The Basque Country Cuisine

So I've dubbed San Sebastian the most beautiful town and Bibao the most unique, but together, they create an all-powerful seafood-making machine that can force you to eat until your stomach hurts.

The trick is is that it disguises itself behind tiny plates (even smaller than normal tapas) called pinxos (Basque word pronounced peen-choes)-did I do that right?

Pinxos are almost bite-size pieces of heaven, usually seafood. The Basque country is known for its delicious food! Everything from bacalao (cod), langostinos (tiny lobsters), shrimp, artichoke, little tuna sandwiches on fresh bread and the list goes on. If that doesn't kill you itself, it's all accompanied with delectable sauces and flavors I can't even describe.

I think even their crossaints were better in the Basque country and that's not even seafood! That's literally just a piece of bread! Come on now.

San Sebastian:

This little restaraunt/bar is called Zeruko and was our first Pinxo experience. We scoped it out after our day on the beach because we heard great reviews. It was more than great. Not only the food but the experience was also very enjoyable and different to say the least. You simply point out what you want to the waiter behind the bar from this wide range of options you can see in the photo above.

What we found interesting was that the Basque country runs off of the honor system. At the end of our meal, they would have no way of remembering what we ate since our plates were (obvisouly) cleared, but they trusted us to reiterate what we ate and then they rang up the bill from there. Most places went about this same process. Very trusting people I must say, but cool idea.

A golden artichoke!

Bilbao:

Equally delicious was Bilbao. We couldn't get enough of the Bacalou (cod) and Paella (with seafood in it like lobster, shrimp, mussels and octupus).

Fried Bacalao (Cod)

Squid

More Bacalao...I wasn't kidding.

Paella with all kinds of delicious seafood

Last but NOT LEAST!

Las Bebidas...The Drinks

[Beer and wine is to the rest of Spain as Kalimotxo and Txakoli is to the Basque Country]

To quote Wikipedia:

"Kalimotxo is a drink consisting of equal parts red wine and cola-based soft drink. Although recently developed, it has become an icon of Basque culture."

This drink is mainly served in bars and is a big hit among the younger generation of the Basque Country.

This is me blending in with the Basque people. Or wishing I could...but at least I have a Kalimotxo in my hand.

"Txakoli is a slightly sparkling, very dry whitewine with high acidity and low alcohol content produced in the Spanish provinces of the Basque Country,Cantabria and northern Burgos."

There's supossedley an entire museum near Bilbao dedicated to the history of this wine...

Paella and Txakoli. Mmmmm

I could obviously go on for days about the Basque food, so I'll stop here as hard as it is. The good thing is I think I've already found a restaraunt in Madrid that serves Basque food so I'll definetly push that to the top of my To Do list.

#travel #fooddrink