Tapear!

Vibrant, energetic, thrilling, full of life –these adjectives can be used to portray anything that is present in Spain; whether it is their delicious food or cheerful people. In the last Christmas holidays, I got the opportunity to indulge myself in the vast Spanish ethnicity. My first destination in Spain was Bilbao; a famous tourist city for the incredible architecture of Guggenheim Museum. As a student of architecture it has been one of my most fantasized travel destinations for a long time. In the morning, after fulfilling my architectural hunger about the Museum, I set off to find out some place which can literally fulfil my hunger with luscious Spanish cuisine. I entered in a bar with a counter full of mouth-watering foods; typically known as ‘tapas’. Here, I should confess that the sight of tapas on that counter drove me away from my primary intention of tasting a complete Spanish meal; rather I stuffed myself with 8-10 different types of tapas. Basically what I found is that tapas are not a full meal in Spanish cuisine; it can be anything, starting from a slice of bread or hum to marinated olives, from potato pan cakes to a miniature version of any special dish of Spanish cuisine. Looking at the different colours, varieties of ‘tapas’, suddenly it came to my mind that tapas is the perfect element that can represent vivacious, versatile Spanish culture. Though tapas vary a lot from bar to bar, place to place and cities to cities, it is less important what someone is eating; more important is how someone is eating. The way of eating tapas clearly describe the high-spirited characteristics of Spanish people. The finger food ‘tapas’ allows someone not to concentrate on the food, rather gives the space to make conversation with others. Thus the most liberal, interactive nation of the Europe loves to take a break from work between two meals while drinking a little wine with some tapas and chatting and socializing with friends, colleagues or completely strangers.