Freshly caught anchovies eaten before lunchtime, guindilla peppers, Idiazabal cheese, suckling pig, black pudding, bacalao (salt cod) and spanking seafood – this is just a little slice of nature’s glorious larder in Spain’s Basque country. Here, locals spend more money on food and more time cooking and eating than almost anywhere else on Earth. And what a place to do it.
Not only does this gastronomic region have some of the world’s best produce, it also boasts nearly 40 Michelin-starred restaurants and is the home of some the world’s greatest culinary wizards. But it is not just in these palaces of gourmet theatricality that you will find sensory delight, even the region’s eponymous and modest pintxos (tiny tapas, often stacked on a cocktail stick or layered on a small slice of baguette) can transport you to reverie.
Here in the Basque country, food sits at the heart of everyday life, and fish and shellfish – much of it caught in the Bay of Biscay – takes centre stage; your average local will eat four times as much of the stuff as their French counterpart. Favourite dishes include marmitako – literally meaning “tuna pot”, a dish of bonito tuna, potatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and white wine. Another is merluza a la vasca, Basque hake, the most famous version of which is hake in green sauce with clams created by chef Juan Mari Arzak, the pioneer of nueva cocina vasca (new Basque cuisine).
Another Basque classic is bacalao al pil-pil, a super-tasty dish made from the simplest ingredients – salt cod, garlic, virgin olive oil and red chilli pepper for a little heat. If seafood is your thing, you must also try squid in its own ink sauce, preferably with a cold cerveza. And for those with a fat wallet, and a sense of adventure, try angulas, a dish of exorbitantly priced elvers, or baby eel, served with crisp-fried slithers of garlic and a guindilla pepper.
Skirting the Bay of Biscay, the Basque country lies at the western end of the Pyrenees. Politically, it is made up of three Spanish provinces, Álava, Vizcaya and Gipuzkoa, with the parliament in the town of Vitoria-Gasteiz in Álava, but culturally the region also includes the Spanish province of Navarra and the French Basque country at the western end of the French district Pyrénées Atlantiques.
The region is known for Bilbao, and its famous Guggenheim museum, but for foodies, the culinary magnet is San Sebastián, where the new Basque cuisine was invented in the kitchens of Juan Mari Arzak and his fellow three-star chef Pedro Subijana (of Akelarre). The city now holds an astonishing 16 stars across its restaurants, with Arzak, Akelarre and Martín Berasategui all boasting the highest accolades of three glittering stars apiece.
But whilst San Sebastián might be the starry capital, other villages and towns across the region feature culinary triumphs. Tolosa, 20km south of San Sebastián, has a fabulous fresh produce market every Saturday, and lots of great bars and restaurants. It is famed for its red beans that are made into a heartwarming stew that usually includes chorizo, bacon, black pudding and guindilla peppers. The colourful fishing village of Hondarribia has seen a number of young chefs settle there, and Guernica may have been the inspiration for Picasso’s masterpiece but you will also find that the pintxos and other plates in the city can be gastronomic works of art. And Vitoria-Gasteiz, the political and administrative capital of the region, may often be overlooked, but it is a gem with as good pintxos as you’ll find anywhere in the region.
Come to the Basque country and it is not just food that will provoke your palate, but the fine dry ciders (made in the north-eastern towns of Astigarraga, Hernani, Urnieta and Usurbil) and the local txakolí, a slightly sparkling, very dry, white wine, pale yellow in colour. Its unique taste, slightly acid in character, complements fish particularly well. With a glass in hand, you will no doubt raise it and say “salud” to one of the most extraordinary epicurean destinations on the planet.
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