The Thing About Tapas...

Well, there's not really a thing about them, other than that you (meaning I) will always want more. They are great.

Lucy and I tried a fair amount of tapas while we were in Sevilla, Granada, and Cadiz. Lucy was even a giant champ and chomped down on some octupus and fried calamari when she might normally not go for the shellfish. But we had a great time trying all of these little things because it let us unwind, socialize (even though we're never really far from socializing with each other) and do a little people watching without the burden of a whole meal put in front of us.

In Sevilla, we tried the tapas in a more traditional way: standing up, in a packed bodega or two. At one place we snacked on a plate of spinach and garbanzos and on another solomillo al whiskey, which is sauteed pork tenderloin atop fried potatoes with a whiskey sauce. Since it was getting so crowded we hopped over to an old-school looking bodega right near the cathedral, where we ordered the ubiquitous calamares fritos and a small pork sandwich.

Granada was a special place because apparently it is one of the last cities where a drink is accompanied by a free tapa, usually of the bartender's choosing. We slipped into an old, wooden, almost-empty bar around 6pm where Lucy and I both ordered some white wine. The bartender whipped around the corner and came back with a serving of boquerones fritos, which are small anchovies fried up and heaped up on a plate for you to devour whole, tiny little bones and all. The next round was a dish of sliced pulpo (octopus) marinated in red peppers, onions, and olive oil that was so tender I didn't even realize it was shellfish. Another round brought some sliced lomo de cerdo (pork loin) on bread. All for the price of the drinks!

I also received a weird tapa of some sort of long, rectangular-shelled (almost tubular, but flat) that tasted like a combination of mussel, clam, and scallop. Its pretty safe to say almost anything put in front of you, for free, will be pretty tasty.








If you don't want to sit or stand at the bar, you can still get the goods but don't call them tapas, which seem to be pretty much only served at the bar by the bartender. The same plates are available in raciones which are plates big enough for four to share, or a meal for one, or in the half-size media raciones. In Cadiz one night, Lucy and I enjoyed some queso curado (cured goats milk cheese) and jamon iberico (the best of the cured hams) with a couple glasses of wine.





Another thing I really, really, enjoyed on those hot Spanish afternoons was the red Rioja wine served almost cold. I could almost go for one right now, if they had it in Morocco...