Olentzero Reloaded

This note about the Olentzero was published by EITb:

'Olentzero badator', Basque myth gets modern makeover

O.M.

Beñat Amorena (born in Saint-Etienne-de-Baigorry, Iparralde) is the creator of Olentzero badator (Olentzero is coming), a piece of modern street theatre due to perform on 20th December on the streets on Bayonne. A total of 50 actors interpret the show, a contemporary take on the pagan mythological tale of Olentzero, the coal man who, according to Basque tradition, hands out gifts to children at Christmas.

The composer

Born in a mill in Baigorry fifty-nine years ago, at the age of 20 Amorena moved to Paris to study music. Five years later he returned to the Basque Country where he joined the group Errobi in 1975, together with Anje Duhalde, Mixel Ducau and Michel Halty. He now teaches percussion at the conservatory of music in Les Landes, southern France.

Creator of shows

Though he has written and performed music all his life, Amorena only began composing whole shows a while ago; Olenztero Badator is his third, following Jotakurri in 2002, which he created for the Errobi de Itsasu festival, and Ufaka Zanpaka for the festival of Hartzaro de Uztaritz, together with the Burrunka and Izartxo companies. For his latest show he has once again joined up with Burrunka as well as choreographer Mizel Theret. Six professional dancers are also involved.

'Olentzero Badator'; mythology-based street theatre

Amorena's version of the mythological character starts with an ancient idea that Olentzero would come back to announce the sun-rise. From this, Amorena invented a story in which the Sun abandons the Earth, leaving the people in cold and darkness. To save the planet, Olentzero travels to the galaxies in search of the Sun.

Fifty people take part in the show, playing a mixture of earthlings, extraterrestrials and fantastic and medieval characters, all of whom parade along the streets of Bayonne. Amorena and his team have spent a whole year preparing the show, battling with light and darkness. Since September he has been accompanied by a painter, ironmonger, - very importantly - lighting and sound technicians as well as 15 percussionists from Burrunka and nine pipers directed by Pierre Haira, not to mention the six dancers under the direction of Mizel Theret.

On 20th December from 6pm onwards, Olentzero Badator will take to the streets of Bayonne, parading in four different areas (Cinq-Cantons square, Orbe karrika, Liberté Square y Megadenda) all ending up in the market place where they will perform a final mark of respect to the Sun.

(NB: In case of bad weather, the show will be put back to 21st December).

.... ... .

The History of Basque Cuisine

This article was published at the Buenos Aires Herald:

50,000 years of culture in kitchen

Dereck Foster

The area that comprises the south-east corner of the Bay of Biscay is that which, invading a small portion of France and a larger portion of Spain, is where Basque culture and cuisine flourishes with all its traditional originality and flavour. Within the many varied regional cuisines that can be detected within Europe, that of the Basque country is an important leader. According to María José Sevilla, a food historian, who has analysed Basque culture in depth , this can be traced back at least 50,000 years and has, in its essence, undergone only cosmetic changes imposed by the advent of modern techniques and modernised ingredients.

What is the basic character of Basque cuisine? The Basque nation has always been dominated by the sea, and Basques have been notable seafarers. As a result the true flavour of Basque food leans strongly towards the sea. It is no secret that tuna and cod are important ingredients that figure in many traditional Basque recipes. Who visits a Basque restaurant does so — unless totally ignorant of the theme — expecting to discover a menu strongly imbued with fish and seafood. But we must not forget the importance that roast lamb, fungi and dried pulses also enjoy within a Basque menu.

Basques, true to their naval traditions, are great travellers, frequently emigrating — because of mostly political reasons — and setting up important colonies abroad. It is only normal that, deep in their baggage, they pack their gastronomic traditions. Argentina is no exception. We have a large and active Basque colony, larded with a great number of restaurants and food outlets with a Basque origin. As is the case with many styles of cooking, exporting to different climes is not easy. Rarely does food in different climes resemble exactly that of the original. Basque cuisine is no exception, but in spite of this we do enjoy a high level of Basque restaurants in Buenos Aires and the rest of Argentina. One of them is, without discussion, Sagardi (Humberto Primo 319, 4361-2538), nestling in the very heart of San Telmo.

50,000 years of Basques cuisine tradition, Spain has been around for 500 years tops, you do the math.

.... ... .

Eight Injured by the Ertzaintza in Lekeitio

The Madrid imposed government in the Basque Autonomous Community insists on unleashing police brutality against the Basque civilians during the traditional summer fetivities. As a result, eight people were deprived of their freedom in clashes with the Ertzaintza (Basque police force) in Lekeitio, in the early hours of Monday during the town’s main festivity. It’s understood that seven people were injured, including a police officer.

The violence escalated after a group of citizens began shouting out insults at officers inside the police station, with others joining in the crowd as police violently tried to disperse the group, who found themselves resorting to their favorite repressive tactic, to open fire with rubber bullets. A number of rubbish containers were set alight, and damage was caused to banks and insurance offices.

Rapid action by fire crews managed to prevent any serious damage to the PNV Basque Nationalist Party’s offices in the town which some amongst the crowd had tried to set alight.

The street violence came during the Lekeitio’s traditional "Day of the Goose" – the Antzar Eguna - when locals attempt to cross a stretch of water hanging by their arms from the neck of a goose suspended on a pulley across the port. It’s understood the geese used today are either already dead or artificial.

Despite Madrid and Gasteiz's efforts to criminalize the Basque solidarity with the victims of political persecution, there are reports that some of the boats used in the Antzar Eguna were seen displaying photos of Basque political prisoners or flags in their support.

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Bilbao's Quarry

Every year around this time we are witness to the dance of the "billion euros legs". The football teams in Europe do everything and anything they can to secure the services of one of the top players in the different leagues across the continent. This year was exceptional, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco's team Real Madrid hired two of the top players in the world: Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká. They want to be able to compete against the best team in Europe, Catalonya's pride Barcelona.

But there is one team in Europe that refuses to enter this maelstrom, Athletic de Bilbao... Nabarra's pride. Here you have this article featuring Athletic published at SoccerLens:

Athletic Bilbao and ‘Cantera’

Alasdair Sim

Chances are that if you’re in the pub with your friends and the inevitable topic of football is discussed, and perhaps less inevitably Spanish football is mentioned (unless it’s a dig at Real Madrid), then Athletic Club Bilbao will not be high on the list of subjects.

But perhaps it should be. Amongst the arguments of ‘who’s better Messi or Ronaldo’, ‘who will David Villa join’, and, ‘oh by the way who’s round is it’, Athletic Club barely get a look in. However in today’s ever declining lack of footballing morals, ethics and loyalty, Athletic Bilbao at least deserve a drunken supportive rant.

Formed by British migrant workers in 1898, Bilbao has become somewhat of a romanticised club. They are team whom are idealised in a modern world where cheap footballing imports and the EU have almost brought the great youth systems of Europe it their knees.

Gone are the days of the Lisbon Lions who won the 1967 European Cup with players who were all born within 30 miles of Glasgow. Look at every Premier League team in England, only an average of 3 English players per team start every weekend. And yet, in a small part of Northern Spain a team has consistently defied the globalization of football and strove to preserve its values and fundamental beliefs in an age where football is slowly falling into an abyss filled with greed, monetization and self-interest.

