Every third Thursday in June is World Tapas Day, celebrating a traditional way of serving food in Spain (usually served with a libation). This year, it falls on June 20th.
What is Tapas?
Popular throughout Spain, tapas are festive and delicious appetizers and snacks from bite-size pintxos (pronounced like pinch-ohs), as they are referred to in the Northern Basque region of Spain, to shared small plates that make up a meal. Traditional tapas is really just a small portion of any kind of food, ranging from potatoes, fried squid, Spanish omelet, slices of dry meat, chorizo, fritters, olives, and more.
History of, and How to Eat Tapas
The story goes that tapas started as small slices of meat or bread served in bars that customers could use to cover their drinks to keep flies out. In fact, “tapas” means “to cover” in Spanish. In many traditional pintxos bars, the food must be small enough to be skewered with a toothpick, which helps it to balance on top of a glass of wine, cider, or beer. And, bar style, tapas/pintxos are generally eaten while standing at or near the bar. Once eaten, the toothpicks are discarded on the floor, which must make for quite the nightly cleanup!
Tapas bars are generally enjoyed as a “happy hour” type of quick bite and drink after work. Since it’s typical for people in Spain to eat dinner quite late by American standards (9 or 10pm is not unusual), the small bites are a great way to tide you over until you eat a full meal later.
The observance of World Tapas Day was created in 2016 by Spain’s tourism agency, Turespaña, to celebrate local cuisine with the rest of the world!
How to Celebrate World Tapas Day
Why, eat some, of course! If you don’t happen to live in a city that boasts a tapas/pintxos bar around the corner, you can always make your own. Here, Food & Wine magazine shares some of their favorite Spanish Tapas/Pintxos recipes for your to try at home.
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