Tapas Culture

Tapas are small savory dishes, from simple items such as olives and cured ham to elaborate miniature versions of main courses, traditionally served alongside a drink in Spanish bars; tapear, going out for tapas and often moving between several bars in one evening, is a distinct social practice of informal, itinerant grazing with friends. Spain's own Real Academia de Gastronomia states plainly that the practice's precise historical origin is lost in legend; one popular account credits King Alfonso X of Castile, who reigned 1252 to 1284, with beginning the custom of taking small food portions with wine during an illness, while another attributes it to the Andalusian practice of covering, tapar, drinks with bread or cheese to keep out flies and dust. Neither legend is treated as documented historical fact by the Real Academia or by Britannica, both of which describe the origin as genuinely uncertain. The Real Academia frames tapas as a sign of identity associated with Spanish gastronomic culture and character, describing tapeo as a lifestyle uniting friendship and culture practiced in an itinerant manner, and notes Spain has pursued UNESCO recognition for the tradition.