Tapas: let's hear it for the little guys

by Andrew Whittaker
May 14th, 2010

In recent years, few food types have ridden roughshod over national boundaries quite like tapas. Spain, Andalucía in particular, has served up the perfect cuisine for the modern Western world – it’s fast, culturally authentic and inherently bound to another 21st century obsession, alcohol consumption (not that we’re advocating excess; instead acknowledging that the tapeo (tapas bar crawl) in Spain is a very social tradition, in which friends, colleagues, even entire families, stroll from bar to bar sampling the likes of smoked cod, jamón serrano and tortilla (potato omelette)).

Ten years ago decent tapas rarely made it much beyond Spanish borders. Today, most good sized towns in the UK have a tapas restaurant, the best of which pay due diligence to the cultural heritage of the dishes.

Spain owes its tapas traditions to the hot, insect-infested bars of 19thcentury Andalucía where slices of bread were used to cover glasses of sherry: tapa, meaning ‘lid’, is derived from the Spanish verb tapar, to cover. In time, lumps of meat and cheese were added to the bread.

A more gentile account of its origins dates back to the 13th century when an unwell King Alfonso X owed his quick and painless recuperation from an illness to the regular sipping of restorative wine followed by reduced portions of food. His recovery was so painless that he decreed that taverns could only serve wine if accompanied by a snack. Whatever its origins, today you’re unlikely to find tapas served up free with a drink, but it is still a gratifyingly cheap way of soaking up alcohol.

Six tapas favourites

Boquerones fritos. Fried anchovies; the tiny ones are eaten whole.
Escalivada. Marinated vegetable mix featuring aubergine and red pepper.
Gambas. Prawns sautéed in the likes of garlic, peppercorn or chilli sauce.
Champiñones al ajillo. Mushrooms fried in olive oil with garlic and parsley.
Chorizo. The famous sausage served unadulterated in chunks or cooked slowly in wine (al vino).
Albóndigas con salsa de tomate. Meatballs in tomato sauce: a classic.