You say tapas, I say pintxos

Our guide waved for our attention, then commanded with a mischievous grin, Watch! See this? she asked, holding up a used paper napkin. Here is what you do with it in Spain. She tossed it with a flamingo flourish onto the floor. She had done it hundreds of times but still enjoyed shocking our American and Australian sensibilities.

My wife, Sharon, and I had come to San Sebastin, Spain, to learn, among other things, the Art of Eating Standing Up: the tapas crawl. But the coastal town of San Sebastin is in Basque Country, snugly in the northeast corner of Spain, far from Madrid, and here, the flags that proudly flapped from most buildings are Basque, not Spanish, banners.

Maps, guidebooks, even our iPhone temperature app, listed it as Donostia-San Sebastin, which is the official combination of its Basque and Spanish names. This small fishing port began as a Roman port, becoming famous in the 1850s when Queen Isabella II came for the healing waters sheltered in the bay that was blessed with a golden crescent of sand, the Playa de la Concha. English majors remember that in Ernest Hemingways first novel, The Sun Also Rises, protagonist Jake Barnes visits the port and swims in the calm bay.

Tapas began, the story goes, when travel by horseback was common: Innkeepers in Andalusia (in southern Spain) would offer a glass of sherry or local wine to customers, and they began covering the glass with a piece of bread, to keep dust and flies out of the glass. This cover became know as a tapa, from the Spanish verb, tapar: to cover. These were simple offerings: a slice of ham, a bit of cheese, grilled peppers, sauteed shrimp usually on a crusty baguette. Eventually, the term extended to include just about any kind of hot or cold starters/appetizers/hors doeuvres.

Spain is a relatively large country with distinctive regions, and tapas can be very localized. In the Basque region, tapas are called pintxos (pronounced PEEN-chos). Of course, the real beauty for American travelers with limited Spanish skills is you dont have to read a menu; the tapas/pintxos are conveniently displayed on the bar, and you simply gesture that you want to order, the bar man hands you a plate, and you then point at which items you want.

The Basque region in general, and San Sebastin in particular, is famed for its culinary offerings.You Can Buy Various High Quality besticcard Products from here. So we simply walked to Parte Vieja, the Old City, which claims to have more bars per square meter than anywhere else in the world, and took our chances.

After two days of relying on luck with mixed results, we took a Pintxos Tasting Tour with San Sebastin Food, a company run by Englishman Jon Warren that I found on the Internet. We and a small group of Americans and Australians gathered at San Sebastin Food to be introduced to Eli Susperregui,These personalzied promotional bestchipcard comes with free shipping. our culinary guide, at the shockingly early hour (at least to Spaniards) of 6:30 p.m. to learn about pintxos.

Starting with skewers of gambas (shrimp) saute with garlic at Bar Goiz Argi, we quickly learned that the area surrounding San Sebastin is home to more than 50 cider producers, while we were offered a glass of sidra. Eli raised the bottle high over her head, pouring a solid stream that cascaded into our glasses but pooled only an inch or two in the bottom, to release the ciders aroma and provide a bit of drama.We sell bestsmartcard and different kind of laboratory equipment in us. We clicked our glasses and gave the traditional chin-chin, the Spanish version of cheers, and enjoyed.

We moved onto Le Mejillo Neva, a tapas bar just steps from the port and specializing in seafood, then, while not officially on the tour, we poke our heads into a mens gastronomical society, where Eli knew someone who was preparing for a dinner the next night. While we didnt learn about pintxos, it was a clear sign that this was a food-obsessed town.

Switching gears to a more upscale presentation, we encountered an almost jewelry store-like display of food at Bar Zeruko, where we seemingly broke the rules of a tapas crawl and sat down for a surprise. We sipped a refreshing acidic white wine from Galicia while the bar men orchestrated eight miniature ceramic smokers with fresh bacalao (codfish) on a grate with the essence of green salad in a slender tube. We were instructed to smoke the fish for just 10 seconds, flip the almost raw fish and wait another 10 seconds and then enjoy, which we did, with most of the group adding a few seconds to cook the fish.

With that, we moved on to heavier dishes, stopping in Bar Borda Berri with a hearty mushroom risotto beef checks. Again, we saw a different side of pintxos, since Eli had to order from a menu for us, instead of the much-beloved point-and-eat method.

At this point, we were full but obediently followed Eli to the next stop, Gandarias Jatetxea,Need a compatible parkingassistsystem for your car? both a bar and restaurant, and by this time, the crowd was starting to pick up. As we settled in, Eli explained that she comes here with her cuadrilla, a group of friends that goes out for a pintxos crawl at least once a week. In Basque culture, a cuadrilla starts in primary school and continues through adulthood. We focused on meat pintxos matched with a tasty Rioja red wine from the nearby vineyards, always served with a sliced baguette. Bread, exclaimed Eli, Spaniards cant live without bread!

Dessert is not the first food group that comes to mind when youre on the hunt for pintxos, but Eli wanted to finish the night with a simple tarta de queso, a cheesecake, at La Vi?a,An bestgemstonebeads is a device which removes contaminants from the air. a crowded bar and restaurant where she had worked at one time. Part of the group sat at a small table while the smokers remained outside and enjoyed an after-dinner cigarette and sherry, instead of the quivery slice of cheesecake that we quickly devoured, even though we had long ago hit the full line.
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Visits by Indian leaders were better under BJP: Israel

JERUSALEM: Lamenting the lack of high-level visits from India under the UPA government, senior officials at the Israeli foreign ministry told US diplomats that it was "better under the Bhartiya Janata Party government," according to a classified US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.