The sun quietly descends behind the Stadio San Mamés, or ‘The Cathedral’ if you’re a Los Leones, as it is still sometime before the hustle and bustle of the new La Liga season comes to these shores. When you think of all the great names that have graced this pitch: the prolific Telmo Zarra, José Ángel Iribar and Joseba Etxeberria to name just a few you begin to see the curiosity and interés that surrounds this club. They are all Basque. They all hail from the Basque region of Northern Spain. And what makes the club more intriguing is that since 1912, almost 100 years ago, the Athletic Bilbao team has only consisted on Basque players. Remarkable. Do you think you would ever see Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson only playing footballers born in London or Manchester?

This policy of Cantera (literally ‘quarry’) is one that the club, the supporters and the Basque people are immensely proud of. By implementing this policy the club is ensuring the survival and promotion of the Basque game, they choose to nature their own talent rather than buy an import. It is also more than this. It is a stand against centralization. A voice that yells “we are Basque!”. During the 28 year reign of General Franco the Basque people suffered terrible oppression; their unique language, culture, customs, style were all banned, persecuted and oppressed because they didn’t fit in with the ideal of a one-nation Spain. It was conform or suffer the consequences. Support for Bilbao was a vote against Franco. Much in the same way that Barcelona is self-described as ‘more than a club’, Athletic Bilbao are similar, but they take it a step further.

And yet, not everyone looks upon Athletic Bilbao as the ideal football club.. Admittedly these critics mainly come from outside the region but perhaps they do have a point when they say that Cantera is restrictive to Bilbao’s progress. While it has cemented its position in footballing history as a club that is genuinely local (if you overlook the fact that it was created by foreigners), it has also been somewhat left behind when it comes to success.

They haven’t won a domestic trophy since 1984 and since we have entered the 21st century their highest finish has been 5th. Not bad you might say considering they are up against the likes of Real, Barcelona and Valencia who can open their cheque books and sign anyone from any part of the world, but when you consider their success historically in that they have won 8 La Liga titles and sit 3rd behind Real Madrid and Barcelona in terms of league titles won; the policy of Cantera looks outdated and obsolete. A throwback to a distant age when football was idyllic and naïve.

And yet this isn’t the view of the club nor the fans. Their president, Fernando Garcia Macua, announced that “we’d rather go down than change our habits, I know the supporters feel the same.” They have only a 3 million strong population in which to find their next Telmo Zarra.

If the Arsenal Board decided that the club could only buy players that are part of, or have descended from, the 7.5m people that live in London there would be a revolt. But yet we look upon Bilbao as well, somehow right and honorable. Of course clubs should have a ‘local’ presence, of course they should protect and nurture their own; it’s a sorry state of affairs that most clubs have neither the will nor the courage to do so.

So next time you’ve have one too many Carlsbergs in the local and have moved on to why Messi is a hundred times better than Ronaldo, spare a thought for Bilbao. Because unless the Basque country has a sudden baby boom of superstars, Cantera might not be around for another 100 years.

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Running With the Hemingways

Sanfermines, the main festivity in the Basque country which takes place the second week of July in the capital city of Iruñea (known also as Pamplona) and the iconic US writer Ernest Hemingway will be forever some sort of symbiotic entities.

Regarding this connection between the Sanfermines and Hemingway we strongly recommend that you read the book "San Fermingway" by Mundaka's writer Edorta Jimenez, in the mean time we leave you with this article published at the Irish Times:

Hemingways give the bulls a good run for their money

John Fleming

PAMPLONA LETTER: Some bearded gents compete to get in character. Oh and the sun also rises

HERE THEY come running and snorting, muscular and well-fed, thundering through the cobbled streets of Pamplona. Most are sure-footed but others slump heavily against the cordoning walls of the Basque town. While some have bull necks, these guys also have beards and many have American accents.

Coiffured and growling in voices laced with cigar smoke, they came just in advance of the week-long San Fermin festival with its bull run taking place at 8am each day. They have a specific purpose apart from running with the bulls or observing them from safety. One and all, they are here in Pamplona for the first international Ernest Hemingway lookalike competition.

The manly gun-loving bull-idolatrist writer was part of a coterie of Americans whose reverse voyage of discovery to the old world led them to a rediscovery of Spain in the first half of the 20th century.

Holed up in the Navarra capital’s old city, Illinois-born Hemingway wrote the textbook on bull running and fighting. Revering it as a spectacle of blood and lust and soft machismo, he was a literary anthropologist firing a blunderbuss of adjectives into noble savages (bull and man), much in the way Robert Flaherty framed Irish islanders in Man of Aran in 1934.

But Hemingway was a participant observer, living among the peasants. He was drawn to visit Pamplona on nine occasions starting in 1923, staying for the most part in the Hotel Perla.

In the main square, Plaza del Castillo, under a long arcade, like many a writer the world over, he sat and drank and stared at the sinking sun. His novel The Sun Also Rises appeared in 1926, putting the town of Pamplona and its reverence of the bull on the international map.

In 1957, four years before he died, Hollywood made a film of the novel, shooting it on location in Pamplona with Errol Flynn and Ava Gardner and projecting the city firmly into the world’s consciousness. His favourite bar in the plaza now bears his name and is the focus of this impersonator competition held a half-century on from his last visit.

Hemingway liked to nurse a drink. It can seem difficult to find a bar in any touristy quarter anywhere that does not proclaim him as one of its more famous frequenters. The man’s fondness for spreading his custom is often mocked – be it by a bar on Plaza Santa Ana in Madrid that guarantees its clients they are in the one bar where Hemingway certainly did not drink. Or here in Pamplona, where a “Hemingway Pizza” joint waves a red flag to ardent literary pilgrims and cooks in soft mockery with its buffalo mozzarella.

Gangs of young Spaniards, Australians, Englanders and others flock in on buses in a parade of bravado, combining surfing holidays in San Sebastian and crossborder Biarittz with the running of the bulls. As they get set for an eight-day street orgy of wine-bathing and over-consumption of sangria, some portly gents arrive as leisurely guests of the government of Navarra’s office of culture and tourism.

While the energetic young ones don Daz-whiteness T-shirt and trouser outfits and tie red cravats around their necks and feel part of a history bigger and even crazier than their over-enthusiastic selves, the old chaps are thoughtfully decapitating decent cigars and getting ready to roll on down to the unlikely talent show.

All the finalists grind down through the streets to the central plaza. They are now fully in character, all beards and bellies, and must perform for a while as the celebrated writer.

They charge past tattooed young hedonists on Interrail passes just finished their first-year exams. They cut through stunning Spanish youths who know this fiesta of bulls mauls the internet back into its box.

They nod to similar-aged locals whose ardour for San Fermin never flags but whose intensity of celebration now finds form in the preparation and consumption of excellent cod stew.

The product of the best bovine breeding, some of the international Hemingway doubles are veterans of qualifying heats elsewhere.

But the only heat here is the 36 degrees bombarding these greying men.

.... ... .

