On this episode of FoodNotes *, We visit The Star Hotel for a taste of Basque tradition.

Then we dig into a Kamayan feast at Wok & Roll.

*groovy music * *gentle music * Funding for FoodNotes * is provided by Nevada Humanities Meg and Dillard Myers Respiralogics and by PBS Reno Members.

Hello and welcome to FoodNotes *.

Im Christina Le and Im Enrique Sandoval.

Today well visit two restaurants with owners share their love of tradition, community, and eating together.

Lets begin at The Star Hotel in Elko, Nevada.

We wanted to get a glimpse into the rich history of this hotel and try some of their hearty, long-lasting staples.

We hope you enjoy!

Enrique: Over a century ago, the Basque began traveling to Nevada from Europe, bringing with them their history, traditions, and eventually his family.

Chrsintina: This is Scott Ygoa, owner of the Star Hotel In Elko, Nevada.

The Star is one restaurant in Nevada where you can experience Basque dining Enrique: But first, what does Basque mean?

Christina: The Basques are a southwestern European ethnic group.

Enrique: They are indigenous to what is traditionally called the Basque Country, an area on the coast of the Bay of Biscay in northern Spain and southern France.

Christina: Today, Basque country is divided among four Spanish provinces and three French provinces.

Enrique: Basque culture is incredibly rich with its own language history.

cuisine Sports like pelota and so much more.

Christina: Star Hotel.

used to be a hotel, but now it's a restaurant.

Scott: That's right.

It was built in 1910 as a as a boarding house for Basque immigrants.

up until six or seven years ago, we had some Basque boarders upstairs that lived there.

I'm born and raised in Elko, I was raised sheep ranch.

had about 20,000 sheep.

My father came from the old country, and my mother's parents came from the old country.

So I'm one hundred percent Basque worked at the mines here up until 19 years ago.

And at that point is when I purchased the Star Hotel restaurant.

And I've been here ever since.

Enrique: Sheep are one of the oldest livestock animals domesticated by humans over 10,000 years ago.

Christina: The meat of a sheep is very nutrient rich and is especially popular and Basque cuisine in the United States.

Sheep also have an important age old skill.

They will eat anything.

Enrique: When released into an area, they work like lawnmowers, clipping away any unwanted vegetation.

This results in healthier landscapes and happier sheep.

Scott: In a Basque household and especially, you know, being raised on a ranch, it's just a festive time.

You're always, know, having big meals and it's always a big group together.

you know, you spoke Basque because they most of them didn't speak English so well at that point.

that was just kind of the culture that I was raised in.

I mean, it was just, hospitable with people and guys and ladies that came from the old country to try to move forward in life.

my parents are very good cooks I'm not so much of a good cook, but whenever people came over to the house, there was always a ton of food and different food.

And it wasn't just processed food.

Everything was made from scratch.

healthy.

time went into meals, And it was kind of a family event.

Everybody, helped do all of it.

And you all came together at the table and we celebrate it.

Enrique: That's what this is called, right?

The family style of food.

Scott: Family style.

Yeah.

Christina: Family Style dining is when food is served on large platters meant for sharing Enrique: Diners will pass the platters around the table and build their own plate.

Originally, Basque restaurants like The Star Hotel started as a gathering place for bass people to rest and eat.

Enrique: A dinner bell would ring, indicating to workers in the area that the food is ready.

There was no menu and no assigned seating.

Instead, you would take portions off large platters of food in the center of the table, surrounded by friends and family or strangers who would quickly become your new friends.

Christina: Although its common among Basque restaurants, family style dining is popular in many cultures around the world, but it goes by other names.

So if it sounds familiar, that's probably because it is.

Scott: Today we've prepared some beef tongue The baked lamb It's a lamb neck that we trim, a quarter, iceberg salad, and then you get a cabbage soup that's been in the recipe here for 113 years, our green beans, of course with garlic, everything has garlic.

French fries.

Domestic lamb chops from Colorado.

Spanish version of a pallea that we do.

And some brown beans.

let's start with that with the cabbage soup.

So when you come eat at The Star you really got to probably not eat all day.

*laughter * You have to pace yourself right?

Lets make a toast.

In the Basque we say osasuna to your health.

Hosts: Osasuna!

Cheers.

Scott: Jeez that even tastes good.

All: *laughter * Christina: Oh, this reminds me of a very homey, warm.

Enrique: It's very hearty.

very hearty and comfortable.

