One Basque dish that never fails to draw attention from outsiders is elvers: baby eels that look a bit like worms. Elvers is yet another Basque dish only eaten in very few countries.

Fried with a hot pepper in an enameled clay dish, they are absolutely delicious prepared simply in oil, garlic salt and paprika. Unfortunately, these days a shortage of elvers is turning them into an expensive delicacy.

It''s traditional to eat them on the evening before San Sebastian Day, but their scarcity and astronomical price are forcing most eating establishments to use surimi - imitation - substitutes instead.