Tapas

In Spain, there is this wonderful little thingie, called "tapas"(also, there is a wonderful little thingie called "zapatería", meaning shoe store, but back to tapas...). When you go to almost any bar or restaurant, when you order a drink, you get a small free plate of food, a tapa. Some reastaurants have tapas menus, where others will just bring you a tapa.  Taps can be anything- from fried calamari, to dressed tomatoes, to grilled goat cheese with honey (my favorite tapa!!!!). Because of "siesta" which can be anywhere from 2-7 hours, most tapas places don't even open until 9:00 p.m. At about 5:00 p.m., it's a ghost town there, and then at 10:30,  you see three year olds tottering around with gelato! But it's worth it to stay up for tapas- free food!