Sanfermines : Time Magazine 1932

Because of its historic value we thank Time Magazine for publishing this article about the Sanfermines in Iruñea from back in 1932:

Animals: Pamplona's Encierros

Monday, Jul. 11, 1932

For 51 weeks of the year the capital of Navarra is a sleepy little Spanish city where half-naked children play in the narrow streets and café waiters doze under the arcades of the broad, quiet Plaza de la Constitucíon. But in the second week of July, Pamplona becomes bull-mad, its streets and plaza are full of snuffing, rushing bulls. Hotels and rooming houses overflow with visitors from Madrid, Bilbao, San Sebastian, with tourists from St. Jean-de-Luz, Biarritz and Paris. Peasants from miles around sleep in wagons, in the fields, or do not sleep at all. For four days from 6 a. m. until long after midnight sleep is next to impossible while Pamplona celebrates the Fiesta of San Fermín, its patron saint. There are bullfights, street dancing, parades of huge grotesque figures, much drinking of strong Spanish wine. But by far the most exciting ceremony—one which takes place only at Pamplona—is the encierro (driving of the bulls).

Soon after dawn the first day of the fiesta this week, hundreds of youths gathered at the edge of town near the railroad station. Men climbed upon six big cages, reached down and opened them. Out walked six bulls, blinking in the sunlight. They were strong, lithe, handsome, each branded with the mark of Don Ernesto Blanco. They looked around, uncertain what to do, until from the crowd of youths came a yell: "Hah! Hah! . . . Toro!" The bulls lowered their heads, charged the crowd. The crowd took to its heels, the bulls stampeding in pursuit.

Through the narrow streets rushed the yelling rabble of boys and young men, while women cheered from the safety of windows. From every doorway came male recruits to swell the throng. Across the city they ran, the foremost bull not three paces behind the last man. At the plaza the path of the encierro is marked by fences, behind which hundreds of tourists and visitors watched. A few, carried away by the excitement, vaulted the fence, joined the runners. Occasionally a runner fell, lay still while the bulls, their eyes on the moving mass, pounded over them. From the plaza the chase poured into another small street, then men & bulls made one mad rush for the entrance of the bull ring.

The gate is far too small to let all through at once. Those who could not get in fell to the ground. Men piled upon men, bulls leaped over a human wall and charged snorting into the ring. There they found men waving coats, shirts, rags—anything that remotely resembled a matador's cape. The bulls charged here & there. Sometimes a novice held his bull's attention, executed several passes. Sometimes he went down with a horn wound in his leg.

Into this bedlam now trotted a bunch of steers. The bulls charged, goring the steers at first but gradually making friends with them, quieting down in the company of fellow cattle. Then the steers led the bulls out to pens under the arena.

The failed to mention anything regarding the Basque identity of this tradition, but at least they did mention Navarra and not just Spain.

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Bulls and Hemingway

In this article published by Time Magazine you will get some basic information about the main festivity in Euskal Herria, the Sanfermines in Iruñea:

The Running of the Bulls

Randy James

As they have each July for centuries, the narrow, cobblestone streets of Pamplona, Spain, are thundering with the sound of charging bulls. The weeklong annual celebration originated as a religious festival to honor St. Fermin, the patron saint of this small city in Spain's northern Basque region. Today the festival attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world, many of whom are drawn to its world-famous encierro, or running of the bulls, which begins July 7 and was made famous outside Spain by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 classic The Sun Also Rises.

The running of the bulls began as a way to move bulls from Pamplona's corral to its bullfighting ring. The animals would run the roughly half-mile stretch as children and adults herded them with shouts and sticks. The practice may date back as far as the 13th century, but it is known to have continued virtually uninterrupted since 1592, when the festival was moved from September to July. People are thought to have joined the herd sometime in the 1800s.

Nowadays, thousands of participants from around the world dash through Pamplona's streets trailed by charging bulls. Thousands more watch from safe nooks and balconies along the route, and spectators can also follow the events on national TV. Every morning from July 7 to 14, hordes of daredevils gather in a historic section of the city, many dressed in traditional garb and carrying rolled-up newspapers to swat the bulls if necessary. They sing a traditional homage to St. Fermin, asking him to guide them through the run. After two small rockets are fired, six bulls are released (along with a herd of steers), and the chase is on. The event generally takes just a few minutes.

As one might imagine, running with an angry, half-ton bull on your heels is not a particularly safe pastime. Since 1924, 14 people have been killed at the St. Fermin festival; the last to be fatally gored was a 22-year-old American, Matthew Tassio, in 1995. Witnesses said Tassio was knocked to the ground by a bull, then got up again and was struck by a second animal — a violation of the axiom that runners should remain on the ground if they get knocked down. Many people are injured each year, by both the animals and the crush of sprinters frantically making their way to the bullfighting arena on slippery cobblestones. Observers say foreigners — especially, for some reason, Americans — are most likely to be injured. "Americans come here with the image of The Sun Also Rises and just don't realize how dangerous it is and how easy it is to trip up," Daniel Ross, an American vice consul in Spain, told the New York Times after Tassio's accident.

Another factor fueling injuries in Pamplona is alcohol. As Hemingway chronicled, the festival is awash in wine and sangria, and runners partake copiously during long nights of partying. Participating in the run while tipsy is against the festival's rules, but violations are common. Another oft broken requirement is that all runners be at least 18 years of age. Many Spaniards were outraged to see televised images of a smiling 10-year-old boy dashing through the streets of Pamplona in 2007. The boy's mother was horrified as well; her ex-husband, who took the youngster to the festival, lost his visitation rights and was fined $200.

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Anchovy Veto to Continue

This may sound like bad news to many but we agree that the stock needs to be replenished to make sure we do not really regret it in the future:

Anchovy veto gets year's extension on Gulf of Biscay

Staff

Before the ruling of the committed, the ban - which was due to be in force until 30th June 2009 - will be automatically extended. Basque fishermen say the decision represents "a massive blow for the fleet."

The EU's Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries confirmed on Monday the recent report by The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea which recommended that the current ban on anchovy-fishing currently in force in the Cantabrian Sea be maintained for another year, taking it up to July 2010.

In line with the ruling of the committee, which supports the view that there are still insufficient numbers of anchovies in the sea, the veto - originally in force until the end of June 2009 - will be automatically extended.

"According to the scientific verdict, the current bio-mass of anchovies is at 21,270 tonnes," in other words, at a level inferior to 24,000 tonnes, the minimum quantity at which the European Commission considers fishing to be permissible.

"As a consequence, the ban on anchovy fishing should remain until further reports indicate that the bio-mass has once again risen above the 24,000 mark."

Sources indicate that the next scientific report on the state of the fishing-ground will be published in June 2010.

Basque fishermen

Basque fishermen confirmed that the decision represented "a massive blow for the fleet" which were hoping to be able to go out fishing. Secretary for the Biscay Brotherhood Federation, Aurelio Bilbao, reiterated that the veto is already in its fifth year and was now becoming intolerable.

The note was published at EiTB.

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Festivities in Lekeitio

This note was published at EiTB:

San Pedro festival, Lekeitio

Euskadi.net

Festivities kick off on Sunday 28th June until Wednesday 1st July and will include Basque dancing, traditional music and extra activities such as pelota.

