What is the significance of tapas in Spain?

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BarcelonaMan

The significance/importance of tapas in Spain is varied.

Legend has it that a small plate of food was used to "TAPAR" or COVER a glass of wine or beer to protect it from flies and that's how "TAPAS" got their name. My question is, what about protecting the food on top of that plate from those same flies!? But don't worry, flies aren't generally an issue now and they no longer put the plate on top of the glass.

Tapas are usually consumed by bar customers as a mid-day snack, after work snack, or even in place of a sit down dinner. On Friday and Saturday nights people will go from bar to bar ordering one drink and get their free (or otherwise) tapa, changing the scenery and variety of food with every change of bar. It's generally a cheap way to have a good, varied dinner - but all the while (usually) standing at the bar.

Bar owners know that if they offer clients a FREE small appetizer with the purchase of a drink that the client will be happy with the detail and will return the next time - or continue drinking. IMPORTANT NOTE: the free tapa is typically only offered with the first drink ordered - not the subsequent drinks bought - although some smaller, friendlier bars will "keep 'em coming!"

Bar owners also know that drinking on an empty stomach is not healthy or wise. So if you give your clients a plate of something to help absorb the alcohol in the drink you may be more likely to stay longer and order another drink.

Lots and lots of bars in Spain still offer a free tapa with the order of any beer, wine, or even coke. The so-called "tapas bars" don't usually offer a free tapa with a drink (but some do). These bars don't even usually offer tapas for sale (kind of a contradiction, I know) but instead offer larger portions called "raciones". Finding a bar which *sells* tapa-sized-portions is difficult.

Most smaller, local bars (never clubs) will give you a free tapa of olives, peanuts, potato chips, paella, beef broth, shrimp, slice of cheese/sausage on bread, potatoes, or really anything small like that. Many of these same smaller, local bars also offer these larger "raciones" for sale and will offer more variety or just more quantity as offered as a free tapa.

GRANADA City is the king of tapas in Spain. I have so many stories of how I ordered a small beer ("caÃ±a") and they served me a large, bountiful free tapa.! My favorite and most unusual free tapa served in Granada was a plate comprised of a mid-sized steak, grilled green pepper, and fried potatoes. This was their free tapa!!??? Good lord! Most of the time, however, it's just what I've listed in the above paragraphs but sometimes the quantity served in Granada is above and beyond the free-tapa-call-of-duty!! Great tapas there.

Hope you need to go to Spain soon to experience one of Spain's great inventions (?). Anyway, Spain made tapas famous so that's good enough for me.

Saludos, MadridMan(.com)

SUE

I love this one!

Alfonso el Sabio???? Never heard that one! Either of them.

Free? hardly! In some places, they will deliver a little something while you are waiting for your lunch, but free tapas? not really. Most of them are charged, and in some places, they actually keep track of your tab with chalk, right on the bartop, in front of where you are standing. You don't sit to eat tapas, generally. You pay more to sit, in any case, and most Spaniards don't. They STAND at the bar.

Okay...the story of the origin, as *I* have heard it is this: typically, in AndalucÃa, where they originated, it gets pretty dry and dusty in the summertime, and there are a lot of flies, so people insisted that something be done about it, and the bar owners began to put a small plate on top (a tapa) of the glasses of beer. The stories I have heard always quote beer. Eventually, and enterprising barkeep or two started putting a piece of ham on the plate. Ham is very salty, making the patron thirsty, wanting to drink more, and the bar owner made more money, selling more beer. Of course, that (then free) piece of ham now costs something.

In Spain, a tapa is just a small plate of anything that might be on the menu. Instead of paying 6â‚¬ for a full ration of Paella, for instance, you order a tapa, and get a saucer, for 2â‚¬. Same dish, smaller serving. More tapas, more flavors.

In Spain, "tapeando" or tapa hopping is a major social thing. A couple of friends meet for tapas, they go to one place, and share a couple of plates and a caÃ±a (small beer), then move to the next. You might meet up with a couple of other friends in one place, share a bit, and leave them, moving on. I remember once, spending all morning, and half the afternoon with my housemates, getting all gussied up, to go down the street to a bar, and stand, some 8 of us, in a circle, visiting only with other girlfriends, and sharing a couple of plates of ensaladilla rusa.

What kills me is how the whole Tapas concept has taken hold in the US. Of course, we can't leave well enough alone. Instead of serving a little plate of whatever, we have special bars/restaurants that sell nothing but specialized dishes at super inflated prices. Very Nouvelle Cuisine. Appearance is everything...less is more...make a little bit spread out and look like a lot. Not what I think of at all.

Significance? socializing. Importance? it's what tides them over between their heavy lunch which is usually over by about two, until they are ready to eat a large dinner at around midnight.

Socializing. Almost everything in Spain is about socializing. Even work.

The thing that makes it nice for tourists, is that you can taste so many more of their dishes, if you buy them in tiny quantities.

Generally, we don't even bother with dinner, just tapas.

*edit* I have been informed that there are many places in smaller towns or certain areas, where they actually do give a free tapa with a drink. I have never heard of that before...only when you order to eat. So...updated! I'll have to go looking for such places the next time I'm there.

Paco

In many countries a bar would always serve something to eat when you order a drink. In spain, the bite size food would sit on a lid on top of your drink. From this humble beginning a whole range of cuisine developed.
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It's also more common in Spain to wander from bar to bar and having a drink and sampling each bar's specialty.
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As Spain becomes as wealthy as much of the rest of Europe this practice is diminishing. It is not very efficient for a bar to serve one drink and a bite of food, and then have them wander to somewhere else. The tapas are getting bigger and more expensive so that someone eats a whole meal in one place.

zafir

Tapas can be practically anything from a chunk of tuna, cocktail onion and an olive skewered on a long toothpick to meat with sauce served piping hot in a miniature clay dish. They are served day in and day out in every bar and cafÃ© in Spain. So much a part of the culture and social scene that the Spanish people invented the verb tapear which means to go and eat tapas!

In most regions, you must order and pay for a raciÃ³n or serving, but in the province of Granada, one tapa is complimentary with each round of drinks ordered. Tapas keep the Spanish fueled for their long journeys from bar to bar before their mid-day meal and in the evening before dinner.

The Origin of Tapas
There are several stories about the origin of tapas, which are a part of the folklore:

It is told that King Alfonso X, el Sabio or â€œthe Wise One,â€ made sure that Castilian taverns serve wine accompanied by something to eat, so that the wine would not go straight to the clients' heads.

Another story claims that while on a long trip, King Alfonso had stopped to rest in the town of Ventorillo del Chato in the province of CÃ¡diz, and he ordered a glass of jerez or sherry. There was a gusty wind, so the inn keeper served him his glass of sherry covered by a slice of ham to prevent the sherry from getting dirty. King Alfonso apparently liked it, and when he asked for a second glass, he requested another tapa or â€œcoverâ€ just like the first.

Whatever the true origin of tapas, prepare one or several, then enjoy them like the Spanish do â€“ with a glass of wine and a relaxed attitude. Â¡Ah! Divinoâ€¦ or Divineâ€¦

bri

i have been to spain many times tapas is a bar counter food u go in get a drink and the food is free to nibble on like nuts ,patato chips things to dip in ect

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