Scott: Its really popular with the kids in town.

When parents have kids that are sick They always ask for the cabbage soup.

Lets try some salad.

of dressing has been here 113 years.

so we make about three gallons of this a day, what, Because Christina: What?!

Scott: People come in just to get it a container of it to have at home.

Christina: Very fresh.

Enrique: Salads very light.

Chrisitna: Very refreshing.

Enrique: Tonally, it really juxtaposes the soup.

soup is very warm, hearty, comforting.

Christina: Yeah, It's a very light dressing.

It's not heavy.

Usually when you kind of get a this Color.

Scott: Yeah.

You're expecting something like a heavy cream or something.

Scott: Yeah, that's got a ton of garlic in it You can probably taste it.

*laughter * Christina: Would you say that like lamb and seafood is pretty prominent?

Scott: Yes.

Very much so.

LAMB especially in the United States, because so much of our lifestyle was involved being around lamb.

Well, you know, I remember as a child, watching my father have lamb on the spek you know, cooking this stuff, you is seafood is a big part of the Basque culture, especially, in Spain and in France, because they're on the coast there right?

Here, it's a little different here Were inland And the Basque immigrants were on ranches and stuff to where they had lamb or beef.

And so protein is a big part of the.

Meals here.

You want to try some tongue?

Hosts: Yeah Absolutely.

Scott: people that haven't tried I really need to, give it a shot because it's very tender, very lean.

This is the lamb neck that's is kind of how the family style, right?

You just.

You have a little bit of whatever you want.

Baked lamb.

lamb chop and tongue.

Oh the tongue is Really good.

Have you ever had it?

Enrique: Yeah.

So with my family growing up Mexican.

Scott: Yeah.

You guys love lengua.

Enrique: Yeah.

Yeah.

Christina: I'm going to try the lamb neck.

Christina: Oh, man, it's falling off the bone.

It's tender and kind of, like, marbled with all that fatty.

... neck fat.

Scott: Yeah.

Yeah.

Who would have known that it would be good to eat, right?

not a lot of the animal went to waste.

right.

Enrique: When it comes to making these.

Like Really.

You just want the taste of the lamb to come out and just salt and pepper do And garlic.

But is there anything else you try to do to it?

Scott: Well, the lamb chops we cook at a high heat.

quick.

We don't marinate them really at all.

You know the baked lamb that's that gets baked for like two and a half to 3 hours.

the seasoning, really.

It's, know, primarily garlic.

And we rub that in like them in the lamb.

Enrique: This IS fall off the bone.

My God.

Christina: It definitely has the lamb taste but it's not overpowering, sometimes when you gamey.

Scott: That's right.

Christina: It's like, Oh, I can taste the farm in my mouth.

Scott: And that's kind of the stigma of lamb.

they've had lamb where It's been real strong, And it could have been an older lamb a like a mutton.

That type of meat more gamey and stronger.

But lamb generally isn't that strong of a flavor, especially domestic lamb.

Lamb in the United States and, you know, it's so grass fed, so it's real mild Enrique: Dishes like the soup and the Salad have remained faithful to the original recipes.

Scott's made sure of this, preserving a tradition held by all past owners of the Star.

He stayed connected to a few of them over the years, like Jose Maria Sarasua.

Scott: He lives in Boise now he's in his nineties and whenever he comes in, he walks in to the bar and he goes “It still feels like home!

” All: *laughter * Enrique: That's beautiful.

Scott: He was here, you know, like 25 years or 28 years or something like that.

Wow.

So it was his life, right?

Chrisinta: Thats a great compliment.

Scott: To me, it's passing on the tradition.

Yeah.

pass along this establishment and this culture to the next person.

Just like they did for me.

Like they did for everybody coming through.

Enrique: And those people who have been there to see those transitions, they're the ones who can tell you you're doing it right.

Scott: Really all this is, is a gathering place for people to come together.

the Basque community in Elko would always have get togethers as families.

And Food and drink takes care of everything.

It really does.

Yeah.

Christina: It's a great way to connect with everyone.

Like everyone's always hungry.

Yeah.

Food is a great way to convey your passion, your culture.

Scott: Yeah.

people, they like to come to places where it's like their home, it's by having fun and laughing and joking Enrique: you can try and try to create that environment.

But if the people aren't comfortable or don't feel it, it's not going to happen.

Scott: Its gotta be who you are.

