
Even most people who have never even been to Spain have heard of tapas. The tradition of sampling a number of small plates of various types of snacks over a couple of beers or glasses of wine with friends is synonymous with this country.
Tapas restaurants have caught on in recent years and are now to be found around the globe – and the food isn’t necessarily just Spanish now either, but it’s rather the concept that has caught on. There’s even a “World Tapas Day” that takes place on 16 June every year – not that you’d notice around here as it can be a tapas day every day in Spain!
The origins of tapas?
The Spanish verb tapar means to cover, and the noun “tapa” means a cover or a lid. There is no one single story accepted as the definitive one as to how the tradition began, but here are some of the better-known ones. One version of the origin of the name of these bite-sized dishes comes from the custom of a small dish with a snack being placed on top of glasses of jerez (Xérès-Sherry) to prevent flies from finding their way into the sweet wine and drowning. (Too many flies were dying needlessly!)
Another version says that King Alonso XIII placed a slice of ham on top of his glass of jerez to prevent sand from getting into it on a very windy day at a beachside tavern in Cádiz – the capital city of the province in which Jerez is found. When he ordered a second glass, he asked for it “con una tapa” – with a tapa – and then all the members of his royal court promptly followed suit.
Yet another story claims that another Alfonso, King Alfonso X became unwell and was advised by his doctor to drink wine along with small portions of food to help regain his strength, and he ended up liking it so much that he ordered that, from that moment forth, alcohol should always be served with an accompanying morsel of food. (Tapas definitely seem to be an “Alfonso” thing anyway!)
Tavern owners soon realized that by serving the snacks with drinks, their patrons didn’t get drunk quite so quickly and ended up staying longer and drinking and spending more money. Makes sense really. Other innkeepers used to serve slices of strongly flavoured cured meat or chunks of particularly pungent cheese as a means of masking the taste of inferior-quality wine.
Whether any, or indeed, all of the stories are true, the word for the dish that covered your drink ended up becoming the name of the snack itself. There are even more theories and stories as to where the name came from, but we think that’ll do for here and now!
So what exactly are tapas today?
The custom of going out for a few tapas has even developed into a verb of its own: tapear – not to be confused with tapar, which means “to cover”, remember? So, “vamos a tapear” effectively means let’s go out for a few tapas, probably in a few different bars around town.
As for what the tapa might consist of, well, that depends entirely on where you are. Over the centuries, various peoples such as the Phoenicians, Romans and Moors brought new ingredients to the Iberian Peninsula, and later the Spanish themselves brought back others from their own conquests in the “New World”. All of these ingredients can still be found today in Spanish cuisine – including in tapas.
There is no one tapa dish but rather an almost infinite variety according to what region you are in and even what bar you are in. And that’s the fun of it; no two bars have quite the same selection of tapas.
What are pintxos then?
Pintxos, basically, are just a slightly different take on the whole concept and are especially associated with Euskadi, or the Basque Country, and its surrounding regions. In Spanish, the verb “pinchar” means “to pierce” or “to puncture” and so “pinchos” get their name from the Basque method of holding the morsel of food together on a piece of bread by “spearing” it with a small stick, like a toothpick, which is called a pintxo in Euskera (the Basque Language). In Castellano (Spanish) this is spelt “pincho”.

The Basque country, and the city of Donostia (San Sebastián) in particular, is generally regarded all over Spain as having the best pintxos, and if you find yourself in a Basque bar, you will probably notice that the pintxos are a bit more elaborate than regular tapas and many are very impressive visually. Traditionally Basque taverns will have a range of dishes on display on the bar, and customers grab themselves an empty plate and then help themselves to whatever takes their fancy from the bar.
A word of advice: when picking up your chosen pintxo, don’t try to pick it up by the stick but rather by the piece of bread underneath. That way, you’ll avoid having it fall apart and make a mess, and leave you looking like the amateur you are!
So what’s the difference?
Well, as we mentioned, it all depends on where you are in the country. There is a mistaken theory that the key difference between tapas and pintxos is that the former are free and the latter are paid for – but this is untrue and may land you in an embarrassing situation if you have been helping yourself to a feed of tapas believing them to have been given out for free by the establishment, only to then be presented with a hefty bill! There are no hard and fast rules that apply everywhere in Spain, so if in doubt, it’s best just to ask.
Take the cities of Granada and Sevilla, for instance, both in Andalucía. If you order a drink in Granada you will almost always be given an accompanying tapa de la casa on the house. In Sevilla, on the other hand, you will pay for your tapa. In the Basque Country, as we have already explained, the tapas are almost always in the form of pintxos and are not given out for free. In other parts of Spain, some bars might offer you a free tapa, maybe just a bowl of olives, with your drink, while others in the same town might not.

