Tapa

The plural is tapas. Tapas is the Spanish word for a variety of savoury snacks served as hors d’oeuvres, usually accompanied with a glass of wine. The Spanish word tapa actually means lid or cover and there are several theories about how it came to mean a savoury snack, which all revolve around Spanish royalty at various stages in history. The first dates back to the reign of Alfonso X, known as Alfonso the Wise, ruler of Castile from 1253-1284. Alfonso is thought to have decreed that snacks should be served with wine throughout Castile so that his subjects should never drink alcohol on an empty stomach. A similar story is attributed to a later monarch, Philip III of Spain, 1578-1621; the same Philip whose Armada was defeated by the English in 1588. Later still, Alfonso XIII, 1857-1885, was said to be travelling through windy and dusty Andalucía when he noticed that the local custom was to cover a glass of wine with a slice of cured ham or a piece of bread. This acted as a cover or lid to keep both the dust and insects out of the wine. It would seem that this last explanation is perhaps the most plausible, given the current meaning of the Spanish word, but it could also be the case that the custom was well entrenched by the 19th century. Whatever the true date of origin, tapas have long been a way of life in Spain and the custom has been adopted internationally as a pleasant way of enjoying hors d’oeuvres with a glass of wine.