Yeah, absolutely.

I love it.

And I do.

It's means a lot to me.

I mean, I feel very lucky.

I'm really, hopeful that it's going to be ready for whoever's next.

Christina: It's very nice that it's kind of a bit like your home away from home.

I think it kind of encapsulates the Basque culture in the sense that people are traveling and they're nomadic.

Yeah, you're not here and they're like, This is home.

This food is welcoming me back.

Scott: The Basque people are very hard workers.

like my father coming here and my grandfather you see how hard they worked.

It just motivates you work hard because you feel like that's what it takes make a difference.

You know, all of us that have Basque restaurants.

We all carry that weight even though we might not have live the lifestyle that these people did come in here in establishing it.

our job is, to keep that going and to respect what they did for us and for our culture.

We're really excited about new people trying, Basque food or trying family style dining not just here at the Star, but, you know, there's places in Reno, Gardnerville, Boise, Winnemucca, that have Basque restaurants that, they need to experience it and see the culture and see what it's like.

Enrique: There are many reasons as to why the Basque people immigrated to the United States, but it's the gold rush that primarily brought them to Nevada.

Christina: Many Basque people looking for work took up jobs in the sheep industry, even though they had little experience with sheep herding itself.

Enrique: Basque people in Nevada found great success with livestock and settled down in northern Nevada, towns large and small, including where we are today, Christina: Thank you, Scott, so much for everything.

everything that you're trying to do with preserving your culture.

and making it part of the community.

Enrique: You're a well of information of history, of passion, Thank you for all the food.

Thank you for your time Scott: You're very welcome.

And we enjoyed showing everybody what we do.

So thank you Christina: But before we go, we had to get a special drink.

Enrique: Can you tell us what a Picon is?

Scott: So its got a dash of grenadine, picon liqueur It's a French liqueur made out of orange peels.

That's 90% of it.

And then we do a lemon twist with the brandy float.

Christina: Ah yes, Picon punch.

Nevada's unofficial state drink Enrique: But this isn't a punch at all.

It's a cocktail.

And it does, in fact, pack a punch.

It's so popular among Basque restaurants in northern Nevada that it's gained a motto Scott: Ones not enough and threes too many.

Christina: The creation of the picon punch is believed to have originated in Basque boarding houses in California and Nevada.

With the earliest paper reference we can find coming from 1899 Enrique: The name comes from the use of Amer Picon which is the orange liquor.

Christina: But enough talk.

Let's try it.

Enrique: It's strong.

Christina: I grew some chest hairs *laughter * Enrique: Theres acidity from the lemon.

Bitterness.

Christina: I'm feeling warm, though.

As soon as you drink it, it's like, ooooo, spreading.

Enrique: Honestly I think it's yummy.

Christina: It's, it's really good.

I was surprised by how tender the baked lamb neck was.

Me too.

You know, the reason theyre so tender is because theyre baked for about 3 hours!

You can see more FoodNotes * content on our YouTube Channel.

YouTube.com/@pbsreno.

And to learn more about The Star Hotel visit ElkoStarHotel.com.

My mouth is watering.

Lets go from Basque food to Filipino cuisine.

Next we visit Wok & Roll.

a restaurant that serves fusion food in the Reno Public Market.

The owner and his head chef brought us into the kitchen to show us how all the dishes in their version of a Kamayan feast come together.

Meet Ryan and Lester!

Ryan is the founder and owner of Wok & Roll A fusion restaurant located in the Reno Public Market And Lester is one of his head chefs!

Theyre the ones who prepared this Kamayan Feast for us today.

So what is Kamayan?

Kamayan means eat with your hands.

And it is a feast.

served typically on a banana leaf meant to enjoy with great people.

Kamayan is Tagalog for hands for eating with the hands.

Kamayan also refers to a traditional communal feast.

For this feast, a long table is covered in roasted banana leaves then rice and various entrees are placed around the table.

When its time to eat everyone sits down and grabs a handful of food.

Literally.

There are no utensils Instead you eat with your hands.

Eating with your hands was common practice in the Philippines for a long time, until the American colonial period where it was supressed.

But now Kamayan has had a resurgence as people have found that its a great way to intimately connect with friends and family.

So right now I'm toasting the banana leaves to give them color.

So as you can see, as I drop, it just changes vibrant.

That's what we're looking for.

traditional would be that the whole table would be lined with the banana leaves.

Right.

