Intro to Tapas (by Michelle)

Yikes, lest everyone read Eva's blog below and think that I am an unfit mother, I think I better explain a few things about eating-out in Spain. First, unlike in the U.S. it is a very normal thing to take a child into a bar and also very normal for children to be out and about with their parents very late at night. (I'll blog about the Spanish schedule later this week.)

Tapas is a long tradition in Spain and many, maybe most, restaurants and bars here offer tapas. They are a sort of appetizer or snack that is often eaten standing or sitting at the counter. When one "goes out to do tapas" with a group of friends often the group "bar-hops" and samples a tapas or two here and there. Once you have gotten tapas at a few places you've pretty much had a meal. Most people do tapas and drink alcohol, but there is always the option of bottled water or soda.

We haven't done lots of tapas (it seems trickier with 3 kids who can't reach the bar), but here are a few of my favorites. I LOVE the shrimp at the La Casa Del Abuelo (David points out that is "a sweet change" in my attitude towards fish. "I hope that you are now inspired, go home and to try to discover how to cook that yourself and then my joy will be complete.") I didn't try the shrimp that you have to take off the head, but these little ones that come sizzling in oil with garlic and a pepper in a clay bowl -YUM. Eva didn't say so, but we actually went for shrimp at this place twice in the same night - first thing and then again right before we went home!

I also love the patatas bravas at a place called Las Bravas. The sauce is so good that they have patented their recipe. It is one of the few spicy things that I've had here. It is a tomato based sauce, sort of like a smoother/milder buffalo wings sauce. The potatoes are french fried and usually not at all greasy and inside the potato is soft and almost creamy. I keep craving them.

In the Basque Country tapas are called pintxos (pronounced peenchos) where they have taken this tradition to artistic levels. It almost has a competative air about it that I sensed when walking around the old part of Donostia. It seems like 50% of the shops there are bars and all have fancy counter tops full of snacks with toothpicks for sale. Here is a shot that I took inside a bar before it opened in the evening. Frankly I haven't tried enough to say much more. Many of them looked strange (sardines and melon on a cracker?) to me, but pintxos are very popular and I need to try more. Here is a photo in a window one night before a bar opened in the evening.

'Before it opened?' you ask? Yes, restaurants and bar open notoriously late here. Most don't serve dinner until after 8:30 and it isn't abnormal for people to be starting dinner at 11 or later at night! This was frustrating and difficult when we were first here, but it is much easier now. We are used to it now. I'll do more on tapas if I can get some good pictures and make some time to explore a little.