Food

Overview

In the Basque Country eating always has been, and still is, part of the region’s culture. It’s almost an art form and a tradition that has been handed down from generation to generation with the utmost care. The 3 vital stages are the quality of the raw materials (excuse the pun!), the craft of putting it together and thirdly an unhurried and enjoyable eating experience. Travellers to these parts have plenty of choice of where to eat – in addition to the usual restaurants you can also eat in bares (bars), asadores (restaurants specialising in roast food), sidrerías (specialist cider bars serving food), merenderos (picnic places), cervecerías (specialist beer bars serving food), bodegas (specialist wine bars serving food). The new Basque cuisine (a culinary movement taking place over the last 20 years) has revolutionised food and the eating experience – not just through a fresh look at the recipes, but kitchens and the dining environment have been greatly improved. Greater attention has been paid to what you eat with and table service has become more professional – all without losing the essential flavour of Basque cooking. Basque chefs are among the best in the Spain; the best known are Juan Mª Arzak, Pedro Subijana, Martín Berasategui, Daniel García and Carlos Arguiñano. There are more than 1,000 txokos (gastronomic societies where people cook for pleasure and invite their friends and colleagues along to sample their culinary delights. Although these txokos are traditionally male environments, some are opening their doors to women and all of them hold “mixed” gastronomic events.

Excellent raw material
There are a lot of smallholdings in the Basque country and Basque cuisine prides itself on using local, high quality produce. A quality guarantee system called Eusko label and a system which certifies the product has been produced locally (Euskal baserri) allow consumers to have confidence in the quality of what they are eating, but also protect and promote the smaller food producers who don’t go in for mass production.

The vegetables tend to be excellent – among the best are pimientos de Guernica (peppers from Guernica which are green, small and full of flavour), salad tomatoes, leeks, alubias red and white kidney beans (that have been grown in the Basque Country for more than 500 years), pochas (French beans), wild mushrooms (look out particularly for the local perretxikos) and potatoes from Alava.

You can often see the fish being unloaded in the ports and know that this is the same fish that later that day will be served up in restaurants all over the region. In addition to all the usual suspects, look out for chipirones (little squid) and angulas (elvers - small, transparent eels cooked with oil, chilli and garlic) which are much sought after and command sky high prices particularly around the Christmas period. Don’t forget the ubiquitous cod which appears on most menus in a number of different guises. Fish have their own seasons (for example elvers and anchovies in winter, tuna in winter) and therefore the price per kilo (or price per unit or per dozen units in the case of shellfish) you find on menus varies according to the time of year. Most restaurants change their menu at least twice a year in response to what fish is in season.

Meat and poultry production tends to be free range and not mass-produced. Milk too usually comes from free-range farms and is used in the production of cheeses (the best known sheep’s milk cheese is Idiazabal), cuajadas (curd often home-produced and eaten as a dessert with honey or sugar) and arroz con leche (rice pudding) – all of which are commonly found on Basque menus.

Bars and Pintxos

Bars at aperitivo time (approximately 1pm – 3pm or in the evening between 8pm and 10pm) are an excellent shop window to see the variety of pintxos (tapas and sometimes also known as montados) on offer. Both these times of day are when Basque people get together with their friends to potear (go to a number of different bars having a txikito (small glass of wine) or a zurito (beer). This practice is particularly popular at the weekend. These snacks known as either banderillas or pintxos are often cocktail sticks with different bits of cold food on them. The word banderilla is also a bull-fighting term and when you think of the decorated, pointed sticks held aloft by the banderilleros, it’s not difficult to see where the word comes from. Normally they are laid out on the bar and you help yourself to whatever you fancy. You put your cocktail sticks on a plate so that when you’ve finished and are ready to move on, the barman can count up how many pintxos you’ve had to work out your bill. It’s common for groups of friends going out together to have a kitty (un bote) and the person in charge of the kitty orders all the drinks and food and settles up at the end.