Kaxarranka, Kilin-Kala and Aurresku de Mujeres are traditional Basque dances well-known among the Basques. San Pedro's festivity is the most important day in June. It is celebrated on the 29th and starts with the High Mass followed by San Pedro's procession, which leaves from the church of Santa María and proceeds along the streets as far as the harbour. It is here where an unusual ceremony known as Kilin-Kala is held. The procession members bear a statue of the Saint that they bend over the water. The ritual is thought to be favourable for fishing. The local street band accompanies the bearers.

Next, "dantzaris" (typical Basque dancers) perform the celebrated Kaxarranka. A man dances on a large chest or "kutxa" carried on eight fishermen's shoulders. The performance involves three parts: a "Zortziko", a "Fandango" and an "Arin-Arin". The dancing takes place first in the port, under the image of San Pedro. Then people walk down the streets of the town passing by the house of the current fishermen guild president, the main square and the Town Hall accompanied by the sound of the "txistu" (Basque flute), the tabor and the kettledrum.

At noon, classic Aurresku de Mujeres (women's aurresku) takes place in the town's main square. In the evening, the popular "tamborrada" (drums parade) marches down the streets.

Next day is the turn of "San Pedro Txiki". Musical performances are to be found aplenty. The local street band will offer a show under the image of San Pedro followed by an open-air dance at night in Tala - near the breakwater. At 11pm the local street band will set out on a short trip from Tala to the Town Hall stairs.

On 1st July an open-air dance is scheduled to take place between Tortola and Beheko Kale Streets before the image of the Saint.

More activities have been arranged for the occasion, such as children's workshops, cesta punta and pelota mano pelota games, and hot chocolate tasting.

Lekeitio is a great spot to spend your holidays, don't miss it if you ever get a chance.

.... ... .

A Trip to Béarn

This article was published at France Today:

Le Béarn: A Foray into France Profonde

Judy Fayard


When Henri IV succeeded to the throne of France in 1589, he was king of Béarn and Navarre. Knowing that his proud people would not relish being absorbed by the French, he declared to them: "I am not giving Béarn to France. I am giving France to Béarn."

One of candidate Francois Bayrou's most astute moves in France's recent presidential campaign was to meet the press while riding a tractor in the fields of his native Béarn. Those photos struck a deep chord with millions of voters-representing the reassuring stability of an idealized pastoral and agricultural France profonde in the face of an uncertain globalized future.

In many ways, the idealized image is true: the flatlands are rich with fields of wheat and corn, and in the mountains some farmers are still plow with horses and and harvest hay by hand. But the region is also

Béarn today is the larger half of the département of Pyrénées-Atlantique, shared with the Pays Basque to the west. It's a lush land of a thousand different shades of green, pierced by deep valleys and gaves-rushing rivers highly prized by fishermen for their salmon and trout.

The Béarnais share many other things besides their département with their Basque cousins, including the béret, which was in fact originally Béarnais, and jambon de Bayonne, first developed in Salies-de-Béarn by curing ham with salt from the town's springs.

And, even more than for the Basque country, the defining feature of Béarn is the stunning vista of the snow-capped Pyrénées, filling the southern horizon like a majestic battlement wall. The mountains partially account for the legendarily independent character of the Béarnais, somewhat mellowed by a mild, almost Méditerranean climate that also-witness those verdant valleys-gets a lot of rain, especially in the spring.

The Béarnais language, a variant of the langue d'oc, is still spoken by many and is being taught to schoolchilden once more. And like their beloved Henry IV, "Lou Nouste Henric," the Bearnais have a well-established appreciation for their hearty southwestern food and regional wines-sweet or dry white Jurançon, rosé de Béarn, Béarn-Bellocq, Madiran and white Pacherenc, also both sweet and dry.

"Béarnais baptism": garlic and wine

Pau, the regional capital, is perched on a cliff over the wide Gave de Pau, with an unparalleled view of the mountains from the terrace of the Boulevard des Pyrénées. The narrow cobbled streets of the old quarter lead to the château, an almost cartoonlike hodge-podge of a castle begun by the Vicomte de Béarn Gaston Phébus in the 14th century and meddled with by just about every sovereign who followed. Like the city itself, it's full of beguiling, low-key charm.

Henri IV was born in the château in 1553, the son of Henri de Bourbon and Jeanne d'Albret. On his father's side, he was directly descended from Louis IX, Saint Louis. His maternal grandfather was Henri II d'Albret, a rough and ready bon vivant, and his grandmother Marguerite d'Angoulême, sister of François Ier, was an intellectual and poet who wrote the Tales of the Heptaméron, inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron. When Henri was born, his grandfather gave him a "Béarnais baptism"-rubbing the infant's lips with garlic and a drop of Jurançon wine.

Henri's cradle was the shell of a giant tortoise, a curiosity thereafter displayed beneath a pyramid of lances holding a gold knight's helmet replete with white plumes. Given the quirky look of bemusement on the dozens of statues of him strewn around the château, Henri might have found the tortoise-shell shrine a bit over the top.

But the rest of the castle is worth the price of admission, including a grandiose dining room table that seats 100 guests, and rooms opulently refurnished in the 19th century under Napoléon III and Louis Philippe, both of whom were anxious to establish their connections to the direct descendant of Saint Louis.

It was also in the 19th century that Pau became known as la ville anglaise, a fashionable health resort for wealthy English folk. That notoriety earned the city a bevy of elegant English villas, the first golf course on the European continent, and horse-breeding and fox-hunting traditions still alive today.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts offers an eclectic collection-El Greco, Breughel, Rubens, Zurbarán, Degas's "The Cotton Exchange in New Orleans" plus local contemporary works-and the small Musée Bernadotte is the former home of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, one of Napoléon's maréchals, who became King of Sweden in 1818, founding the dynasty that reigns today and making this modest Béarnais city the birthplace of two kings.

A futurist complex in la France profonde

Perhaps a better base for forays into the countryside, though, is Orthez, lively but smaller and easier to negotiate. It's an authentic Béarnais town, the home of Jeanne d'Albret, whose former manor house now houses a small museum of Protestantism in Béarn. The formidable Jeanne was a devout Protestant who imposed Calvinism on her realm and on her son, Henri IV, until he bartered his faith for the crown of Catholic France (in his famous phrase, "Paris is well worth a Mass"). The main street in front of Jeanne's house leads, on one end, to the "Château" Moncade-an imposing 13th-century tower with a panoramic view-and on the other to the fortified Vieux Pont.

Between Pau and Orthez lies Lacq, and a modern-day tale. Until the mid 20th century, Béarn was an economic backwater and rural life was harsh. In 1951, the largest deposit of natural gas in western Europe was discovered here. Within a few years the immense gas plant at Lacq brought in thousands of workers, jobs and wealth to the entire region and spawned a sprawling industrial complex that looks like a futuristic city from another planet.

A few kilometers and a world away, Salies-de-Bearn (pronounced SaLEES) sits atop the salt springs that gave it name and fortune. The crystallized salt was used for preserving food, notably jambon de Bayonne, and the springs-seven times saltier than the sea, it's said-still supply the town's thermal baths. Delightful Salies calls itself the "Venice of Béarn," since the Saleys river meanders through, bordered by balconied houses on stilts.

