#2 Apparently It’s Bulking Season
The Pre Game
Mid way through our 7 hour drive to Barcelona at around 2:30, since that’s the usual lunch hour here, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. And yes - there were bathrooms there, booyah!! I sat with 3 of my teammates at a table lined with white table cloth where a large baguette was awaiting my arrival on my side plate. Typically in the US I eat mostly whole grain breads or gluten free. Growing up my mom strictly bought dark wheat bread to the point where I would sneak to my neighbors solely to ravage on their white bread and butter. Eventually, especially as I got more into sports and fitness, whole grain just became my norm with breads, pastas, and really any grain! I like to be flexible when I’m traveling but often times my belly pays the price and she (my belly) was certainly not ready for Spain nor the meal ahead.
In came our first plate, pasta! Large bowls of tomato meat sauce and cheese were placed in the center for us to decorate our individual plates. I thought, okay great a nice carb load before a game! Next, in came a big bowl of salad with tuna, onion, hard boiled egg, and tomato - fabulous, I could use some greens and protein. My tummy was full and satisfied. But oh? What is this? It’s not over yet? In came another plate stacked with a beautiful big hunk of chicken and grilled veggies on the side. The veggies were so drenched with oil they resembled me and my best friend when we went for a super cheap couples massage in college. The chicken was probably the most delicious chicken I’ve ever had in my life - the crispiness and saltiness on the outside OOOOWEEEEEE. So by now I’ve had 3 large plates, more white flour than I’ve eaten in my life, and enough oil to deep fry an elephant. And here comes the dessert! Although I was hoping for something chocolatey I guess this is where they drew the line for pre game nutrition. We got the choice of a fruit or yogurt. I had this phenomenal melon that I’ve never seen before called Piel de Sapo (Toad’s skin), or in english, since that’t not a cute translation, it’s known as the Santa Claus melon.
Four plates later and I felt like a brick house. No way could somebody knock me over on the field the next day. However, they could for sure catch me, thank goodness this is 15s. And for dinner that night - we did it all again.
While living here I have met more people studying gastronomy than I have ever met in my life. Apparently the Basque Country has a reputation for being one of the best cuisines in the world. There’s way more to this place than the perfectly crispy chicken and the overflowing plates of pasta. While I am certainly not a food connoisseur, I LOVE food, and believe that food is a huge part of the cultural experience. So here is my take on Basque food so far.
The Worst
The worst things about food in the basque country has been the price of maple syrup, the lack of peanut butter, the untraceable black beans, and the obsession with sunflower oil.
To start you need to know that my mom makes this incredible granola that everyone is obsessed with. She loves making huge batches of it and giving it out in bags to friends and family as a thank you or just as an I’m thinking about you gift. I miss my mom’s granola tremendously. She sent me over the recipe and I was on a MISSION to find every ingredient on that list. After many different grocery stores I found an unreasonably tiny 1/4 cup bottle of maple syrup for 4 Euros.
Here she is - hand for reference. She cute but she expensive.
Did I buy it? Yes. And as soon as I had my hands on that granola, I was averaging 3 bowls a day. The whole batch was gone in less than a week, along with my expensive bottle of maple syrup. Now I refuse to make it for myself because at the rate I eat that granola my whole stipend would be going towards maple syrup. Instead I’ve been choosing to spend it on my peanut butter obsession.
Now the thing is peanut butter isn’t really a thing here. They have it (thank goodness) but it’s not widely used like it is in the US. And you can totally forget about any other nut butters. The most elite nut butter I’ve ever had in the US was this chocolate quinoa crunch butter, gifted to me by my sister from The Peanut Principle (10/10 would recommend). Here I got to witness Antonela, my roommate from Argentina, trying maple syrup, pancakes, and peanut butter for the first time and I was thrilled to be a part of that. Although to my dismay, she wasn’t very impressed with the peanut butter.
All there is to say about black beans is that I simply cannot find them. They’ve got garbanzo, pinto, red, big, and white beans but for some reason the black beans are no where in sight. But, what I can’t get out of my sight is aceite de girasol (sunflower oil). I was shopping around for my almond milk and every single carton that I found had sunflower oil in it! WHY? I’d rather not have oil in my almond milk please. And then I realized if you take a peak at the ingredient list in almost any snack you’ll see sunflower oil! It’s so common that on foods without it they need to specify that it is “made without sunflower oil.” Really unsure why it’s the norm.
Basically I’ve learned how spoiled and accustomed I am to easy access of food products in US grocery stores and that not all good people like peanut butter.
The BEST
The best things about food in the Basque Country have been the Pintxos, the coffee, and the seafood. I write this as I’m sipping on my cafe con leche sin lactosa at my favorite outdoor cafe spot sampling a quail egg pintxo I’ve been eyeing up for weeks. Pintxos are these adorable perfectly sized snackies to order with your drink at pretty much any bar or restaurant. They can be a tortilla slice (tortilla here is a potato and egg pie sort of thing that sometimes has different meats or cheeses), a sliced baguette with a fun topping, a half sandwich, olives and sardines on a toothpick, croquettes (honestly unsure what is in these all I know is they are fried and delicious), shrimp, octopus, the options are quite exciting. Now again, let’s remember that my body doesn’t do well with white flour - I strongly believe there is white flour in every single one of the Pintxo’s, but that’s a price I have paid and am willing to pay for the ~culinary experience~.
Another bodily sacrifice I choose to make almost daily is for the coffee. About a year ago I took this microbiome gut test thing where they take a sample of your poo and tell you what foods you should avoid and unfortunately coffee was on my big no no list. In the US I started drinking matcha lattes and chai teas in place of my coffee order but I have yet to see a chai tea latte in one of the local cafes. So now I’m back on my coffee game. When I got my first cup here I was like, “huh why is it in this teeny little cup? I’ll have to take the tiniest sips of this bad boy to make it last.” And I still stand by that statement today - however the taste of the coffee is for some reason so dang good. AND you can get a coffee and a pintxo for 2.40 Euro!! Also should let you all know I am lactose intolerant as well and only recently learned that I can order milk “sin lactosa” (without lactose). You can only imagine the roller coaster my body was on when I first arrived.
On to the SEAFOOD. Getxo is a lovely little coast town so we have direct access to the ocean and all it’s glorious creatures. While I was scanning the local Eroski for some new protein sources I came across patties of bacalao (cod). I wasn’t really all that familiar with cod (or the word bacalao) but I like mahi mahi and that’s another white fish so I thought why the heck not. Turns out cod is a big thing around here and I can see why, it’s delicious!! Apparently there’s a traditional way of cooking it with this special sauce that I have yet to try. Definitely something I’m going to have before I leave. I love seafood and seafood loves me back, unlike white flour, coffee, and lactose :)
Overall, while the culinary experience in the Basque Country is an incredible one, it’s also been more challenging to eat healthy. And when I say healthy I mean foods that make my body feel energized. It’s been a lot of change and I’m still working on how to best balance new experiences with my body’s food preferences. I feel grateful to have such easy access to a huge variety of foods in the US. I also feel grateful for expanding my palate with seafood, fun combinations of pintxos, and traditional Basque cuisine. My heart is full, and so is my stomach.