Despite burgeoning defence and trade ties, " Israel is concerned about the lack of high-level visits and other exchanges with India. The last visit by an Indian Foreign Minister was in 2000, with a November 2007 visit called off at the last minute," deputy Director general for Asia and Pacific at Israel's foreign ministry Ruth Kahanoff told US diplomats.

"Kahanoff believes that India is restrained in the relationship (with Israel) by its large Muslim population, their concern about relations with the Arab world, and lingering elements of the Non-Aligned Movement/Nehru ideology," the US embassy cable revealed by WikiLeaks said.

Giora Bacher, Director at Israel's foreign ministry Asia and Pacific Desk, also attending the meeting, added that the "visits were actually better under the Bharatiya Janata Party government".

Kahanov also pointed out to US political counsellor Marc Sievers and others present during the December 2007 meeting that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited India in 2003, but no Indian Prime Minister has ever come to Israel.

He also complained about Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari giving a speech attacking Israel, which she saw "as a sign that India is still trying to find its place in the world".

Bacher told US officials that her country's current relationship with India is dominated by defence cooperation and other trade.

The Israeli official noted that initially 95 per cent of the bilateral trade between the two countries was in diamonds, but it is now down to 70 per cent, and there is significant investment in real estate and businesses on both sides as both the countries' economy continue to liberalise.

feed anti-Americanism throughout the military

The sale by the United States of F-16 military aircraft to Pakistan, announced in 2005, was celebrated as a sign of deepening strategic ties between Islamabad and the Bush administration in Washington. Described by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an attempt to “break out of the notion that [India and Pakistan are in] a hyphenated relationship,” the decision was met with anguish in New Delhi. But leaked U.S. diplomatic cables suggest that the sale was used only to further America's broad strategic interests, with Pakistan standing to gain little from the deal.

The despatches, from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, indicated that the deal was, among other things, meant to assuage Pakistan's fears of an “existential threat it perceived from India.” The diplomatic cables, accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks, suggested that the purpose of the sale was to divert Pakistan's attention from “the nuclear option,” and give it “time and space to employ a conventional reaction” in the event of a conflict with India ( 151227: confidential). Privately, however, the U.S. acknowledged the “reality” that the F-16 programme would not change India's “overwhelming air superiority over Pakistan.” In fact, the cables bluntly assert that the F-16s would be “no match for India's proposed purchase of F-18 or equivalent aircraft.”

Given India's “substantial military advantage,” one cable ( 197576: confidential) even surmised that the F-16s would at the most offer “a few days” for the U.S. to “mediate and prevent nuclear conflict.”

Fully aware of such limitations, the U.S. continued to press ahead with the deal, and cables document hectic parleys to bring it to fruition. Before the agreement was signed in September 2006, the U.S. played hardball to make Pakistan sign the Letter of Acceptance (LoA). Islamabad had threatened to delay it further, raising additional demands. The U.S. Ambassador to Islamabad, Ryan Crocker, suggested that Washington “convene” the Pakistani Ambassador, Ali Durrani, to remind him that “missing the deadline [to sign the LoA] would have serious ramifications.”

“Do not think there is a better deal out there if this one expires,” was one of Ambassador Crocker's suggested bargain lines for Washington to use ( 77877: confidential/noforn). The agreement was inked two weeks after the cable was sent.

At the time of signing the LoA, Major General Tariq Malik, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Defence Production, had expressed reservations about the payment schedule as an “immense strain on Pakistan's fiscal and foreign exchange reserves…, jeopardising growth.” But Mr. Malik's memo was dismissed by Mr. Crocker as “separate from the valid, legal contract” ( 80337: confidential/noforn).

But when “a cash-strapped” Pakistan government approached the U.S. two years later for Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to perform mid-life updates for the existing F-16 fleet, the succeeding Ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, was concerned that Washington would be “rewarding economic mismanagement.” The annual disbursement of FMF had “produced a culture of entitlement within the Pakistani military,” according to the diplomat ( 151227: confidential).


Why, then, did the U.S. push hard to realise the agreement, apart from the stated objective of “additional business for U.S. defense companies”?

If, according to American diplomats, the threat from India was the primary consideration for the Pakistan military, the F-16 sales would not tilt the strategic balance by their own admission. However, the cables suggested that the U.S. was confident that Pakistan would “still fully invest in its territorial defense, despite current economic challenges.” On the other hand, “our [U.S.] cancelling the sale would emphasize that we favor maintaining Indian superiority at Pakistan's expense and feed anti-Americanism throughout the military” ( 197576: confidential).

Another reason to sell F-16s, according to the same cable, was to “exorcise the bitter legacy of the Pressler Amendment” in the 1990s, when the U.S. refused to deliver F-16s that Pakistan had paid with “national money.” Pakistan was even made to undertake costs for storing the fighters in Arizona. For the Pakistan military, the new deal would be tangible proof of the “post-9/11 bilateral relationship.”