anthony: who cooks rotates between members, tonight it s pablo. the menu, diced raw tuna, grilled prawns with green sauce. aitor: have you noticed that we don t like herbs or spices at all. antonio: nothing, we don t. aitor: so the most we use is parsley. of course garlic and onion all the way. because people have the idea if you add many spices and herbs to something that you are cooking here, you might be suspicious that maybe they re not so fresh. anthony: right. pablo: you want to take this food and put in another country maybe moscow, maybe new york, it s impossible to cook in this way and people don t understand. anthony: someone i was talking to yesterday had a theory. she said, the men talk about the difference between things, the difference between this bicycle and that bicycle, the difference between this bicyclist and that bicyclist. and that this is an innate part of the basque culture. antonio: that s a good theory. lourdes: i don t think it s exclusive
olatz: the basque are very obsessive with qualities for example as you know i did a thesis about the basque pelota. anthony: pelota, if you didn t know is the most popular sport in basque culture. its origins go back to the middle ages. the basque are as obsessive about this pastime as they are about food. olatz: most of male conversations in basque country are about things and about quality of things. and they pass days and days bouncing the balls for the match and they need to know which one is best for the match, and how it behaves. olatz: so the obsession and i think a male obsession with quality is also something which happens with sports just like with the food.
they pass some days bouncing the ball for the match, and they need to know which one is the best for the match and how it behaved. so the obsession, and i think male obsession, with quality is also something that happens in the sport just like with the food. basque language and culture exists on all sides of the border. not surprising as they predate both countries. this may be france, but it s
still paey basque. we have a french culture in the french basque country and the spanish basque country. is there a difference between the french and the spanish side? on the spanish side was the dictator franco. it was forbidden to speak in basque. on the french side, it s true there was a little less pressure about talking basque, but because a lot of people were coming from paris, from big towns for retirement, we re losing the best language. do we drink spanish wine? do we drink french wine? we drink french wine. french wine. okay, good. we re in the town of lahetz.
there are more mishla star restaurants here than anyplace on earth. the love of food, the insistence on the very best ingredients, is fundamental to culture and life here. and it s beautiful. did i say that? it s a beautiful city. [ foreign language ]