In Spain, food is a big deal. And also a small deal.
Tapas, or small appetizers, are almost synonymous with Spanish cuisine.
“It’s important to understand the concept of tapas, small plates that are meant to be shared in a bar setting,” says Claudio Urcuioli, chef de cuisine at Prado in Paradise Valley. “It’s just one or two bites.
“They’re interesting because you have many different flavors based on seafood, the meat, cold cuts, the cheeses. You can have 10 different tapas and that can be your meal.”
Tapas can be cold, such as olives or cheese, or hot, such as meatballs or fried squid. Some tapas are offered in larger portions as entrees, but most are not.
“I wouldn’t serve a tortilla de patata, which is the famous potato omelet from Spain, as an entrée or an appetizer in the restaurant,” says Urciuoli, who spent a month in southern Spain to prepare for Prado’s opening. “We use it just as a little bite to tempt the palate.
“The same with a rustic bread and a nice boquerone, which is white anchovy. Very delicate. I wouldn’t use it as an appetizer. I’d just use it as a little bite with an olive maybe.”
• Related: The reign of Spain: Country’s cuisine is red-hot in the East Valley
Aaron May, chef at Scottsdale’s Sol y Sombra, also has seen the Spanish infatuation with tapas firsthand.
“In Barcelona and Madrid, the whole afternoon and evening is about the ‘tapeo,’ the walk of the tapas,” he says. “You go eat everywhere. Everything comes with food. You order a beer and they give you food to eat. It’s not like beer nuts in America — they give you real food, like a piece of bread with a beautiful sardine on it and a poquillo pepper.”
In Spain, May says, bars will put out a large tortilla de patata and customers will get small pieces all day.
“There are a lot of place in Phoenix that call themselves tapas, but they’re not really Spanish at all,” May says. “They serve small plates of food and call them them tapas. There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what tapas really are because of that.”
At his north Scottsdale eatery, May has been surprised at what tapas Valley diners will try — and not try.
“I’m surprised how much people here eat snails and some of the more exotic stuff, but they won’t go near organ meat, which is a hallmark of Spanish — of any European — food.”
In an effort to get customers to be more adventurous, May will begin to offer pinchos, one-bite tapas on a small piece of bread or a skewer, at Sol y Sombra’s bar. All will be priced less than $4.
“Maybe you wouldn’t want to spend $11 to order the octopus, but maybe for $2 you want to try the octupus,” he says. “So we’ll send you out a little piece of octupus with black olives and grapefruit or whatever.
“We’ll see how far we can get people to go. Maybe you’ll try blood sausage if it’s just one bite and it’s a dollar. So you can come in, spend five or 10 bucks and have four or five different pinchos with a glass of beer.”
Twitter
Facebook