Thursday, 30 April 2015

Discovering the origin of Tapas during wine tasting in Barcelona

We were on a wine tour and received some tapas with the wine. Our tour guide and wine expert asked us if we new the origin of tapas? Not being aware, he started explaining.

The King of Spain visited a castle and was offered a glass of wine. To ensure no flies would enter the glass, the wine producer covered the glass with a slice of ham. Before tasting the wine the King had to remove the ham, eat it and drunk the wine. So, the original tapas were for free and used to cover the opening of a wine glass.

Today tapas are sold in bars and restaurants, they are no longer free and they do not cover glasses anymore. The pictures below show the Iberian Ham and a glass of liquor covered by a tapa. We took the first picture in Arenas de Barcelona, the second one was taken in restaurant 41 degrees.

We waren op een wijnexcursie en kregen tapas bij onze wijn. Onze gids en wijnexpert vroeg of we het ontstaan van de tapa kenden? Niet op de hoogte zijnde, begon hij zijn verhaal.

 De Koning van Spanje bezocht een kasteel en kreeg een glas wijn aangeboden. Om er zeker van te zijn dat er geen vliegjes in het glas terecht kwamen, werd het glas afgedekt met een snee ham. Vooraleer te proeven diende de Koning de ham te verwijderen, at deze op en proefde de wijn. Hiermee zijn de tapas ontstaan, ze waren gratis bij wijn en bedekten de opening van het glas. 

Vandaag zijn tapas niet langer gratis en worden verkocht in restaurants en bars. Bijna nooit worden tapas op een glas geserveerd. De foto's hieronder tonen een hambar in Arenas de Barcelona en een tapa op likeurglas in restaurant 41 graden. 
 
Spanish Ham

Tapa glass

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13 comments:

  1. Rosemary30 April 2015 at 19:51

    I love tapas - such tasty little morsels.

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  2. Ginny Hartzler30 April 2015 at 20:41

    Wow! I never knew this, and have always been in the dark about Tapas. We have some Tapa restaurants here. I LOVE your story and will put it on our church line. I think not many people know about them. And they still have put it on your wine glass, a testament to it's history. Those ham holders are impressive, I have never seen such a thing.

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  3. 21 Wits30 April 2015 at 22:46

    Very interesting, and it looks delicious!

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  4. The Yum List1 May 2015 at 01:26

    I would love to go on this tour!

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  5. Margaret D1 May 2015 at 07:16

    Never have heard of taps - that is interesting to know about it.

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  6. ChrisAu1 May 2015 at 09:41

    That's very interesting!!

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  7. 黄清华 Wong Ching Wah1 May 2015 at 15:11

    Good taste

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  8. Anonymous1 May 2015 at 16:38

    Dat zou nog eens een service zijn, gratis tapas op je glas! Feest alom. Interessante weet hoor.

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  9. This is Belgium1 May 2015 at 16:39

    happy 1st of May to you too !!

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  10. Debbie1 May 2015 at 17:02

    i love the way you eat and your food/drink images!!!

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  11. Jana1 May 2015 at 20:34

    cool the second pic of how they serve it...greetings from Bulgaria :-)

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  12. TexWisGirl1 May 2015 at 20:39

    so flies got on the ham instead of in the wine. :)

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  13. HWIT BLOGG1 May 2015 at 21:05

    What a nice blog! Have a lovely weekend now...
    Regards,
    Titti

    ReplyDelete

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