Tapas
appetizer or snack in Spanish cuisine
Tapas (Spanish: [ˈtapa]) are appetisers or snacks in Spanish cuisine. They can be combined to make a full meal and are served cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or hot (such as chopitos, which are battered, fried baby squid; or patatas bravas, spicy potatoes). In some bars and restaurants in Spain and across the globe, tapas have evolved into sophisticated cuisine. In some Central American countries, such snacks are known as bocas. In parts of Mexico, similar dishes are called botanas.
An individual appetizer (or single order of an item) is a tapa.
History
The word "tapas", a plural, is derived from the Spanish verb tapar, "to cover". There are multiple theories about the origin of the use of the term for appetizers.
Tapas have evolved through Spanish history by incorporating new ingredients and influences. Most of the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Romans in 218 B.C., who introduced more extensive cultivation of the olive and irrigation methods following their arrival.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Tapas” is appetizer or snack in Spanish cuisine. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Tapas, appetizer and snack, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tapas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.