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I'm trying to recreate a dish I had in the Orio restaurant in Valencia, Spain.

For lunch, Orio serves a vast buffet of Basque-style open sandwiches (pinchos), including our favorite, which was topped with a small piece of some kind of savory flan or custard. It was thin (about 1cm high), had some kind of cheese in it (possibly even a blue cheese) and herbs, and had a soft, custard/flan consistency.

In the photo, it's the one in the center, with a tomato jam and pistachios on top (not the one on the lower left, which is a regular Spanish Tortilla. This is something different).

Is this a generally known Spanish or Basque dish? Or is it something particular to a few Pinchos bars? I know it's not unique to Orio because I've found it in stock images.

I own multiple Spanish and Basque cookbooks and haven't been able to find anything quite like it, possibly because I don't know what it's called. So mainly looking for a name here.

photo of five pinchos on a plate. The center one, with a rectangle of white and a red sauce, is the one I'm asking about

FuzzyChef
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    You know you're in trouble when you ask a question on SA and within hours it becomes the #1 result for your related search terms. – FuzzyChef Nov 29 '22 at 21:33
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    Spanish here! Never seen it... Was it sweet or salty? Did it taste like cheese (strong I assume?) or did it have cheese in it (like something filled with cheese)? Idiazabal cheese is used in the Basque Country. Also, it looks like a flan but it might be some kind of egg-white omelette with cheese? Try calling them up (that specific restaurant) and asking them! I'm sure it won't be a problem! – M.K Dec 01 '22 at 13:35
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    More sweet than salty. It tasted like cheese, but muted enough that it was hard to tell what kind of cheese; it could have been cream cheese, or some very mild blue cheese. Is "egg-white omelette with cheese" a common thing? Got any links, including in Spanish? – FuzzyChef Dec 01 '22 at 18:59
  • I tried contacting the restaurant, but both time zones and my very weak Spanish are an obstacle. – FuzzyChef Dec 01 '22 at 18:59
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    BTW, "that is not any common recipe and is probably particular to that restaurant" is a valid possible Answer. – FuzzyChef Dec 01 '22 at 19:00
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    @M.K updated question. The pinchos in question is not unique to Orio; I've found it in stock images. – FuzzyChef Dec 01 '22 at 20:11
  • Nice research! I found more pictures but no description, sadly. I just called (Valencia), describing more or less what you said and what I see, and they told me they have 2: smoked cheese with an onion sauce (the person told me that there's no tomato sauce), and some other with creamy cheese and blueberry sauce. No eggs. I called to one in Madrid and they told me they don't have any with pistachios nor nuts. Sounds weird to me. Will do more research and I'll let you know, but don't have any faith... They both also mentioned "cheesecake" but I am not sure if it was a pincho or a dessert... – M.K Dec 01 '22 at 21:36
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    Wow, thanks! The sauce might not have been tomato. It was tart. It definitely wasn't blueberry, though. This could have been a "semi-savory cheesecake", particularly if said cheesecake had gelatin in it to give it more structure. – FuzzyChef Dec 01 '22 at 21:54
  • Did they say what the creamy cheese was? Which cheese? – FuzzyChef Dec 01 '22 at 21:56

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I've had similar ones at places in Barcelona. This is likely not a flan and just a soft creamy blue cheese with pepper or quince jelly topped with different nuts - it looks like yours may have pine nuts and pistachios.

Here is a link to some pictures of Irati's pinchos that look similar to what you're looking for: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g187497-d717425-i148225979-Irati_Taverna_Basca-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

Marcos Rivera
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