Home of the béret

Nearby Sauveterre-de-Béarn is a stop on the pilgrimage route to Compostela. The name comes from salva terra, referring to hamlets founded by monasteries as safe havens for fugitives and wanderers. It's still an appealing place to wander, past stone houses topped by steep, slightly turned-up Béarnais roofs made of red tiles called picons. Only half of the 12th-century Vieux Pont still stands, site of a legendary trial by divine judgment: In 1170, the widow of Gaston V de Béarn, accused of murdering her newborn child, was thrown off the bridge bound hand and foot; she floated safely to shore, and so was "proven" innocent.

Tiny Navarrenx is surrounded by the remains of its medieval walls, considered a perfect example of 16th-century fortifications. It too is a stop on the pilgrim route (also a good café stop on the route de tourisme), and the site of the annual World Salmon Fishing Championships. Or so they are called.

Red tile roofs give way to the gray slate of mountain towns like Oloron-Sainte-Marie, where a chocolate factory fills the whole town with its aroma. The béret Béarnais is made here, and so are Artiga "Basque" linens. But the star attraction is the superb 12th-century portal of the cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Sculpted in Pyrénéen marble, the astonishing tympan portrays Biblical and allegorical figures along with fishermen (toting very big fish), hunters, farmers and cheesemakers. On either side, a mounted King Constantine treads on the head of Paganism, and a monster devours a man.

Eco-disaster in paradise

Straight south of Oloron, the Aspe valley is deep and narrow, with sheep and hay meadows and exhilarating views at every bend in the road. Villages pop up here and there: Sarrance, with a pilgrimage church and cloister; Bedous, where a turnoff to leads down to the river and a perfect picnic ground beside a limpid salmon pool. Near Accous there's a small aluminum factory owned by the Japanese company Toyal. It's incongruous, and recently the cause of controversy: When the owners announced they would build another factory at Lacq, local congressman Jean Lasalle, fearing the old one might close after the new one opened (only 43 miles away, but out of his district), went on a hunger strike to put the kibosh on the new project. Even more bizarre, he seems to have won.

Farther along, a turn off the main road winds up to Lescun, a flower-decked stone village with a café and a plain stone church with an ornate Baroque altar. The village sits in a majestic cirque of needle rocks, but climb a little higher above the church for the valley's most breathtaking view.

Sadly, all is not idyllic in this mountain paradise. The two-lane Aspe Valley road is a pleasure on weekends, but weekdays it's heavy with truck traffic crossing from Spain through the Somport tunnel. In mid-June a truck carrying chemicals went off the road near the Lescun turnoff, spilling thousands of gallons of toxic liquid into the gave, destroying fish and vegetation along a four-mile stretch. Farther down, the river eventually diluted the chemical disaster, but for the affected segment the river and its banks are closed off indefinitely.

Heading back, a detour north of Oloron will take you through the hilly vineyards of Jurançon, a beautiful drive on peaceful country roads where you can stop for a tasting wherever you see a dégustation sign. One great bet is the Château de Rousse, near La Chapelle de Rousse almost directly south of Pau. There, on the former hunting grounds of Henri IV, the Labat family produces award-winning Jurançons on steeply terraced vineyards. Geneviève Labat graciously shows visitors around, and a chat about the beauty of her garden leads inevitably to talk of rain, and the generous quantities of it in the region. "Ah, oui," she says with twinkling eyes and musical accent, "in Béarn we don't lack for water...or for wine."

We guess profonde means "not really", and taking the very first paragraph as our cue we can say that the author knows that Béarn is not quite a part of France. If you do some research you will find out that Béarn is actually part of Nabarra (Navarre in English).

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Txalaparta and Basquetronic

This article was published at The Guardian:

Crystal Fighters (No 572)

This east London five-piece bring traditional Basque folk music screaming and kicking into the 21st century by fusing it with heavy dance rhythms and synthesisers

Paul Lester

Hometown: East London.

The lineup: Laure (vocals), Sebastian (lead vocals), Mimi (vocals), Graham (programming, txalaparta), Gilbert (synths, txalaparta).

The background: Have you ever wondered what would happen if you went back, say, 100 years and dropped a ton of modern recording equipment plus a copy of Mixmag into an obscure hamlet in the heart of the Basque region of Spain and left the villagers, steeped as you'd expect in folk music, to their own devices? No? Fair enough. To be honest, we hadn't given it much thought ourselves until we heard Crystal Fighters, the third great "Crystal" band of the century so far after Crystal Castles and Crystal Stilts. A five-piece comprising three gentlemen – two English and one American – and two Spanish girls, Crystal Fighters take the notion of melding folk and funk to another level. Hearing them bash their txalapartas (instruments made out of wood or stone) in time to programmed beats as bowel-loosening basslines burble underneath and voices shout in euphoric disharmony over the top, you do indeed feel as though you've wandered into a rave in a forest in early 20th-century rural Galdakao. And, oh look, there's a gimlet-eyed peasant, grinning as he leafs through a copy of that dance bible that we airdropped in earlier, wondering what the Spanish is for "subsonic boom-bap".

What Crystal Fighters do isn't a million miles away from Crystal Castles-meet-CSS. Their single Xtatic Truth has the ecstatic rush and mental electronic FX of the former and the excitable unison vocals of the latter, with the extra dimension you get from five members banging away on those txalapartas. "We make fast dance music with Basque instruments, synthesisers and our voices," they explain, adding that they fuse heavy dance rhythms with traditional folk melodies and chants gleaned from old Basque sheet music. "We're interested in using this music from a small community that's been handed down through generations. There are lots of Basque dances that are 200-300 years old and we use their eerie melodies, and play around with them until we find the bit that resonates most with us, which might be a two-bar or two-note phrase."

It all sounds simple enough, and it is, until you get to the part where they attempt to explain where they get the ideas for their songs from. Apparently, singer Laure was going through her late grandfather's possessions somewhere deep in Basque country when she came across an unfinished opera he'd been writing called Crystal Fighters. "The faded manuscript and the prophetic prose contained within quickly became an obsession," she said. Now her band are trying to bring some of the quality of his wild, dishevelled poetry to bear on London's trendy indie-dance scene. So far, so good: they recorded a live session for Radio 1, their live shows are becoming the stuff of legend and their online hit I Love London was voted one of the top 100 records of 2008 by Mixmag – the only unreleased entry in the list, ahead of the likes of Toddla T and Bloc Party.

The buzz: "Instead of sucking at the teat of dance music's rinsed-out tech boobies, they play a carnivalesque amalgam of all the best bits of ghetto house, punk, Latin electro, South American and Basque folk traditions."

The truth: It's positively Basquetronic.

Most likely to: Advertise txalapartas on Basque TV.

Least likely to: Go on a package tour with Crystal Castles and Crystal Stilts.

What to buy: Xtatic Truth is released by Kitsuné on 6 July, followed by I Love London later this year.

File next to: Buraka Som Sistema, CSS, Django Django.

Links: myspace.com/crystalfighters

Tomorrow's new band: Mickey Gang.