And that's where the food would go on.

No plates.

So you can eat with your hands and just make your own little spot right in front of yourself So we have lechon kawali pork belly with the skin on.

It's crispy.

Bistek.

beef and onions.

marinated in like a soy marinade We have traditional lumpia Shanghai longganisa and eggplant tomato salad, We also have salted duck eggs here.

I forgot some fresh fruits, smoked mackerel, garlic, butter, shrimp and garlic fried rice.

So.

Yeah, we just, you know, put on our gloves and start pulling onto our banana leaves and making our own little plates.

My hands are too big.

Oh, hes struggling with the gloves.

I would say go for the rice first and then pick your entrees around the side.

Go?

oh, gosh.

Ooo, warm rice!

let me help a little bit here.

Oh, thank you.

I feel closer to my food.

Have to dig my hands into it.

Yeah, it's very intimate.

That's meant to be intimate with the people that you're sitting with it's more of a communal thing, you know, it brings people together, allows you to have kind of a little party with your food.

So that's fun.

Yeah.

We just have a passion for creating food that resonates with us and sharing that with people in our community.

Our menu is made up of Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, American.

And what we're trying to do is take the best of every and just kind of smash it all together.

And that's why we call it fusion.

Can you tell me again what this is.

Longganisa.

Oh, this the Longganisa.

Oh, okay.

the sauce that it's sort of in really enjoying not just how savory it is, but how tangy it is as well.

That's the sauce that comes amid it out of the sausage.

Longganisa is a sausage made with pork and a variety of spices.

The Filipino longganisa is a derivative from the Spanish sausage longaniza.

In fact, you can use the longaniza to track the spread of the Spanish empire based on what countries have their own interpretation of this sausage.

Longganisa was especially adopted in the Philippines with many variants.

Each being associated with the town or province that it came from.

Whats an eloquent way to eat rice?

Yeah.

How do we eat rice with our hand?

Because I'm struggling right now.

Put all the food you want to eat like this one, the pork.

Mm.

And grab it together with the rice then eat it.

Okay.

Like that.

Really messy but fun!

Yeah.

I really like the Salted duck egg with the eggplant tomato The mackerel with the sriracha sauce Christina, you may have to help me.

Do you need help?

I'm going to give you a pile.

Thank you.

Across this feast are an assortment of bold and unique flavors.

The soy marinades have enhanced the pork and the beef Making each bite packed with a salty umami, slightly sweet taste.

I learned along the way that the power was in the combinations.

Taking the mild fruits and vegetables combining it with salty and savory proteins made for a complete flavor in my mouth.

How long have the both of you been cooking Filipino food?

me in particular About four or five years.

Lester I'm sure.

His whole life.

Yeah.

Exactly.

my whole life I've been cooking with my grandma.

My grandma is the one who kind of taught me the skill of, you know, how to measure and how to do things.

And then the ability to take a recipe and have the good judgment to throw another couple ingredients in there and make it your own.

And elevate it.

so.

Thanks, Grandma.

I am from the Philippines, city of Manila.

in the Philippines, as cooking is a part of our life because if we don't know how to cook, you cant survive.

The city of Manila is the capital and second most populated city in the Philippines.

It is on the coast of Manila Bay on the island of Luzon.

As of 2019, Manila is one of the most densely populated cities in the world.

Its four times more dense than New York City.

Manila is home to many business and industries.

In fact, its thought to be one of the worlds first global cities.

It was, and still is, a stop for commercial trade that connects countries across the pacific ocean.

I start cooking at seven and we have five siblings and my mom's it's a fish vendor in the market.

So my mom taught me how to cook like adobo.

and how to cook rice.

It's like, it's like a basic things to take care of my siblings, those siblings.

I studied for culinary for four years in the Philippines, And after I graduated I trained in France for six months, and I got here.

Nice!

so when you were a kid, you were doing Kamayan feasts already, Yes.

Yes, we usually do that because like sometimes we don't have like a big plate.

We only have like a banana leaf and we cut it.

we catch the fish, we cook the pork and we put it together and we get the fresh fruits from the beach.

and I like the idea of sharing the Kamayan here because, sharing your traditional food or your culture from different people, it's, it's really good.

Would you say this right here was called again?

it's a lechon kawali.

crispy pork belly.

Lechon Kawali is deep-fried crispy pork belly.

Its most well known quality, is the amazing crunch you get when you bite down.

