Los bares de tapas: a revolutionary method of fine dining

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that I love food and everything about it.  I owe my mature taste for food and appreciation of its quality to my loving and wonderful parents, who I will be forever indebted to for many things, but especially for transferring their passion for food and the adventures that go along with it.  Not only do I have an ever present appetite for food in general, but also for new and exotic food.  As difficult as it is for me to decide what type of food is my very favorite, I would have to say that sushi is pretty high on that list, and has been since before sushi became a trendy new fad across the United States.

That being said, I came to Spain knowing that one of the things I would be spending the majority of my Euros on would be food.  How many times in my life am I going to have the chance to come to Europe and eat European food?  Since money doesn't grow on trees, I would have to say that the opportunity to consume Spanish food whenever I please for a relatively cheap price will not be at my fingertips very often after the conclusion of this semester.

I can hardly begin to describe all of the wonderful things I have eaten so far, and I have been here less than a week! However, last night was probably one of my favorite food experiences I have had abroad thus far.  For last night's adventure, a group of eight of us decided to go to a bar de tapas.  For those of you who have never heard of this common Spanish tradition, I will explain briefly.  A bar de tapas is, as you may have gathered, a type of bar that also serves small portions of various types of food.  The idea of going to a bar de tapas is to go with a group of people who each order a couple of tapas (small dishes) each, and then to either continue the night by going bar hopping and trying small tapas at each place or to simply stay at one tapas bar and each try a little bit of what everyone else in the group ordered.

Ensalada mixta y pulpo a la gallega

Last night, we chose the second option.  I ordered an ensalada mixta (mixed salad) and pulpo a la gallega (octopus).  Many of mis amigas were absolutely horrified that I was willing to eat octopus, but hey, I'm in Spain so why not! Once the tapas were delivered to our table, we each took sample bites of everyone else's tapas that they ordered.  Chloé also ordered pulpo a la gallega, and we both agreed that it was absolutely delicious and extremely flavorful as well.  Between the two of us, I think we convinced the majority of the other girls to try at least one piece as well.  My ensalada was just alright, I probably won't waste my time or Euros on that again.  Other than my slightly average salad, everything else was absolutely amazing.  Some of the other tapas I sampled included una tortilla Española, crepes con chocolate, one enchilada, and many others with names that escape me.

¡Otras tapas deliciosas!

This form of eating was absolutely heavenly for a person such as I; or in other words, someone who appreciates exotic food, is open to trying new food, and has a normally insatiable appetite.  It's also a perfect way to try a lot of new things all at once for an extremely cheap cost.  The particular bar de tapas that we attended was called El Tapón, a place extremely close to our apartment with an atmosphere that gave us the impression it was definitely one of the hot spots of Alcalá.  My new motto for the next bar de tapas I visit: eat first, ask questions later.