Katelyn Simone is a New Yorker who works at The Climate Group, as a professional oboist, and as a professional content creator. Without a doubt, quite an interesting profile.
She has just published an article on the Medium platform, bringing her readers closer to the Basque Country via two dining experiences, one in Astigarraga, and the other in San Sebastian.
The article focuses on two different planes of Basque gastronomy. On the one hand, there is the tradition of the cider houses via the description of her visit to Sidrería Petritegi. On the other hand, there is the dining experience at El Mirador de Ulia, which she says is her first time at a restaurant which has received a Michelin star.
But despite the fact that the article focuses on Basque cuisine, which she obviously loved, her story delights us for reasons we believe are far more important.
Firstly, she tells her readers something that is obvious, and yet hard to find in many articles about our country: she explains how we’re on both sides of the Pyrenees, even if that happens to be under two different nation-states and three different administrative areas.
Secondly, she does not omit that our Basque culture is unique and distinct to those around it, and that it is not broken up by the border between Hondarribia and Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Orson Welles did the same back in the 1950s in the first few minutes of his documentary, “The Land of the Basques“.
We can’t help but thank Katelyn Simone for her article, and tell her that we hope she returns to write more about this little country where, as Voltaire wrote, “they live and dance at the feet of the Pyrenees.” We’re sure, were he writing today, he’d add “and cook” to that beautiful description of the Basques.
Medium – 6/1/2022 – USA
Two meals in Basque Country: a delicious study in contrast
The small autonomous region of Basque Country stretching across the border of southern France and northern Spain is one of the best places to eat in the world. Nestled between the rugged slopes of the Pyrenees and the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic, its stunning and varied geography affords plentiful, first-rate ingredients — famous meats like Bayonne ham, fish, red Espelette peppers, wine, and cider, to name a few — and endless gastric possibilities.