Culinary Chitchat: Tapas My Ass!

I’ve stumbled on a little secret the rest of the world has been hiding from us, not intentionally of course. Having been in kitchens my whole life I’ve noticed a few things about dining out. There’s always a table that orders an abundance of food but looks absolutely miserable; they eat quickly, quietly, and leave. Then there’s a table with the same amount of food but there’s conversation, laughter and lingering over coffee. What’s the difference? Sharing.

Having been travelling for the past few years I’ve learned a few things about dining in different cultures. To me, what stands out most is not the differences but what’s the same and that brings me to tapas. You know those little dishes that are sized to feed a cat and you need to order at least 10 of them to have a decent meal?

Everyone has gone out for Spanish style tapas… It's been all the rage for quite a while now. A party sits down to a table full of little dishes and someone remarks, “Wow, plates to share, what a great idea!” Well, I've got news for you.

According to The Joy of Cooking, the original tapas were thin slices of bread or meat that sherry drinkers in Andalusian taverns used to cover their glasses between sips; much the way we use beer coasters now. Sherry is sweet so this acted as a practical measure meant to prevent fruit flies from hovering. The meat used to cover the sherry was normally ham or chorizo, both very salty, activating thirst, which in turn caused merrymakers to order more sherry. Ever the business people, bartenders and restaurant owners created a variety of snacks to serve with sherry, thus increasing their alcohol sales. The tapas (appetizer) eventually became as important as the sherry.

Tapas is an appetizer and not a style of service. It got me thinking about how I’ve been cheated into thinking that only Spanish food could be served in this manner. Vietnamese, Egyptians, Israelis, Lebanese, Greeks, and many more cultures have been serving food in this style long before the Spanish...hell the Chinese have been doing it since before Christ.

The tradition, as most do, derives from necessity. For thousands of years food was difficult to acquire and even more difficult to store. Even now in many parts of the world, food, except for the basic essentials, is a luxury. Meals are communal, served out of one pot and meant as nourishment for the body and soul.

The idea of a meal as an instagramable moment or of one person ordering an appetizer, entree and desert to eat on their own at a table full of people doing the same is its own form of arrogance and entitlement and only adds to the 1.6 billion tons of food being wasted globally. Unfortunately, this is the norm in many western countries and it’s a shame how they are missing out. In the west we think of sharing a meal as an individual event sitting down at the same table but not really engaging together with the food. We tie food to the event and not the who and what, and miss out on the fun.

The rest of this world sees things differently. I’m definitely looking at food differently and so should you. Next meal walk-in with your group with a plan to share: share the food; share the drinks; and share the bill evenly. Everyone orders an appetizer, add to that a main course or two, and enough sharing plates for the table. Put the phones away, instagram has enough food shots, have a great conversation and a lot of laughs.

Every culture has a word for appetizer and often they are divided into two lists: warm and chilled.

A little lost with where to start on the menu? Look for the following terms:

meze, dim sum, pincho, perekuska, smorgasborgh, pu pu platter, Hors d'erves, antipasto, zakusky, and of course tapas and appetizers.