Basque cuisine

A basquaise is a type of dish prepared in the style of Basque cuisine that often includes tomatoes and sweet or hot red peppers.

Basques embraced the potato and the capsicum, used in hams, sausages and recipes, with pepper festivals around the area, notably Ezpeleta and Puente la Reina.

[2] In addition to the dishes and products of the Basque Country, there are features of the way of preparing and sharing food unique to the area.

Cider is poured from a height straight into the glass for visitors, with a rustic menu invariably of salt cod omelette, grilled T-bone steak and ewes' milk cheese with walnuts and quince paste.

Many bars will offer a combination of pre-made pintxos (such as gildas) that are typically cold as well as hot specialities that are made to order.

Teresa Barrenechea was among the first people to bring traditional Basque cuisine outside these area's with her first restaurant Marichu in Bronxville in 1991, where she hired Chef Joseba Encabo to set up, develop the menus and run the restaurant till soon later he was offered a position as faculty at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

Teresa Barrenechea and husband Raynold von Samson continued to promote Basque cuisine in America by opening their second Marichu restaurant in Manhattan in 1994, which was close to the United Nations Headquarters.

Teresa Barrenechea has written two books, The Basque Table (Harvard Common Press, Boston 1998) and The Cuisines of Spain (Ten Speed, Berkley 2005).