They polished off plates of anchovies, octopus and sole that were declared “glorious” while discussing Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the Txoko de Getaria restaurant outside San Sebastián in the Basque Country.
The newly released 2017 Michelin Guide for Spain and Portugal has added a three-star restaurant to its list: Lasarte, a Barcelona eatery run by celebrity Basque chef Martín Berasategui. Seven more restaurants have achieved two stars, and 22 have earned one, newly joining the Michelin star system, considered a world reference for gourmet dining.
Using English expressions to sell products is a growing trend in Spain, a phenomenon brought up two years ago at a meeting between the Royal Spanish Academy and Spain’s advertisers.
In La Línea de la Concepción, the town in Andalusia’s Cadiz province neighboring Gibraltar, locals looking for a low-cost meal will buy a tin of carne conbí; children play with meblis and they chew chinga. Similarly, a panquequi requires bequinpauda. University student and linguist María Ortega has collected these and other words once widely used by Spaniards living in the proximity of the Rock: corned beef, marbles, chewing gum, plumcakes and baking powder.
