This week, baby got Basque.Host Irene Peralta took us on a five-part tour of this autonomous region of northern Spain in the MUNCHIES Guide to the Basque Country. And damn, are we full.Naturally, there were plenty of pintxos. (Be prepared to break out those Cantabrian anchovies and piquillo peppers.) Along the way, Irene chilled with multiple Michelin-starred chef Martín Berasategui and enjoyed a memorable meal with a group of Tolosa bean-loving seniors. She also had a deliciously close encounter with goose barnacles, a.k.a. the animal with the largest penis relative to body size.Did we mention there were baby pigs? There were baby pigs.But that wasn't our only foray into pig farms this week. We also met a Dutch man who does wild things to pigs for a living—helping to artificially inseminate pigs to ensure a healthy future for our pork, not for just kicks.Since that's a lot to process, we learned a little bit about makgeolli, the alcoholic tipple of choice for old people and Korean rappers.We heard from an Irish bar waitress who is not cool with you putting your hand on her backside, and a server at a high-end restaurant who has zero tolerance for bullshit.We went to Hanoi and discovered the sheer breadth of banh mi variations being prepared there, from the classic grilled pork to a take on doner kebab.And it turns out that Vietnam might be one of the better places to get a kebab—because the shops in Yorkshire are apparently selling some bootleg meat as lamb.Finally, we heard from a scientist who says that silver spoons actually make food taste awful, and some straight-edge baristas who are happy to say that caffeine is not a drug.If that's not enough to tide you over this weekend, there's plenty more where that came from.
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