26 June 2009

Barcelona Part III: Tapas


Je ne pourrais pas complèter mon tour virtuel de Barcelone sans vous parler de tapas, ces apératifs omniprésent dans la culture espagnole. Il y a plusieurs légendes qui racontent l'origine des tapas, mais presque tout le monde est d'accord qu'au début il s'agissait de tranches de pain, de fromage ou de jambon avec lesquelles on couvrait les boissons pour ne pas que les mouches ou la poussière tombent dedans.

I don't think I could rightly complete this virtual tour of Barcelona without talking about tapas, the ubiquitous Spanish appetizers that have evolved practically into a cultural myth! There are a few different legends about the origin of tapas, but it's generally agreed that they were originally slices of bread or cheese or ham that bartenders placed over a drink so flies and dust would not get in.

We opted out of trying this place with its approximate spelling and its "appetizers" of dubious origin.
Nous avons évité ce café avec son orthographe approximative et ses "apéros" d'origine douteuse.


Traditionnellement, les tapas se mangent à l'heure de l'apéro en France (les espagnols dînent vers 22 ou 23h), mais maintenant on trouve des bars et restaurants qui servent les tapas toute la journée. Il serait même possible d'aller en Espagne et de ne manger que des tapas (après un bon petit-déjeuner de chocolat chaud et churros, bien sûr), et c'est tentant ! Avec D., mes parents, et ma soeur, nous avons commandé plein de ces petits plats à partager - c'était à la fois délicieux et convivial.

Traditionally eaten around American dinner time with a drink (the Spanish eat dinner around 10 or 11pm), you can now find bars and restaurants that serve tapas all day long. In fact, you could go to Spain and eat nothing but tapas (after your hot chocolate and churros for breakfast, of course ;-)), and it's tempting to do so. With D. and my parents and sister, we often ordered a bunch of different ones and shared, which was both delicious and convivial.


Notre préféré, et un des tapas les plus répandus, était les patatas bravas, vu ci-dessus avec ses deux sauces : une salée, l'autre piquante.

Our favorite, and one of the most widespread tapas are patatas bravas, seen below with two sauces: one savory, one spicy.


Maintenant, il faut juste que j'apprenne à les faire à la maison !

Now I just have to learn to make them at home!

9 comments:

Maria said...

It all looks great! Would love to visit Barcelona.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Mmmhh, now I'm hungry!!!

Cheers,

Rosa

Ivy said...

Now, I definitely want to visit Barcelona.

Hopie said...

Maria - Thanks! It's certainly a beautiful city.

Rosa - That's the danger of reading food blogs ;-)

Ivy - Guess I did my job well then ;-) Hope you get the chance someday!

giz said...

The whole tapas culture is such a great way to really get the flavours of so many things without having to order just "a meal". I love it.

Hopie said...

Giz - I know! Me too. I love have lots of little tastes of different yummy things :-)

Anonymous said...

Yikes! You need to send that sign in to the blog of unnecessary quotation marks! ;)

Sam said...

I love tapas it's such a fun way to eat! I really like being able to try so many different dishes rather than just one meal.

Cicero Sings said...

That last dish looks delish ... so when you learn to make them ...