It is particularly in the old part of the cities where you can find little bars with excellent pintxos, which are plentiful enough to replace lunch or a sit-down dinner. This type of food is often based on what’s in season and local and can sometimes be experimental combinations of flavours. Other food you can get in these places includes cazuelitas (small servings in earthenware bowls of different types of hot stew). The most popular cazuelitas are mushrooms in garlic, wild mushrooms with prawns, chorizo in cider, black pudding, snails etc. The popularity of banderillas and cazuelas has turned into quite an art which has spawned competitions and special tastings and consequently, of course, has improved the quality and the range of this type of food and its presentation. Pintxos are typically presented on a small piece of bread. The modern ones have become very sophisticated and might consist of foie gras, smoked salmon, crab crepes, peppers stuffed with pate etc. Lots of bars have their own specialities; sometimes the secret lies in the type of sauce, sometimes in the combination of different types of food. Common pintxos are:

Cold
De jamón serrano: a slice of serrano or ibérico ham on a piece of bread
De huevo relleno: Boiled egg with the yolk scooped out and mixed with mayonnaise and tuna - often topped with a prawn
Ensalalilla rusa: Russian salad (chopped boiled potatoes mixed with mayonnaise, tuna and carrot on a bread base)
De bonito con tomate: A type of salad which combines fresh tomato with flaked tuna
Boquerones con variedad de verduras: Anchovies served on
vegetables, such as asparragos
Vegetal: A salad variety with a lettuce leaf on a piece of bread topped with mayonnaise, sliced tomato and either ham or tuna
De queso fundido con anchoa: Melted cheese with anchovy
De bonito: Tuna with a thin ring of raw onion
Gildas: Anchovy, chilli, olive, spring onion and gherkin

Hot
Pinchos morunos: Pieces of chicken or pork roasted on a metal skewer and basted with a barbecue sauce
Pintxo de revuelto de champiñones o de setas: Scrambled egg with mushrooms cooked with parsley and garlic on a piece of bread
Pintxo de tortilla española: (Spanish omelette made with potato and onion) or tortilla paisana: (potato omelette with chorizo and sometimes a vegetable).
Pintxo de tortilla de bacalao: Omlette with flaked cod
Croquetas: dough with béchamel sauce coated in egg and breadcrumbs and deep-fried
Gambas en gabardina: prawns in batter (literally prawns in a mac!)
Calamares rebozados: (called rabas in the Basque Country): squid battered and deep-fried
Pimientos rellenos de bonito or de bacalao: Red peppers (usually Piquillo) stuffed with tuna or flaked cod

Other ways to eat

Restaurants in this region are of very high quality. There are numerous 5 (the maximum number) fork restaurants, but they are also good value. They are plentiful and sometimes you need to call ahead to reserve. The menu usually changes according to what’s in season and you often find there are a number of extra dishes, not mentioned on the menu, that the waiter will tell you about orally when he comes to serve you. It’s a good idea to go for these dishes as they tend to be particularly fresh as they are assembled according to what has been bought in the market that morning. You can order the menu of the day or eat a la carte in restaurants. The menu of the day (3 courses with bread and wine included and coffee optional) is usually only available at lunchtime on weekdays. Depending on the quality of the restaurant you can expect to pay between 8 and 15 euros. If you order a la carte obviously the price can vary enormously depending on what food and wine you order. An average meal in an average restaurant could cost between 20 and 25 euros, but there’s plenty of restaurants to suit all tastes and budgets.

Asadores “Grills” have become more popular over recent years and offer good quality food. Although some of them are a bit basic with the wooden stools you typically find in cider bars and specialist beer bars, the meat and fish cooked a la brasa (on a grill) is usually excellent. It’s a good idea to order something light to start (a lot of people have a salad of some description), followed by roast meat; a popular order is a large steak (chuletón de buey) with green or red roast peppers and finally a light dessert such as junket (cuajada) or cheese (queso). You can expect to pay (with wine) something in the region of 25 to 40 euros.

Merenderos Picnic places and recreational areas are often to be found in countryside by the coast or other places where there’s a lot of passing trade, the tops of mountains or on cliffs with good views. They’re good places for lunch or for an afternoon snack. They’re very popular with families or groups of friends who take a packed lunch and eat it outside enjoying their natural surroundings. Normally these picnic places are signposted from the road and always have stone or wooden tables and seats. Some have refuges and fountains and the most sophisticated ones also have grill restaurants, sports facilities and children’s games. There is often something (such as a hermitage) nearby worth visiting. There’s detailed information on the government’s website: http://www.euskadi.net/turismo/gastronomia/m51indice.jsp?idioma=ingles
Here are some of the nicest:
Álava: Santa Lucía de Campezo, Berberana (Laguardia); Espejo (Valdegovía); Estíbaliz (Vitoria); La Encina (Arceniega) y Zumalde (Arraia-Maeztu)
Guipúzcoa: Mirandaola (Legazpi), San Martín (Amezketa), San Pedro (Elgoibar) y Zuloagatxiki (Tolosa)
Vizcaya: El Cerrillo (Abanto), Elorritxueta (El Vivero-Galdácano); Fuente de la Choza (Orduña), Jatamendi (Bakio), Santa Ana de la Baluga (Sopuerta) y Santa Eufemia (Igotz, Aulestia)

