BASQUE COUNTRY (PAlS VASCO)
The most notorious part of Spain and also the most generous and hospitable, the Basques live in the gourmet capital of Spain.
The
most important fish in the region is, without doubt stockfish and
dishes like Purrusalda (stockfish with leeks and potatoes) are hugely
popular.
Hake
cheeks in a garlic sauce (the most delicious fish dish I’ve ever
eaten), lobsters , tuna, snow crab, blue crab, shrimps, octopus,
hard-shell clams, razor-shell clams, oyster and calico scallops are a fraction of the seafood available in the region.
Beans
and mushrooms, especially the alubias de Tolosa (fine black beans) are
the Basque favourites, and this is the home of the piperrada (a
pepperoni and prosciutto omelette).
Today the locals barbecue
their meat, fish and vegetables on a parrillada but hundreds of years
ago they used a metal spit known as a burruntzi.
Most Basque
cheese is made from cheese milk and their desserts are similar (though
of course a little different) to the rest of Spain.
The spiny lobsters
that look similar to our own crayfish but with a broader tail, the
dried skate and the squid are the most typical seafoods with quail,
lamb and tukey making up the rest of the meat menu.
Coca (a
flat bread here), caracoles con sobrasada (snails with the national
sausage) and a host of cheeses from the island of Minorca are a few of
the more typical foods of these islands.