When in Spain, take a car, bus, or train; buckle up and start heading North to the Basque Country or País Vasco. Once you enter Navarra, you will know that you are far away from the place you thought Spain was. You leave behind the hot, warm weather, tapas, sangría and flamenco and enter the cold, rainy weather of pintxos, sidras and white houses that the Basque Country is. One of the most beautiful thing Spain has to offer is its diversity. Every region or Autonomous Community or Comunidad Autónoma is not only different in its unique landscapes but also in the language, culture, people but mostly, THE FOOD. Each region in Spain is home for a variety of special, traditional dishes.
Basque Country and Gastronomy
Bakalao Pil Pil, Restaurante Aizian, Bilbao Source: Desirée Piña
BAKALAO PIL PIL Bakalao or Cod is the king of Basque gastronomy. It is said that many years ago,
The Basques are very proud of their culture, language (Euskara) and people,
the Basques learned the technique of salting and drying fish from the Vikings. Ever
but mostly, of their gastronomy. Basques
since, it has been a technique highly
take their food seriously, they love taking
implemented in Basque cuisine.
time on gathering good organic products and cooking it to its perfection.
Basques love their cod, salted or fresh. If you ever travel to the north of Spain you will see
Let put it this way, if you want to eat some
that every restaurant or bar will have a at
Paella and drink some Sangría, the
least two dishes with cod.
Basque Country is not your place to go. Certainly, these are some of Spains special
There are various Basque national dishes
dishes but their home is all the way in
that include Cod, Bakalao Pil Pil being one of
Valencia.
them. For this recipe the Cod is slow cooked in oil (confitar), it is not fried but slowly and
Here are some Basque traditional dishes
in low heat cooked in the grease. The fish
that you should try when travelling to the
looses its natural gelatine into the oil, which
north of Spain.
is then mixed and whisked together until it is dense and forms a mayo looking sauce.
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