Pre-Camino Vegan Treats in Northern Spain

The first evening in Bilbao, before Bill had arrived, I went back to the Plaza de Miguel Unamuno, the square, the Casco Viejo (Old Quarters) Metro stop, and found  Cerveceria,  where the man in charge was willing to make me an eggplant sandwich, which I had with a beer, and it was delicious, but the next day another man in charge could not or would not make it.

The next morning Bill and I had breakfast at a beautiful train station, where I discovered tomaca, toasted bread spread with Spanish tomatoes, which are much better than any I've had in the past decades in San Francisco, which is ironic because tomatoes were brought from the Americas to Spain, and the word tomato, I've just found out, comes from a Nahuatl word!

A tomato is pureed and then added to the toast, which has been rubbed with garlic.  Olive oil is drizzled over this, then salt and pepper added to taste.

To their delicious tomatoed toast  I'd  just add pine nuts or sunflower seeds, and I had enough to sustain me until lunch.
I loved their Pimientos de Padron--more than the canned asparagus that was so prevalent--and their grilled-in-olive-oil vegetables were delicious.