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Mycologist's Paradise

This article was published at EiTB:

Mushrooms and Truffles

Igor Lansorena

Basque cuisine offers a great variety of recipes using mushrooms, making them a much-valued ingredient.

The Basque Country is a country of dedicated mycologists, or mushroom experts, as well as mushroom eaters, even though until several decades ago only very few species were eaten, out of the countless possibilities that can be found in woody and moist surroundings such as ours.

By keeping to the knowledge about the most valued mushrooms in Basque cuisine through the variety of recipes that our chefs offer, one can thus avoid long hikes in search of mushrooms as well as the risk of not distinguishing between edible and poisonous species.

Today our recipe books include varieties that until very recently were disdained, and this allows one to sample fresh mushrooms all year round.

Mushrooms are usually preferred grilled, baked, or scrambled with eggs, these methods being the best in order to appreciate the delicate flavors and textures of the different varieties. Perhaps the most exquisite is the "perretxiku" (lyophylum georgii), so fragile that it will not cope with sauces and is usually eaten scrambled with eggs. Lightly fried and then carefully blended with eggs, "ontto beltzak" (boletus edulis) are highly regarded.

The grill and the oven offer the perfect preparation for other widespread species such as "gibelurdinak", mottled or silvery (clitocybe nebularis and geotropa). Whether grilled, served with eggs, as a stuffing or a garnish, in shish-kebabs with meat, as a base for sauces, or even raw, the most commonly used mushrooms in Basque cuisine often include "senderuelas" (marasmus oreades), "barbuda" (corprinus comatus), "champiñon" (psalliota campestris), "pie azul" (rhodopasillus nudus/saevus), "niscalo" (lactarius deliciosus), and a long list of miscellaneous possibilities that can only depend on locations, time of harvest, and on the imagination of the gatherer.

It is also necessary to mention truffles, which are found in Araba, specifically in the area of Campezo, which, though not always considered by traditional cuisine, have incorporated themselves vigorously into modern cooking. In addition to scrambled egg, truffles have become one of the most luxurious additions to sauces, creams, etc. in Basque cuisine.

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Araba Euskaraz '09

This note was published at EiTB:

'Araba Euskaraz' kicks off in Oion

Nora García

The town of Oion celebrates Araba Euskaraz 2009 under the slogan "Hauspoari eraginez". This year San Vicente Ikastola hosts this festival of Euskara (Basque language).

The aim of this festival is to gather funds in order to provide economic needs and an infrastructure for the ikastola that hosts Araba Euskaraz.

This year San Vicente Ikastola will be the host of Araba Euskaraz. This centre started working 30 years ago and nowadays it has around 300 pupils and 29 teachers.

The money collected in this festivity will be used to expand this centre's nursery, to improve the dining hall service and also to create a new meeting hall.

Araba Euskaraz is expected to be attended by the Basque Government Education councillor Isabel Celaa, Basque Government Culture councillor, Blanca Urgell and Alava General Deputy, Xabier Agirre.

The song for Araba Euskaraz 2009 has been composed by the famous Basque clowns Pirritx, Porrotx and Marimototx, who will also perform during this festival. Besides, there will also be concerts offered by groups such as Deabruak Teilatuetan, Nora Ezean, Ohiu e Hiperakusia, among others.

As part of the celebration, there will be several events scheduled in four different areas: Bertsolaris, Basque dances, sports for children, rural sports exhibitions and street animation.

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Cod "Pil-Pil"

This recipe comes to you courtesy of EiTB:

Cod "pil-pil"

Igor Lansorena

Cod is cooked in many different ways but there is one more remarkable than the others, "pil-pil".

Cod “pil-pil" is without doubt the most popular way to cook Cod. There are several traditional fiestas where people cook cod “pil-pil” in crowded contests.

To cook cod this way for four, you need four pieces of cod, four cloves of garlic, virgin olive oil and four dried chili peppers.

Leave the cod to soak the previous day changing the water three times. Cook the cod in a saucepan with plenty of water until it starts boiling.

Remove the saucepan from the stove and remove the cod from the saucepan with care, drain it and place on a towel.

In an earthenware pot, fry the chopped garlic and half the chili cut in small slices in plenty of oil.

When the garlic is brown, remove and put the slices of cod in the pot, separated and with the skin side facing up.

Shake the pot constantly in circular movements over a medium heat adding a bit of the water used to cook the cod.

As the pot is shaken, the sauce will thicken to a jelly-like texture. At this point the dish is ready to serve.

Decorate the cod with the browned garlic and the unused chili.

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Ibilaldia 2009

This article was published at EiTB:

Ibilaldia 2009 kicks off in the Basque town of Galdakao

Nora García

Eguzkibegi ikastola in Galdakao organized the 31st edition of Ibilaldia. This year, people will be able to enjoy along seven different areas children workshops, bertsolaris, Basque dances, a hot-hair balloon and concerts.

Ibilaldia is a festival in favour of the Basque language organized each year by a different ikastola (Basque school). It is Bizkaia's version of the pro-Ikastola, pro-Basque language events that take place annually in the Basque Country, normally on a Sunday, in order to raise money for ikastolas.

Ibilaldia was celebrated in 1978 for the first time and it was organized by a Basque school in Getxo. It is similar to Gipuzkoa's "Kilometroak", Araba's "Araba Euskaraz", Nafarroa's "Nafarroa Oinez" and Iparralde's "Herri Urrats".

Ibilaldia 2009 kicks off today at 09:00 and will finish at 19:00, under the slogan "Gerizpetik Eguzkibegi". Eguzkibegi Ikastola was in charge to organize it this year. After having paid a non-compulsory admission at the entrance of any price you deem fit for the event, you walk around a carefully planned circuit of the village or town while enjoying typical Basque traditions. People will be able to enjoy along seven different areas several activities like children workshops, bertsolaritza (Basque Country's "spontaneous poetry"), Basque dances, a hot-hair balloon and concerts (Biok, Sagarroi…), among others.

Eguzkibegi Ikastola was created in 1966 by some parents. It has more than 600 pupils nowadays and they expect to raise enough money to enlarge the school and improve some of the infrastructures.

There will be bus service available from 09:00 to 19:00 from Bilbao to Galdakao round trip.

One issue that we would like to point out is that the head of the Ministry of Education in the Basque Autonomous Community, Isabel Celaá, refused to assist to the Ibilaldia celebration. This ministry is in charge of the Basque language education and her decision is part of the punitive strategy designed in Madrid against the Basque language, an strategy that is being implemented by the Spaniard that was appointed by the central government to rule the province, an individual by the name of Francisco Javier López.

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Al Erquiaga

This note was published at EiTB:

Al Erquiaga, a Basque dreamer and doer

Igor Lansorena

Al Erquiaga, born in Boise of Basque heritage, is one of the founders of Boise's successful Basque festival Jaialdi as well as one of the first Oinkari dancers.

Boise, capital city of the state of Idaho, does not have the largest Basque population outside the Basque Country. However, this remote city is home to the most active Basque community of the Diaspora.

Downtown Boise features a vibrant section known as the "Basque block" that includes the Basque Center Euzkaldunak, the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, the Gernika bar, the Leku Ona restaurant and hotel and the fronton. We should also not forget the Oinkari Basque dancers, Boiseko Gazteak, the Basque choir, Boiseko Ikastola or the band 'Amuma Says No'.