Sidrerías Cider houses (most of these are in the San Sebastián area) can be divided into two categories: those which only open their doors from January to April (when cider is produced and you can drink it directly from the barrel and those which are open all year round and are a bit more up-market. These ones often, as well as offering the local cider, also have regional specialities to eat such tortillas de bacalao (cod omelette), bacalao al pil-pil (cod in a piquant sauce), carne a la brasa (grilled meat) and local cheeses and nuts for pudding. Cider houses can be a bit more expensive than the typical restaurant and you can expect to pay between 25 and 40 euros per person – always depending of course on what you order and how much cider you consume!

Starters or First Courses

As well as the traditional cold starters, such as salads, sausages, pates, cheese and shellfish, one highly rated starter to look out for is txangurro. It’s a crab dish where the claw meat is taken out of the cooked crab, flaked and stewed with vegetables, tomatoes, wine brandy and seasoning. To serve it is put back in the claw and baked in the oven. Hot starters typical of the region include: pourrusalda (leek and potato soup), cocido de alubias rojas (kidney bean or white bean stew), patatas en salsa verde (potatoes in green sauce often served with garlic and parsley), patatas en salsa roja (potatoes in red sauce with choricero peppers - similar to paprika - and chorizo).

Main Courses

The main course of the meal is usually meat or fish. They are served either on their own, grilled or roasted so the taste can be appreciated without any distractions. Or they can be cooked in a sauce so that they take on the flavour of the sauce. Sauces to look out for are: salsa verde (green sauce made with oil, onion, garlic and parsley), al pil-pil (emulsified olive oil and juices from the fish with a bit of garlic), salsa negra de chipirones (black baby squid sauce made from the squid’s black ink, garlic, onion, olive oil and green pepper) and salsa vizcaína (tomatoes, choricero peppers (similar to paprika), onion, garlic and olive oil).

Fish
Bacalao al pil-pil: cod cooked with olive oil and fried garlic which create a white sauce
Chipirones en su tinta: Baby squid ( txipirones in Basque) cooked in their own ink with onion and olive oil
Merluza or bacalao a la vizcaina : Hake or cod cooked with choricero peppers and fresh tomato
Merluza marinera: Hake in a white sauce with clams, peas and asparagus

Sardinas asadas: Fresh, sardines roasted on vine shoots (normally eaten in summer in Grill restaurants)
Anchoas fritas: Fried anchovies in batter
Besugo a la espalda: Sea bream opened and grilled with garlic
Marmitako: Tuna stew with potatoes and choricero pepper sauce. This is typical of coastal areas and is frequently on the menu in the summer – the best season for tuna

Meat
Most meat is served grilled or barbecued with salad and green or red peppers. The local meat lends itself to cooking in this way, as it’s usually high quality and doesn’t need disguising in any way.

Chuletas or chuletón a la brasa: Barbecued chops or steaks. Chops are normally veal (older than the UK equivalent) or pork and steaks normally beef. They are cooked over hot coals.
Chuletillas al sarmiento: These are normally lamb chops cooked over vine shoots
Guisado de carne: Cubed veal cooked in olive oil, red peppers stewed with onions and green pepper

Cordero or pollo al chilindrón: Cubes of lamb or chicken cooked in a sauce of garlic, pepper, tomato and onion
Lomo relleno: Pork stuffed with a mushroom, onion and green pepper filling
Morcilla con tomate: Fried black pudding with a tomato sauce and red pepper

Puddings

The Basque Country’s traditional puddings are usually milk-based and are a good way to finish a heavy meal.

Arroz con leche: Rice pudding
Cuajada: Junket (bit like sweet yoghurt)
Queso: Cheese – if fresh, it is often served with quince. If it’s cured it will probably be the well-known sheep’s cheese (with its own denominación de origen) Idiazábal

Tarta de arroz or pastel vasco: Rice tart or Basque cake – simple cake made with flour, sugar, eggs and milk
Flan: Caramel custard/Creme caramel
Natillas: Bit like a runny egg custard made with eggs, sugar, milk and cinnamon

With thanks to Agustín Jiménez for permission to use his photo of walnuts
With thanks to Ane Muñoz for writing this guide