Making of a guidebook: Understanding (and misunderstanding) tapas
ENTRY XIII
Based on their experiences with US restaurants that make “tapas” a series of small, expensive plates that you eat successively in the same place, we find most Americans unprepared for the real thing in Madrid. One night of making the peripatetic rounds of classic tapas bars on Plaza Santa Ana can correct the misunderstandings. Tapas are supposed to be a moveable feast. You enter your first bar at 6 p.m. to order a drink and the specialty tapa of the house. Then you walk to the next bar and repeat. You keep doing this until 10 p.m., when the restaurants open for dinner. Thus, in Plaza Santa Ana you have smoked trout at La Trucha, cod-stuffed red peppers at La Venencia, tuna empanadas at Tia Cebolla, and patatas bravas (fried potatoes in spicy paprika sauce) at Las Bravas. Moreover, tapas are cheap—a euro or two and often free with the drink.
Posted by David Lyon, Globe Correspondent
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