As Boisean researcher Gloria Totorikagüena describes in her book Boise Basques, the Basque community is full of "dreamers and doers", men and women who at some point decided to build a small Basque Country in this little-known place. Al Erquiaga, born in Boise, is one of those dreamers and doers who helped to lay the foundations of today's successful Basque community.

Born in Boise, Al's father came to the United States from the Bizkaian village of Ispaster in 1920. Like many other Basques, he had a relative who had already migrated to the United States - an older brother was here - and he knew he had no future in the Basque Country as his eldest brother was going to inherit the family farmhouse.

"It was hard work, but he never complained about it. He came in 1920 the first time and married my mother in 1934. I was born in 1935. And he herded sheep until after I was born, even after they were married for a year", Al says in an exclusive interview for eitb.com in Boise. "It was hard work and he realized it was no work for a family, of course, so then he went into farming", Al adds.

Raised on a farm, Al was brought up among Basque farmers and stories of the Basque Country. "We had a lot of Basque friends, other farmers, and when they were over to visit, it would be late in the evening, I would sit and listen to them talk. I liked to hear them tell their stories, about here or back home, I really enjoyed the stories", Al remembers.

Cultural phenomenon

In 1960, Al, and another seven Boise Basques, toured Europe for three weeks and then stayed in the Basque Country for almost two months. There, they met the Oinkari dancers from Donostia-San Sebastian. "We became very good friends with them. We went to their rehearsals, they taught us dances and (we) went touring with them in France," Al says.

"The best thing you can do is to go back to America and start a dance group called Oinkaris", the Basque dancers told Al and his seven friends. "On the way home we talked on the airplane about doing it, we got back home and said, let's do it," Al says.

And that is how the Oinkari Basque dancers from Boise were born. Nearly half a century later, they are part of Basque-American heritage and more than 800 people have performed not only in Boise or Idaho but also in many places all over the United States and the Basque Country.

Holiday Basque Festival

Nobody thought that the Oinkaris would grow to become the cultural phenomenon they are now. Neither did they when they started NABO, a federation of North American Basque Organizations that sustain Basque culture.

In the early 1970s, Al was member of the board of an organization called the Basque Studies Center, which organized a Holyday Basque festival thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Al, who was among the organizers of the festival, realized he was having a hard time contacting other Basque clubs in the United States.

"The problem that we run into was that we wanted everybody in the United States to know about it but we did not know anyone's names or contacts. The hardest part is we couldn't get hold of anybody, there was no communication. We need an organization, some ways to communicate," Al recounts.

"We met in Reno. We contacted three clubs of Reno, San Francisco, Bakersfield, seven or eight clubs. We got together, and that is how NABO was started," Al adds.

Jaialdi

Jaialdi, the international Basque festival held in Boise every five years, was also born out of the dreams of Al Erquiaga. Having met Jokin Intxausti from the Basque Government at a NABO meeting in 1985, they came up with the possibility of producing an international festival to promote Basque culture. Two years later it was a reality.

More than 500 volunteers worked on the first Jaialdi. Significant numbers of members from the Basque Diaspora attended and the festival was a great success. Since then, the Jaialdi is held every five years and thousands of Basques and non-Basques meet in Boise in this celebration of Basque culture, probably a source of inspiration for many other dreamers and doers just like Al Erquiaga.

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Basque Rustic Cuisine

This article was published at The Australian:

Basque in rustic glory

Christine McCabe

I WAS introduced to Basque cuisine a lifetime ago in, of all places, Reno, Nevada, at a small family-run restaurant where patrons crowded at long, communal tables tucking into steaming bowls of lamb stew.

In food-savvy San Francisco, Basque-born chef Gerald Hirigoyen has given his native cuisine a fresh, west coast twist at the acclaimed Piperade, one of this city's must-visit restaurants.

Set two blocks from the waterfront, wedged between the Embarcadero and the Financial District in a renovated warehouse, this charming eatery, opened seven years ago to rave reviews and a chef-of-the-year gong, is a long way from the humble shepherds' fare of northern Nevada or indeed the Basque country.

But Hirigoyen pays homage in the form of a large shepherd's table, anchor to the restaurant's rustic, but stylish, fittings that include an oversized clock face and a chandelier fashioned from used wine bottles.

Lunch starts late on a Friday here. Barely anyone tips up before 2pm, giving we famished tourists a substantial head start. Our French waitress is all smiles and clearly knows her way around the Spanish and California-centric wine list (where Basque wines are a feature), recommending a cava to start: d'Abbatis Brut Nature, Catalunya 2005 ($US10 ($14) a glass) made from 30-year-old parellada vines.

It's the perfect accompaniment to our entrees or tipiak (small plates): a sensational house-cured bacalao ($US12), salt cod topped with small, silken oysters and a drizzle of lemon creme fraiche, and a grande white bean salad served with boquerones (Spanish anchovies), fresh herbs and crumbled, hard-boiled eggs ($US11).

Our tipiak triumvirate is made replete with a wonderful, salty-licious terrine ($US12) of ham and sheep's-milk cheese finished with a crispy, caramelised crust and dressed with aged sherry. A perfect tapas dish designed to tickle the appetite and the thirst, never a bad thing when one is en vacance.

As the cava evaporates at an alarming rate, folk begin trickling into our warehouse bolthole, drawing up to linen-dressed tables lined with festive red, white and blue runners. You get the feeling this a favourite luncheon hideaway for city folk, set on a broad, leafystreet (there's even parking), with a relaxed, urbane atmosphere.

The mains, or handiak (big plates), are a slightly smaller, but just as tempting, selection of Basque-influenced dishes. The restaurant's namesake seems compulsory for first-timers: piperade ($US17), a traditional Basque concoction of sauteed peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic topped with serrano ham and a poached egg. It's simple but elegant, the Coco Chanel of stews. Just as light on the hips is another signature Hirigoyen dish, a braised seafood stew ($US20) of salmon, prawns, mussels, cockles and squid.

To wash down our mains we plunder the Spaniards again: a Vionta Albarino 2007 ($US10 a glass), a rather fashionable variety Stateside, and a Volver Tempranillo La Mancha (also $US10).

By mid-afternoon the small restaurant has filled with a cheerful local crowd giving it the cosy ambience of a corner cafe. There are zero tourists; one imagines they're loitering on the waterfront paying premium for Dungeness crab while missing this quintessential San Francisco dining experience.

Make a day of it by beginning at the nearby Embarcadero Ferry Plaza, exploring the wonderful food shops in this elegantly restored city landmark (artisan chocolates, cheeses and bread are specialities) before jumping a heritage trolley (or tram), reminiscent of Moscow, Milan, even Melbourne, along the waterfront. Then enjoy a stroll to Piperade if for no other reason than to order dessert. Hirigoyen's orange blossom beignets ($US8) are recommended in almost every food guide to the city, with good reason. They are divine.

Having lived in San Francisco for more than 25 years (and now operating two restaurants, including a casual tapas eatery in North Beach), Hirigoyen is firmly entrenched as one of city's leading food identities, his simple dishes a celebration of Basque tradition and Californian innovation.