A good general rule of thumb is that if your server puts down a snack that you did not ask for with your drink, then it’s probably on the house. If, on the other hand, they explain to you what a particular snack is and ask you if you’d like one, chances are it’s not free. Sometimes foreigners who are unfamiliar with the system think this is a sneaky ruse by the bar to charge people for snacks they didn’t really want, but this is not the case. Spaniards visiting other parts of their own country are often just as unsure as any foreigner because there is no one single system! As we said, if in doubt, just ask.
To go tapeando is one of the most Spanish culinary experiences there is. Just as Spain is a collection of diverse cultures and independently-minded regions, so sampling the traditions of each region through the medium of tapas is a bit like experiencing Spain itself.

How does it work?
Again, it depends! If the food is behind glass on the bar countertop, obviously you order by simply asking for (or pointing to) what you want, and the bartender will serve you. Don’t worry if you’re not sure what each thing is, that’s half the fun – and half the Spanish won’t know either! A lot of bars will have their own tapas dishes designed in-house, so just ask your bartender and (s)he’ll be happy to explain each one. These dishes may be hot or cold – you’ve guessed it – depending on the bar!
In other taverns, there will be a menu for you to choose the hot dishes from, and these are prepared to order. This menu will often be a chalkboard on the wall and will change frequently.
If you are in a Basque-style pintxos tavern, now popular all over Spain, especially in larger towns and cities, the cold pintxos will be on display on the bar for you to choose from, and it is simply a question of grabbing a plate and helping yourself. Occasionally you might not see a stack of plates and may need to ask for one, and, if the bartender doesn’t pass you one but rather asks what you’d like, it means you just point, and (s)he’ll pick out your selections for you.
Hot pintxos can also be ordered, but as the bar gets busier, usually around 21:00 or so, they will typically start turning out hot pintxos by the tray, and the wait staff will go around the restaurant calling out the names of each dish. If you fancy the look of it, just take one!
Apart from holding your pintxo together, those wee sticks serve another purpose too, in that they keep track of how many pintxos you have eaten. Different sizes mean different prices, and your sticks are counted up at the end to calculate your bill. This is largely an honour-based system, but if you are tempted to “lose” a couple of sticks, don’t! Bar staff in pintxo bars are usually very impressively good at keeping track of what you’ve eaten, sticks or no sticks!
Of course, not every single pintxo comes on bread with a toothpick, and some are served in small dishes. Again, the size of the dish tells you what the price is. Tapas or pintxos typically range in price from around €1.50 to €4 – again, you guessed it, depending on the place. Seafood tapas are typically more expensive.
In some cities in Spain, the messier a tapas bar looks probably means it is one of the better and more popular places in town. To this end, when patrons leave to move on to another bar the staff will usually clean the bar counter by sweeping the used hand tissues onto the floor. To foreigners, this may appear dirty but, to locals, it means “this place is probably good as it looks popular”. Of course, if you see waiters crumpling clean tissues and throwing them onto the floor to appear busier, that’s a different matter entirely! We’ve seen it happen!
Raciones
Unlike in the military, where “rations” probably mean you’ll have less to eat, in tapas bars in Spain you can order a larger version of your tapa dish by asking for a ración. This is a handy option for when you want to share a dish between two or three people. We realize we’ve used the phrase “it depends on where you are” quite a lot here, but that’s only because it does depend!
Sometimes raciones are about double the size of a tapa, other times, they might look more like a full-size dish – and there may even be a media ración option too. Some dishes are served only as raciones as tapas would just be too small. As we’ve already mentioned, there are no hard and fast rules, so don’t be afraid to just ask as you won’t look silly.

Gantxotapas: Sant Felu de Guíxols
The seaside town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols hosts a gastronomic campaign called Gantxotapas twice a year, once in the spring and again in the autumn. Several participating restaurants offer a signature tapa with a drink (a glass of wine, beer or water) for €3, and customers can vote for the ones they think are best by picking up a booklet that they can get stamped as they go from each place to the next as they sample the dishes. Once you have tried at least ten different tapas and gotten the stamps, you can then cast your vote and drop off your booklet at the Tourish Office to be in with a chance of winning a prize!
There are three levels of prizes: 1st band, booklets that have between 10 and 17 stamps; 2nd band, booklets with 18 to 26 stamps; and 3rd band, booklets with 27 stamps or more. Don’t forget to fill in your name and contact details, though! The booklets can be picked up at participating restaurants or at the Tourist Office, and you can read more about it on their website.
Give it a lash!
There are several ways to NjOY! eating out in Spain, including a menú del día, a special tasting menu in certain restaurants, or just ordering from la carta. Probably the best part of the whole tradition of tapas and pintxos though, apart from the social aspect, is that you get to sample so many different tastes and dishes in one sitting, or at least in one evening. It is particularly enjoyable when almost everything looks new or unfamiliar, so just dive in and give it a lash!
It’d be almost rude not to!