tapas |
english |
Difino
| • | See Tapas (Sanskrit) for the spiritual concept. Tapas are essentially snacks. In many regions of Spain they are often included in the price of drinks (beer, wine, not soft drinks or spirits) served in bars. In this case, they can amount to as little as a few olives, a piece of cheese, or something more substantial like a pork stew. Bigger portions that are ordered to make up part of a meal are called raciones. The portions are usually shared by diners, and a meal made up of raciones resembles a Middle Eastern mezze or a shared Chinese meal. The Spanish eat dinner late, and often go "bar hopping" and eating tapas in the time between finishing work and having a full meal. Some believe that it is this constant change of bars that helps keep the participants of a "tapas crawl" awake. Tapa means "cover" in Spanish. While there exist various explanations for the etymology of "tapa", a commonly cited explanation is that an item, be it bread or a flat card, etc., would often be placed on top of a drink to protect it from fruit flies; at some point it became a habit to top this "cover" with a snack. Equally popular is the theory that it "covered" the appetite between finishing work and eating the evening meal, usually sometime after 10pm.In the Philippines, this ࢀ&#-2333;overࢀ&#-2336;evolved to become a thin strip of beef which is nowadays eaten, along with rice, as a full meal, usually for breakfast. In parts of southern Spain (Andalucía), when you go to a bar and order a drink, you get a tapa for free. This happens mostly in the province of Jaén, Granada and Córdoba but it is not very common in the rest of Andalusia, where you have to pay for both the drink and the tapa. They are also called pinchos/pintxos, because many of them have a pincho, or toothpick through them. This is used to keep whatever the Source: [wikipedia: tapas] |
spanish:european
| The Elegant Chef: Tapas | ||
| article about the traditional spanish appetizers, with recipes. | ||
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