He has said he doesn't want to be labelled a Spanish chef but enjoys integrating different flavours while drawing on his culinary roots.

And there's something very San Franciscan about his food: fresh ingredients prepared simply in relaxed surrounds where, with a little imagination, one can hear the jingle of a sheep's bell on a Nevada hillside.

From this blog we express our dream that one day those who write about the Basques will finally refrain from insulting our identity by calling us Spaniards.

And just so you know, there is an active Basque community in Australia.

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The Cider House Rules

No, this has nothing to do with the one movie with the terrible actor. This is about one of the Basque Country's must cherished traditions and it comes to us via EiTB:

Cider and its rituals

Nora García

Cider is the most popular drink in Gipuzkoa. January marks the inauguration of the cider season with the opening of the cider houses.

Cider is the most popular drink in Gipuzkoa. This apple beverage may look innocent enough but its alcohol content has been known to sneak up you. It is preferably consumed within a year from its production.

The Tolosa region and particularly the town of Astigarraga and vicinity (near Donostia-San Sebastian) are a bastion of the longstanding Gipuzkoan tradition of cider making.

The process begins with a discriminating selection of apples, which are then put into a tolare (cider press). After they are crushed and pressed, the juice is poured into kupelas (wooden barrels). The juice is then fermented for about three months, when it is ready for drinking.

To enjoy cider at its best, it should be served between 13 and 15ºC. It is bottled in dark green bottles to keep the light from getting through and spoiling the fragile liquid. To serve, it is poured into a glass from a distance of 30 o 40 centimeters so that bubbles are formed as it splashes against the side of the glass, bringing out its full flavor. It is said that cider should be drunk quickly, and never left to sit in the glass too long.

The rituals of cider

January marks the inauguration of the cider season. The cider houses open their doors, beginning with the ritual probaketa, or taste test to see whether the cider is ready. A small stick called a txiri is used to poke a tiny hole in the barrel, and out comes the first trickle of cider.

Cider is typically accompanied by a traditional meal comprising a cod omelet, a thick charcoal broiled T-bone steak or some sort of fish prepared in sauce. Cheese and walnuts are the perfect way to finish off an evening at the cider house.

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Visiting Errioxa

This article published at The Times contains a pearl of historic truth, Errioxa (known as Rioja) is actually a Basque province, here you have it:

On the trail of a fine rioja by way of the annual wine battle

David Sharrock

Spain’s most famous wine-producing region actually extends across its eponymous province into the Basque Country and Navarra, although at its centre is the historic city of Logroño, an important halt on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail.

Thousands of years ago La Rioja region was an inner sea of the Iberian Peninsula and its geography gives its wineries a distinct advantage, sheltered from the more extreme climates of its regional neighbours by mountain ranges to the north and south. The region is slowly but surely developing a wine trail, the jewel in its crown being the Marqués de Riscal Hotel, in Elciego, designed by Frank Gehry, whose rippling roof of titanium leaves reflects the colours of the landscape during the grape harvest.

While the hotel is visually stunning, the winery designed by Santiago Calatrava for the makers of Ysios rioja is perhaps a happier match with the stunning landscape.

The winery or bodega is located close to Laguardia, a fortress-like town which well reflects its name: it was originally known as Laguardia de Navarra – the Guard of Navarre.

Cars are not allowed through its medieval gates for a very good reason: beneath the narrow streets lies a honeycomb of catacombs, the original bodegas where wine was made and stored. Most lie empty, but El Fabulista is one exception where guided tours and tastings are given inside a beautiful underground vault.

Primicia is another town worthy of visit, where recent restoration work has opened up what is thought to be its oldest building, a tithe house established by the Catholic Church.

If you are very lucky you may also visit Primicia’s bodega garden, set among some of its vines with views of the mountains. I enjoyed a memorable autumnal lunch there, feasting on barbequed baby lamb chops.

Laguardia makes an ideal base for exploring the immediate area. For those of us with pockets too shallow to stay in the Marqués de Riscal – where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have rested their Hollywood heads – I recommend the Posada Mayor de Migueloa, a characterful 17th-century house in the heart of Laguardia.

For a busier nightlife head for Logroño and some of the best food in northern Spain.

The city highlight is Calle Laurel, where some 50 bars create what is known locally as the Elephant Trail.

It derives its nickname from the Spanish phrase Ir trompa – to stagger drunkenly along. Trompa is Spanish for an elephant’s trunk. On a Friday evening it makes perfect sense: you can just imagine the herd in full cry.

Don’t worry, it is all very good natured, washed down with small but frequent glasses of good rioja and accompanied by a type of tapas called pinchos, with each bar offering its own speciality.

My favourite bar is the Soriano – fantastic mushrooms. And if you think that wine tourism is simply refined sniffing and slurping then try being in Haro for its annual wine battle, held each year on June 29.

Its origins are based on a local territorial dispute but that is beside the point: thousands of litres of red wine are sprayed, poured and thrown. Be sure you are not wearing anything you value too highly.

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Inky Gourmet Treat

This delicious recipe comes to us courtesy of EiTB:

Baby squids in Getaria

Nora García

Getaria is the most characteristic fishing port in Gipuzkoa. Its narrow streets hold all the charm visitors are after, and its port is a kaleidoscope of images, lights, colours and smells.

The fishing fleet processed, although a large part of the labor of the "arrantzales" (fishermen) ends up on the grills and in the kitchens of some of the top restaurants in the Basque Country.

Grill houses line the streets but, in fact, the local speciality is the mouth-watering combination of freshly caught chipirones (baby squids) and onions, a dish known as "chipirones pelayo". The recipe has spread throughout the Basque Country, and is considered one of the true masterpieces of our cuisine. Needless to say, it should be accompanied by a glass of "Txakoli" wine, also from the town of Getaria.

Stuffed baby squids in ink sauce

Ingredients (3 servings):

24 small baby squid (best caught on a hook), 3 large onions, 2 small tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 4 cloves garlic, 2 sprigs parsley, oil and salt.

For the filling:

squid fins and arms, 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, a bit of chopped parsley, oil and salt.

Separate the head and the arms from the body. Remove the pen and the outer and inner membrane. Wash thoroughly. Cut the fins off and chop them up. The innards will come out when removing the head and arms. Very carefully remove the ink sac before discarding the innards. Dissolve the ink sac in a glass of water. Remove and discard the mouth and eyes and wash the squid again. Chop up the arms and add them to the diced fins.

Follow the same procedure for each squid. Dice the onion, garlic and parsley. Add them to the chopped up squid fins and arms and sauté the mixture in a bit of oil. Let cool. Use this mixture to fill the baby squid bodies, being careful not to stuff them too full as they will shrink while cooking. Fasten the end of each squid with a toothpick to keep the filling from falling out.

Put an earthenware casserole and with the burner on low slowly sauté the garlic, tomatoes, green pepper and parsley in the oil. After a while turn up the heat and add the baby squid. Let them cook for a few minutes until they brown a little. Add the dissolved ink, season and lower the heat to a simmer.

When the squid are tender (but not overly soft), remove them from the vegetable mixture. Press the mixture through a food mill. This dish can be accompanied by white rice or croutons.

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