Basque specialties: the dishes the Jai Alai was known for

The rest of the Basque repertoire

Mariscada en salsa roja and en salsa verde

Two versions of the same idea: a casserole of fresh lobster, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels and squid, served for two or more at $25.00 per person. The salsa roja was laced with brandy; the salsa verde was built on garlic, parsley and olive oil. Both are pure Basque coast cooking — the fish is the point, the sauce is only there to carry it.

Gambas al ajillo

The test of a Spanish kitchen. Juicy medium shrimp in a slow-roasted garlic extra-virgin olive oil sauce, $15.00. The technique is in the word ajillo: garlic cooked slowly in oil until it is sweet rather than sharp, with the shrimp added at the end so they stay firm.

Sopa de ajo

A casserole of richly flavoured garlic soup topped with a poached egg on a raft of toast, $6.00. Garlic soup is peasant food from Castile and León that settled comfortably into Basque kitchens — bread, paprika, garlic and broth, made substantial with an egg.

Chuleta de buey guipuzcoana

A trimmed N.Y. sirloin, Basque style, broiled to specification, $26.00. In Gipuzkoa the great ribeye is treated as a subject in its own right: thick-cut, salted heavily, grilled hard and served rare, with nothing on the plate to distract from the beef.

Escalopes Jai Alai

The dish the kitchen named for itself, in both veal and chicken. Medallions enclosed in egg batter, sautéed in extra-virgin olive oil, then combined with sautéed onions, mushrooms, pimento, artichoke hearts and white asparagus. This is the Basque albardado technique — a light egg-and-flour coat that protects the meat and thickens the pan sauce — taken as far as the pantry allows.

Ensalada Jai Alai

Arugula, watercress, Belgian endive, romaine, tomatoes and red onions, tossed with walnut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, grape-seed oil, balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard, and topped with brie cheese, $12.00. Not Basque in origin, but very much in the spirit of a northern Spanish table: bitter greens, good oil, one rich element.

Pollo al ajillo and the grill

Broiled half chicken with fresh garlic and extra-virgin olive oil at $18.00, alongside a broiled filet mignon at $28.00 and roast duckling in a mandarin-orange Grand Marnier sauce at $25.00. The grill was never an afterthought.

The Basque pantry

Six ingredients explain most of the menu. They are also the fastest way to cook Basque food at home.

• Extra-virgin olive oil. The menu card made a point of it: all food was prepared to order using only the finest Spanish extra-virgin olive oil. In Basque cooking it is a seasoning, not a cooking medium.
• Garlic. Slow-roasted, sliced or whole, but rarely browned hard.
• Saffron. The colour and the faint bitterness under paella and every seafood sauce on the menu.
• Sherry, brandy and Jerez wine. The backbone of the red sauces, the veal al jerez and the seafood al vino.
• Jamón serrano and chorizo. Spanish cured ham wrapped around asparagus and mango; grilled chorizo as a tapa and through the paella.
• Salt cod, shellfish and rice. The Atlantic pantry that made Bilbao and San Sebastián two of the best eating cities in Europe.

What to drink with it

The house poured sangria, red or white, with no sugar added, and wine by the glass and bottle. To match the cooking at home, look for a Txakoli from Getaria for the shellfish — light, faintly sparkling, poured from a height — and a Rioja Reserva or a Navarra for the grilled meats and the duck.