Not tapas, actually, but "Pintxos" (pronounced 'peen-chohs'). These are paid, they don't come for free with every beverage.
On being against the govt, technically the Basque and Navarrese "Fueros" (some kind of agreement between the people and the King) made them mostly self-managed in Spain/Iberia. There even used to be locally minted coins, customs and exeption from doing the military service.
And, on txokos, been there. They are often half-familiar/half-your-engraved-by-fire-friend-group-from-Elementary School times, forever and ever, amen.
We visited Granada last year, where traditionally there is a small tapas provided for free with every drink - three drinks in I had to plead with them to stop giving me food! We visited San Sebastian this summer and it was absolute bliss. I could not believe how friendly and good humoured the Basque people were, even compared to the general welcome and friendliness of Spanish people. The locals loved my attempts at speaking rudimentary Basque rather than Spanish - it helps that I'm Scottish so we all see ourselves as kindred spirits!
It's a two-sided personality of the Atlantic Spain. Far more reservated and shy than Andalusians, with a really different mindset. But if you became a friend of some group, you will keep your friends forever.
I sadly don’t have anything personal to add on the specific topic of Basque cuisine, but I want to encourage any Indo-European language speaker who even marginally enjoys language to read up on the situation of Basque language (Euskara). It is a language isolate, and the only extant language in mainland Europe that does not descend from Proto-Indo-European. The Basque language survived in the sliver of land at the fringes of the Roman and Moorish conquests.
Small correction: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian and the Sámi languages of the very North are also not Indo-European, but Uralic languages. Not isolates though.
It's not correct that Basque is the only non-Indo-European language in Europe; this is also true of Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, and some other minority languages in the far north of Scandinavia. However, it has been hypothesized that Basque is the only language in Europe that is pre-Indo-European, having existed there before Indo-European languages spread to that area (although it's hard to know this for sure). Either way, you're right that it's a fascinating language!
Sorry, you are correct and that is what I meant. The fact that it’s believed to have been spoken on the same land since before Indo-European languages arrived in Europe is what makes it so fascinating to me.
As a non basque Spaniard, I consider Euskara a living treasure we have a huge collective responsibility in keeping alive, and I hope any political turmoils are never (again) an obstacle against this task.
> About 20 years ago the Basque government began giving txoko societies money – but only if they allowed women. They are now allowed. They just aren’t allowed to cook.
Every society (another name given to txokos) has its own rules which are agreed upon by their members. There might be a vanishingly small number of societies where women are still not allowed to cook, but this an extremely rare exception rather than a widespread fact.
> sang a traditional Basque song called Hegoak (The Wings)
Note the name of the poem and later popular song is "Txoria txori"[1] (the bird is bird), which was written by Joxan Artze. The most well-known sung version is by Mikel Laboa[2].
On being against the govt, technically the Basque and Navarrese "Fueros" (some kind of agreement between the people and the King) made them mostly self-managed in Spain/Iberia. There even used to be locally minted coins, customs and exeption from doing the military service.
And, on txokos, been there. They are often half-familiar/half-your-engraved-by-fire-friend-group-from-Elementary School times, forever and ever, amen.
Small correction: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian and the Sámi languages of the very North are also not Indo-European, but Uralic languages. Not isolates though.
Every society (another name given to txokos) has its own rules which are agreed upon by their members. There might be a vanishingly small number of societies where women are still not allowed to cook, but this an extremely rare exception rather than a widespread fact.
> sang a traditional Basque song called Hegoak (The Wings)
Note the name of the poem and later popular song is "Txoria txori"[1] (the bird is bird), which was written by Joxan Artze. The most well-known sung version is by Mikel Laboa[2].
[1] https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Txoria_txori
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NW7CZxOxhI
...BUT they are NOT allowed to step into the kitchen
http://idlewords.com/2006/04/argentina_on_two_steaks_a_day.h...