thrust into your hot hands at Jaialdi faster than you can say “eskerrik asko” (es-KARI-gaas-go, thank you). “Kalimotxo is definitely the most popular [drink we sell],” said Matthew Mayer, a server at the Basque Block eatery Bar Gernika. “We also sell a Basque cider, it’s a dry cider. A lot of people when they order it, they expect something sweeter, like an Ace Pear Cider.” That dry cider, or sagardo, is a good booze option for those with less of a sweet tooth. The non-sparkling, low-alcohol beverage (4-6 percent) is generally consumed soon after it has been produced at sagardotegi, or Basque cider houses. If it’s not poured directly from a barrel, sagardo is served with the bottle held high in the air above the glass to aerate it. This aerating tradition is also instrumental in serving another Basque hooch staple: Txakoli (CHALK-o-lee). This light green, slightly effervescent white wine is frequently poured from above in small portions known as txikito (cheek-EE-toe), and the wine often accompanies pintxos (PEEN-chose), or Basque tapas. Much like the dry, effervescent Portuguese white wine, vinho verde, txakoli is swiftly making its name stateside as a refreshing summer drink. For the more experimental, there’s the ever-popular Basque booze bomb picon punch. Served on the rocks with pecan liqueur, grenadine and soda water with a float of brandy and a twist of lemon, picon punch is more well-known among the French Basques than the Spanish Basques, though you’ll still find it on the menu at both Leku Ona and the Basque Center.
JATEKO (EATING)
The txikiteo (chee-kee-TAYo), or pintxos crawl, is a large part of the Basque socializing experience. In cities large and small throughout the Basque country, friends move from bar to bar, sipping small pours of wine, beer or cider and scarfing down an array of Basque tapas. The pintxos are usually set out on the bar counter on platters, sometimes with giant, dripping pigs’ legs hanging nearby. Patrons grab a plate and load it up with whatever tapas look appealing—seafood, fried morsels, meats,
cheeses, olives—then they pay per item. “Txikiteo is going from one little bar to the next and they have the txikitos, which is a small wine, like 2 to 3 ounces,” said Tara McElhose-Eiguren, co-owner of the Basque Market. “Then you can get maybe a little bit to eat there and then you go to the next place, and that’s basically how you get to see all your friends.” Some of the more popular pintxos you’ll find the Basque Market serving up during Jaialdi include tortilla (Basque omelet), a quichelike egg wedge filled with potatoes, onions and often pimento peppers; croquetas, deep fried flour balls with various fillings including cod, chicken and cheese with piquillo peppers; and assorted bocadillos, or mini sandwiches. In addition to hand-rolling 38,000 croquetas, the Basque Market also has a few other culinary surprises in store for Jaialdi. “We’re going to be making paella every few hours during the busy times,” said McElhose-Eiguren. “We’re also going to be doing lots of the [frozen] white sangria … during the busier hours we’ll pull out more tapas and have more variety.” Another Basque food staple is chorizo: sausage made from coarsely chopped pork, pork fat, peppers, garlic and salt. Chorizos vary throughout the different regions of Spain (and Mexico) depending on the type of pork, the spices and how the chorizos are cured. “They use lots of paprika, which is Spanish, we use the pepper in the Basque country, the choricero, we call it,” said Ramon Barquin, executive chef at Leku Ona. “We let it dry and we use it for the chorizo we make in the Basque country … In Mexico, they use the ancho, a different pepper.” For the more adventurous Basque eaters, a popular jet-black Basque delicacy is squid served in its own ink. For an idea of how special this dish is, note that it takes a whopping 2 pounds of baby squid to produce just one-half teaspoon of ink. Leku Ona carries this creepy—but delicious—plate on its full dinner menu. “We stew the squid with onions, green bell peppers, tomatoes until the squid is tender. We puree the rest and add the black ink,” explained Barquin. Another trippy Basque treat served up on
Saturdays at Gernika is beef tongue, prepared in a rich tomato and garlic piperade base. Because of the sheer number of people flooding the Basque Block for Jaialdi, Gernika will be condensing its menu, which might temporarily mean no beef tongue. “We’re scaling down our menu, because we know it’s going to be super, super busy, so if you do come down and you’re missing one of your favorite things on the menu, know that it’s just gone temporarily,” said Gernika server Matthew Mayer. “We have to streamline our prep work so we can make sure we have enough food for the amount of people who are here.”
DANTZAN (DANCING)
If you’ve waltzed down the Basque Block in the summertime, you’ve likely seen a number of teens and adults grasping hands, tapping feet, snapping fingers and shouting in the middle of the street. The Oinkari (oh-inn-CAR-ee) Basque dancers, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary, are a group of local dancers with Basque heritage who frequently perform around town. Dressed in traditional garb—white slacks and shirts with red hats and sashes for the men and flowing red or green skirts and nubby kneehigh white socks for the ladies—the Oinkari perform an array of folk dances from a variety of Basque country provinces. “The two popular dances are going to be the jota (HOE-tah) and the porrusalda (POURoo-sal-dah),” explained Oinkari President Tyler Smith. “Basically there’s different types and each group has their own jota and porrusalda. [Ours is] a three-part jota, meaning that there’s three different steps and you typically do them two to three times.” According to the North American Basque Organizations, Basque dances are split into three basic categories: the romerias, or openair dances, sword dances and end of festival dances, which wrap up feast days and carnival festivities. One of the most well-known Basque dances is the dantzari dantza or jantzari jantza, which is danced throughout many of the Basque provinces on the evening of a feast day. But Basque dancing isn’t only for the welltrained. At big celebrations like Jaialdi, you
JAIALDI HISTORY Sometimes, a party is so good, it takes on a life of its own, growing and evolving into a whole new being. That’s exactly what happened to Jaialdi. It started in 1987 as a onetime weekend festival held at the Old Idaho State Penitentiary, and a way for Basques in the area to get together. But it went off so well that three years later, then Gov. Cecil Andrus asked that the local Basque community put on another celebration to help mark Idaho’s centennial in 1990. It was at that point that a tradition was born. “We had so many friends
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getting together, we thought we should do this every five years,” said Dave Eiguren, a Jaialdi board member since the first celebration. By 1995, the event had outgrown the Old Pen and had to be moved to the fairgrounds at Expo Idaho. Now, it’s regarded as the largest gathering of Basques in the world, and organizers expect it will draw between 35,000 and 40,000 people to Boise for the oneweek event. The success of the event is credited largely to the fact that the primary focus of the festival is fun.
“It’s not political at all,” Eiguren said. “It’s all fun. The city is easy to get around and it’s friendly and it’s reasonable to get here. “We didn’t build the festival to make money,” he said. “We built it to have fun first.” In fact, Eiguren points out that event prices haven’t changed since 1987. Beyond drawing Basques from across the country, Jaialdi provides those from the Basque region the perfect excuse to visit friends and relatives in the United States. This year, two planes have been chartered to bring revelers from Europe, in-
cluding several groups of dancers and traditional athletes. Of course, Basque lineage is not required to appreciate Jaialdi. “It’s gotten to be less Basque and more friends,” Eiguren said with a laugh. “Everyone has their own definition of ‘Jaialdi,’” he said. “Some love the [Catholic] mass. Some love the drinks. Some people love the dancing ... it shows you can be Basque and you can be American and people don’t know the difference. They’re all Basque for the week.” —Deanna Darr
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