What is Tapas?

Frequently asked questions

What is tapas? Prices and regular eating times

The price of a tapa varies depending on its ingredients, the complexity of its elaboration, the bar, and the city or region. But as a rule of thumb you can expect tapas to cost from 1,5 to 4 euros. The media racion (half plate) and racion (full plate) are bigger and cost a bit more as they are intended to be shared by a group.

At lunch you can have tapas from around 1pm up to 3pm. At dinner people start eating tapas around 9pm and end at 11pm or even midnight. I told you, in Spain the usual eating times in other parts of the world are not respected!

If you are starving or really can't make it until then, you can still go to plenty of bars to eat. But most of the time you'll end up in a bar full of tourists (yes, other people couldn't make it too) or at an almost empty bar without any atmosphere.

What is tapas? Ingredients

Similar to the rest of Spanish gastronomy, tapas are part of the Mediterranean diet. Therefore, the basic ingredients are olive oil, garlic, onion, all sorts of fish and seafood and a wide variety of pork products. Now that tapas have evolved into a more sophisticated dish you'll find almost every ingredient you can think of -from white truffle to foie-.

In terms of fish the range is really broad (e.g. salt cod, tuna, squid, prawns...). Regarding the meat, depending on the regions beef and lamb will be included in the menu although the big star is pork. Every single part of the animal is used.

And if you are a cheese lover you'll be happy to know that there are more than 100 different types of cheese in Spain? (from the goat, the sheep and cows).

What is tapas? Vegetarians

Unfortunately, it is very rare to find a Spaniard who is a vegetarian. As a consequence, the food has not been adapted in this regard. Even those tapas that look "undoubtedly" vegetarian will have some meat or fish.

Just to give some examples, the classic ensaladilla (potato salad) comes with prawns and the grilled mushrooms are served with dices of jamon serrano. Not really veggie, huh?

In my opinion the best solution is to ask the waiter for tapas without meat or fish. In Spanish that would be: "Soy vegetariano/a. ¿Que tapas tiene sin carne ni pescado?". Or, you can always take the non-vegetarian stuff out as one of my best friends does!

What is tapas? Recipes

There are no specific tapas ingredients, you can make your tapas with anything you like. So you can keep it simple or you can make it as complicated as you like.

Actually, there are thousands of tapas recipes! Just pick the one that appeals the most to you and give it a try... :-)

The whole point of tapear (bar hopping) or organizing a tapas party at home is to enjoy the company of friends while eating some delicious food. So even though the food and cooking are important, tapas are basically a way to eat in a social setting.

Apart from discovering additional curiosities on tapas, you can read more on the history of tapas, how to organize great tapas parties and recipes for tapas as well!

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