Tapas and Shared Plates — a Spanish Cultural Phenomenon

The main meal of the day is usually eaten at home around 2 pm. People then go back to work around 4 pm and finish about 8 pm. After work they prefer a light meal — and this is prime tapeo time. It’s then that the streets come alive with well-dressed groups of people, all intent on enjoying themselves with a beer or a glass of wine and sharing a few plates of something small. These little plates may include a small pyramid of tiny pale-orange prawns, deep-fried, served cold and eaten whole. There may be some wafer-thin slices of jamón or an earthenware plate with morsels of succulent lamb. These little plates are called tapas. Originally a Madrid tradition of offering discs or ‘tops’ of bread to keep flies out of wine glasses, the dishes became more elaborate and the tradition spread nationwide. Today, eating tapas is a global phenomenon — a long, slow, grazing process of little nibbles from lots of really, really good plates of food. Not just the fuel to keep old and young alike out to all hours enjoying the cool of the evening, tapas are also flavoursome little highlights that punctuate the night and create a fleeting area of focus around which everyone comes together.