In Tolosa

This gastronomic article comes to us via EITb:

So typical in Tolosa and Goierri

Visitors cannot leave Tolosa and Goierri without tasting typical Basque Beans and Steak.

Beans on Ernio Mountain

Ernio is a mountain quite familiar to most Gipuzkoans. The closest 1,000-metre peak in the spur range of the Pyrenees has become a customary hike for a number of people from the many nearby industrial towns. The ritual alubiada, or pot of beans, is often served to restore hikers' energy after their early-morning excursions.

The steep vegetable gardens and cool air of the Goierri region valleys gave rise to a delicious, thin-skinned black bean with soft; almost sweet meat called the tolosana. Beans were often grown in symbiosis with maize, much the same as in America and then harvested in autumn. The "etxekoandre" (Basque for housewife) then cooked them slowly on a wood-fired iron stove along with products from the annual pig slaughter. Today this dish can be found in several local restaurants, offering choice and quality at least as good as the most sophisticated coastal establishments.

Steak Country

Basque livestock has been venerated for ages. "Farmers look after their animals as if they were members of the family," noted Catalan traveller Mañe y Flaqué in a meticulous description of the Basque Country and Navarra one hundred and fifty years ago. Pío Baroja, in a more cynical tone, said that in order to live well here one had to be either a priest or a cow. Locally grown Basque meat holding the official Kalitatea Label of Quality or the stamp of approval from other independent stock raising associations is truly extraordinary. The vast majority of livestock feed on grassy pastures, and massive stabling is rare. This explains the reverence for the possible best cut of beef, and here the chuletón is unquestionably the ultimate in gourmet eating.

Today, this meat comes from carefully fattened cows instead of oxen, which are now bred essentially as a sport animal for competing in "idiprobak" competitions (ox superiority contests). The cuts of meat are "cured", depending on the quality and size, sometimes for over forty days. The meat is then cut into thick slabs of about a kilo each and roasted over a wood fire following a very particular technique. Tolosa has become the world capital and exporter of this difficult art.

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Gipuzkoa's Museums

This article about some of the best museums you can visit while in Gipuzkoa comes to us courtesy of EITb:

Basque Museums : three stars in Gipuzkoa

Three museums must be remarked among all the one we find in the Basque region of Gipuzkoa: the Aquarium, the Miramón Kutxaespacio Science Museum and Chillida-Leku Museum.

The Basque museum of yesterday, today and tomorrow has to be the Aquarium in Donostia-San Sebastian which stands on the rocks to one side of La Concha Bay. Ever since it opened in 1928, this museum has been visited by over 10 million people, a figure making it into one of the most popular museums in Spain.

On entering the building, we are met by the enormous skeleton of the last whale caught on the coasts of Gipuzkoa. From then on, an interesting tour explaining the naval history, fishing tackle and how boats were built rubs shoulders with one of the most impressive and best stocked aquariums (with 5,000 species) in Europe.

The star of the visit is the spectacular oceanarium, visited via a 360º methacrylate tunnel, in which we can see sharks, sting rays, turtles and a whole variety of other marine animals. By way of a complement to the Aquarium’s dedication to the sciences of the sea, the nearby Naval Museum reflects the ethnographic aspects of the Basque sea world, which takes its inspiration from the locals’ relationship with the sea.

A recent arrival on the Basque cultural scene is Chillida-Leku Museum, not far from Donostia-San Sebastian, which was conceived according to the modern idea of an open-air museum and designed to bring the visitor into close contact with art. This is "Chillida's place", a space conceived by the author himself as the live exhibition of his work. Outside, among green fields populated by hundred year-old beech trees, oaks and magnolias, stand 40 enormous iron and granite sculptures. Inside the renovated 16th century farmhouse we will find smaller works, sketches, and the author’s first sculptures. This daring creation is a place in which to take a stroll and mingle with the author’s work while trying to understand and interpret or even simply enjoy it.

Likewise in Donostia-San Sebastian is the Miramón Kutxaespacio Science Museum, a modern edifice designed to increase the visitor’s knowledge of science and new technologies. Spread over 8,000 metres, this is an interactive museum intended to simply and educationally transmit the most elementary knowledge of natural sciences. A digital planetarium and an astronomic observatory offer a view of Donostia-San Sebastian never seen before. There are also specific sections dedicated to knowledge of the earth, communication, energy, light, mechanics and other unknown scientific quantities. One of these areas is specially dedicated to children and houses interesting temporary exhibitions.

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