The Basque Country and its inhabitants are beautiful, small, unrivaled areas of indigenous origin to an area around the western tip of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Biscay Bay and include parts of northern central Spain and southwestern France. Known locally as Euskadi or País Vasco - it has its own language, culinary tradition, and a highly distinguished cultural and geographical scene.

If you are a serious food enthusiast, you need to visit the city of San Sebastian in particular, a unique and stunning coastal town, widely regarded as one of the best places to eat in the world and recently awarded the title of the desired European culture capital. To prove their passion for food, Basque people spend more than twice as much income on food as Americans and host nearly 30 Michelin-starred restaurants. Many of them are listed in the top ten restaurants in the world in 2018. This is clearly the place where you can eat hard to eat or stroll through noisy villages by sampling tapas (small portions of foods called pintexos, Including the Italian version of brocchetta or Spanish tapas) and cider (txakoli), sparkling white wine is usually an aperitif) in one of the many bars that characterize those cuisines.

Classic Basque food includes meat and grilled fish on hot coal, maritaco (tuna), lamb meat, cod, tulosa beans, paprika, pintexos, adizabal sheep cheese, sparkling tacosolei and basque. Among the best favorite foods you will find available in these first class restaurants and informal food stops include:

1) Bacalao a la Bizkaina (cod), meaning that the fish is gently fried in olive oil and dressed with a sauce of roasted red pepper, onion, garlic and tomato;

2) Chuleta (rib rib steak) - burnt to perfection;

3) White beans Alubia - Slow cooking until soft but still intact, served with the usual accompaniments of cooked cabbage, morchella (bloody sausages), thin strips of paper, pickles corridors (thin local green pepper);

4) Merluza en Salsa Verde con Almejas - hake (cod) in parsley sauce with oysters;

5) Txisto-burger - Famous in the town of Pumblatt, cured pork sausages often offered at Basque festivals wrapped in thick warm corn tortillas, to be eaten like a hot dog in a cake. Turned into a small burger, Rodeiro grinds three different pieces of pork ibérico - the best white meat on the peninsula, blends with a typical txistorra seasoning of garlic, smoked paprika, (not a quarter-century dish essential, to make sure)

6) Gerezi beltza arno gorriakin is a cherry soup that offers warm or cold, and the cherry is caught in wine;

Although the cod (Bacalao) prevails, only the squid and lobster is very popular, along with Tripotx (sheep's blood sausage), eel, Idiazabal cheese (made from unpasteurized sheep's milk), artichokes, asparagus, and pepper Lots of olive oil.

Cider is the favorite drink and is enjoyed in apple cider houses (sagardotegiak) in the hills surrounding Donostia, especially near Astigarraga. These large rural restaurants boast huge barrels of cider vinegar along with a always rustic menu of salt cod in various shapes, a T-bone steak, sheep's milk cheese with walnuts and quince paste (will I do it?). Apple cider houses are only open for a few months of the year. Pity.

Basque foods and French foods have begun to merge slowly as the younger chefs move away from the heaviest traditional dishes of traditional Basque cooking, interwoven with the best of both worlds. So for serious gourmets (is there any other kind?) You may want to think about the Basque Dream holiday, enjoy all the picturesque scenery and, most of all, those wonderful restaurants. Happy trip.