*CRUNCH * Its really crunchy.

It involves boiling the pork belly in water and spices, then deep-frying it.

Thats how you get the crispy exterior and the tender and juicy interior.

Lechon Kawali is a traditional Filipino dish that is often used as the centerpiece of the dining table.

Much like the Kamayan feast were having today!

What we're looking for is the crispiness on the skin, but nice and juicy on the inside.

very tender on one side and then the skin is- like Chicharon almost?

Yeah, it reminds me of a Chicharon.

I don't know if I can crunch into my mic *CRUNCH * And then what is this drink that we have?

cucumber lemonade and Halo-Halo which is a sweet jelly shaved ice with leche flan and ube ice cream on there.

Halo-Halo is a popular cold dessert in the Philippines.

Its so popular that Halo-Halo is considered the unofficial national dessert.

Halo is a Tagalog word meaning mix so the whole dessert translates to mix mix or to mix.

Thats because halo-halo is made up of several cold and sweet ingredients that you mix together when you eat it Theres no standardized set of ingredients, but the ones were eating today have shaved ice pandan jellies, mung beans, coconut caramelized banana, condensed milk, leche flan and ube ice cream.

you just, like, crack the ice.

Really kind of like everything down there.

All those jellies and all the real good stuff is at the bottom.

What is ube?

What IS ube.

Alright so it is a purple yam.

But it's got a distinct flavor to it that once you've had it, yo, you know, And in case you havent had it, Ube has a sweet flavor similar to vanilla with earthy and nutty undertones.

It's very purple.

Yes.

And then do we just go at it.

Yeah.

Mm.

this is very sweet and it's rich.

the jelly at the bottom here that flavor is kind of rising up through I would imagine that being in such a hot and humid climate that this is probably like the most refreshing thing you probably can have in a day, I'm enjoying all these textures I got like the crunchy bits of ice and then the, like, squish of the jellies and then kind of like the soft creaminess from the flan.

right?

It's like boba but on steroids, right?

It's like, little.

Like you're digging for prizes.

Yeah.

Little treasure hunt.

I got a piece of coconut.

I want a jelly You got to dig deeper.

I think I accidentally put some towards, like, the bottom bottom.

I'm, like, trying to find them.

Oh, I found one.

*gasp * Im jealous!

What inspired you two, to add Kamayan to the menu, It's not traditional for America, but in the Philippines, it's a way of really bringing people together and sitting down.

And you're doing it with like your immediate family and with your neighbors.

let's say there's a party of eight that comes up and they're split in four, but they want to sit down together.

They could do this all together having a great culinary experience trying something new, typically the keys of making new great friendships.

So it's a way for for us to share our cuisine, our food, our cooking skills, in a way that brings people together.

I'm very lucky that Lester he is.

my head chef, but he's also a really good friend of mine.

We kill it.

We kill it in the kitchen man.

Yeah, you absolutely killed it.

working with Ryan is really good because he knows how to appreciate people.

That's why I love him.

he serves Filipino cuisine.

It's it's really good.

And I'm happy to be here.

Ryan and Lester were very busy and had to run off.

But they inspired us to share this feast the way it was intend with friends!

And in this case the FoodNotes * crew.

How is it?

Yeah.

These are medium gloves.

I aint got no medium hands!

ready for a struggle?

*laughter * There you go.

All right, Bex just had some lumpia!

What do you think?

We and the crew thank Ryan, Lester and everyone at Wok & Roll for letting us explore Kamayan Cooking with them.

A Kamayan Feast!

I really enjoyed eating with my hands!

Me too.

I really liked the friendship between Ryan and Lester too.

I thought they were great.

Remember you can watch even more online at youtube.com/@pbsreno If you want to learn more about Wok & Roll visit their website, wokandrollnv.com.

Thats all the time we have today on FoodNotes *.

If you want to see more, check us out on the PBS Reno YouTube Channel.

Just go to youtube.com/@pbsreno and click the subscribe button so you dont miss any of our new videos.

Once youre there, you can find the FoodNotes * playlist to watch more full episodes, behind the scenes videos, and more!

Thank you for joining us today.

I could go for some Halo-Halo right now.

Me too.

Thanks for watching!

*groovy music * *groovy music * We really did a number on this feast.

Its all gone!

*gentle music * Funding for FoodNotes * is provided by Nevada Humanities Meg and Dillard Myers Respiralogics and by PBS Reno Members.