., and the Croqueta de espinacas, a creamy spinach croquette with a fine batter.
  

• In Gandarias Bar (31 August street, 23), we can tase two pintxos: Brocheta de gambas, which are three prawns and Iberian bacon stuck on a stick and cooked on the griddle pan; and the Solomillo con pimiento verde, a pintxo of tenderloin with green pepper, placed on a slice of bread and accompanied by green pepper and Maldon salt.
  
• A fuego Negro (31 August street, 31) is a place where black music plays a fundamental role, and not only when it comes to add atmosphere. The jury decided to include three pintxos of this bar on our list: Black Rabas, a reinterpretation of the traditional Basque stew “txipirones en su tinta” (baby squid cream in their ink) presented in pintxo format. These are small circular “rabas” (squid rings) battered in tempura and fried, stuffed with cream of baby squid in their ink. Also the Makcobe, a pintxo consisting of a mini kobe burger in bread with tomato and accompanied by banana chips. And last, but no least, is the Tigreton de Mejillon, a pintxo which is eaten with a spoon, and has as its ingredients warm tomato, béchamel sauce, three mussels, vegetables and pork rind.
  
• In Dakara bi (31 August street 27), the Taco de solomillo con foie, a slice of bread topped with a piece of sirloin and another of griddled duck liver.
  

And, in order to expand this selection, we propose you four other venues that are located less than 100 meters from the Plaza de la Trinidad, and have seen some of their pintxos included in our list, curated by all the Michelin-starred chefs in Gipuzkoa:

• Indeed, the first one, the Croqueta de Txuleta, may be found in Plaza de la Trinidad, 2. It mixes the creaminess of a croquette with the flavor of the txuleta, just in the access to the square.
  
• The Atari (Mayor, 18) in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria, and his Brocheta de Langostinos (griddled king prawn skewer) is recognized on our list: a skewer of four griddled king prawn tails is placed on a slice of bread and topped with a vinaigrette of red and green pepper and chive.
  
• Lastly , La cuchara de San Telmo (Santa Korda, 4) is a small bar hidden in the alley where the dressing rooms of the artists who performed in the square were located, until a couple of years ago. It has two Pintxos included in The Starred Chefs List – The 99 Best: the Foie de Monfort con compota de manzana, a griddled fresh foie pintxo on a bed of stewed apple and Maldon salt; and the Carrillera de ternera guisada al vino tinto: a pintxo of beef cheek stewed in red wine for 8 hours. Finished in its juice with chickpea hummus.

As you can see, the Michelin starred chefs´ selection near Plaza de la Trinidad offers a wide rango of top-quality pintxos, in a very small area. This way, you can face the magical experiencie of living the Jazzaldi concerts in this emblematic square in a very good mood, and taste.