People like to bring home souvenirs from their holiday destinations, right?! Been there, done that. These days I am not looking anymore for t-shirts or other knick-knacks – we specialize in food now ;P Whether it’s actual food from a supermarket somewhere or simply ideas and recipes for specialties from the country and region we’ve been to. The title »Tapas Special« gives away already which country we like a lot and where we draw a lot of inspiration from when it comes to food and recipes ;)

Tapas are omnipresent in Spain. In pretty much every single bar, you can get something to nibble on with your wine or beer. Whether it’s just a few salted almonds, olives, or a few chips. When ordering a few drinks, you can always expect something to snack as well. In Germany, you have to be happy if there’s a bowl of rotten peanuts at the bar for everyone to help themselves to… just kidding ;P

We Germans love to go on holiday to Spain, whether it’s on the Balearic Islands or the mainland of Spain. I don’t exclude myself from that, of course. However, we also have a connection to Spain because of family. A visit at least once a year is mandatory – regardless of whether you want to or not (of course we do!) ;P

Since not everyone can fly to Spain all the time, we thought – why not bring a little Spanish feeling to Germany (or any other place in the world)? A few tasty tapas and a wine or beer on the balcony will certainly help. As not everyone knows how to conjure up tapas from scratch, so we thought that a small collection of the most popular tapas would be very helpful here.

I’ve been to almost every corner of Spain – not just Barcelona and Madrid ;P Every province has its regional dishes you won’t find in other parts of the country. However, some dishes have managed to spread from one region of Spain to the whole country. These are usually dishes that are also very popular with tourists because they are known way beyond the country’s borders… just think of paella ;)

I think you can say the same about tapas. There are regional specialties, but in my experience, the majority of tapas are quite similar throughout Spain. And similar to paella, tapas are also very popular with tourists. As a »Guiri« I am not taking myself out of the equation ;P

In case you are interested – I got a little overview here to show you some of the most popular tapas dishes. The pictures are all linked with the recipes, so if you want to get to the recipes, click on the recipe showing the tapa. Besides all those tapas we have some more popular Spanish dishes here on the blog: my (not so original version of) Paella with Chicken, Tortilla de Patatas, as well as Croquetas de Jamón. Just to name a few ;)

Here are some of the most popular tapas

Where do tapas actually originate?

It’s said that Spanish bars have started putting slices of stale bread (tapas) on beer and wine glasses to keep flies and other bugs from getting into the glasses. Over time, these slices of bread were topped with olives or other small snacks until, in the end, this turned into small dishes served on the side. Cute story, isn’t it?

I think that’s a very nice idea. We could have thought about something similar here in Germany – we love to drink a lot too ;P Instead chefs stuffed everyone with pork knuckles, sauerkraut, or other weird stuff ;P

By the way, I have to apologize in advance for the food pictures. Somehow they all look like they’ve been cut out of a 70s cookbook. It’s probably due to the combination of wood and rusty brown clay bowls. Colors and textures that were quite popular back then, I have a feeling. To be honest, the light in the kitchen on the day I took the pictures didn’t help much either… it was early evening and the sunlight was very yellowish ;)

¡Buen provecho!

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