Time for a little Tapas dancing

10 April 2012

The reason there is no immediate counterpart to tapas in Britain is probably because we don't drink enough - a pretty humbling thing to have to admit. If you walk into a Belgian bar, there is a ritual for spreading cheese on wholemeal bread to eat with radishes and accompany your beer. In Russia, every tot of vodka comes with a bit of sausage or a chunk of pickled cucumber.

In Greece, ouzo or tschipouro is served with a tiny saucer containing something to nibble. In America, there may well be a stand of hard-boiled eggs on the bar as hard-bitten customers swill beer and chasers. In Germany, there is bierwurst - a sausage for eating when you drink beer. All these nations understand the importance of snacking when you drink hard. It not only makes the decline into babbling bliss more gradual, but bar staff have found that the saltiness of the nibbly bits is good for business.

And the British contribution to this lifestyle imperative? Sometimes an enlightened landlord will put dishes of peanuts and maybe some cubed Cheddar in bowls on the bar - and even then, only on Sunday mornings. The kings of eat-as-you-go are the Spanish, and the crowning glory is tapas. Originally 'tapas' were little saucers containing two bites which were served free with every glass of sherry. But gradually the importance of the food element overhauled that of the drink element, and now a tapas bar tends to be a restaurant that serves dishes in small portions but great variety.

Each diner therefore gets to choose four or five small dishes and can enjoy a range of tastes and textures. This is a gracious way of eating and encourages adventure, because picking something you find you don't like doesn't ruin your meal: you simply turn to something else. It is strange that, with all these advantages, tapas has not swept to universal popularity.

Perhaps the idea is too strongly linked to sherry, and indeed Spanish cooking, in the customers' minds. Most people know little about the former and care little for the latter.

EL PARADOR

Let's think of El Parador as a small, friendly, clean neighbourhood restaurant that just happens to be Spanish and just happens to sell tapas. (It also just happens to represent terrifically good value). The fine weather is all over so you've probably missed your chance to enjoy the small garden, but the ground-floor dining room is homely and accommodating while dominated by a large bar.

There's a decent wine list, with a good selection served by the glass and a couple of decent Spanish beers - Estrella and Cruzcampo. Arm yourself with a glass of something and plan your tapas strategy. There are fishy ones, meaty ones and vegetarian ones, and each of those sectors sub-divides into dishes that have been cooked and dishes that have been assembled. On the one hand you may have atun a la plancha - fresh tuna grilled with sea salt and fresh coriander, which is difficult to judge and requires the kitchen to concentrate - and on the other a plate of boquerones - the freshly marinated anchovies which need no more than to be 'well bought'.

Unusually among tapas bars, El Parador has real talent in the kitchen and the more complex dishes repay investigation. Start with the pure de habas, a hot pur?e of broad beans, roast garlic and rosemary. This takes a little salt but is terrific for dipping your bread in, rich and earthy. From the fish section, try the chipirones picantes - whole baby squid saut?ed with a touch of red wine. This is a terrific dish: the squidlets taste sea-fresh (if a bit light on the chilli which makes them piquant).

Or there's calamares (deep fried squid rings) or langostinos a la plancha (Mediterranean prawns plainly grilled with lemon juice and sea salt). Then move on to meat. The pinchos de cordero (skewers of lamb marinated in mint and yoghurt) are breathtakingly tender, and there's great habenas a la ronde?a (broad beans cooked with Serrano ham and garlic). But the star of the show is the morcilla de Burgos (black pudding made with rice and served with smoked bacon and potatoes).

The vegetarian options are equally imaginative: try hi?ojo al pil-pil (this is fennel roast with tomatoes, though again the promised chilli bite was noticeably mild) or the pimientos con cebollitas (tiny red peppers roasted whole with some small silverskin onions). Delicious. Or how about calbacines con berenjenas (courgettes cooked with roast aubergines, almonds, ginger and olive oil)? The food is good here. Each dish hovers around the £4 mark and portions are generous: try three or four per person and make it a rule to have at least one thing you have never tried before. If you get that far, there are sound enough puddings to be had.
245 Eversholt Street, NW1 (020-7387 2789). Mon-Thur noon-3pm & 6pm-11pm, Fri noon-3pm & 6pm-11.30pm, Sat 6pm-11.30pm, Sun 7pm-10.30pm. ??

BARCELONA TAPAS BAR

Guess which football team they support here? This is a grand option for drones escaping work in the City and for anyone visiting Petticoat Lane market. There is another larger (and more pretentious) branch of this establishment in nearby Middlesex Street, and you have to suspect that the odd delay from the kitchen is caused by someone having to pop over for a portion of some dish that has run out. Good tapas, nice Catalan dishes, but beware of the mercilessly heavy hand with the garlic.
1A Bell Lane, E1 (020-7247 7014). Mon-Fri 11am-11pm. ???

LA BOTA

Small and steady, and a welcome watering hole for those in the far North. The tapas list is extensive, and while the cooking is not so accomplished as El Parador, the dishes deliver in terms of flavour. That classic dish of lambs' kidneys cooked in sherry is well done here.
31 Broadway Parade, Tottenham Lane, N8 (020-8340 3082). Mon-Fri noon-2.30pm & 6pm-11.30pm, Sat noon-3pm & 6pm-11.30pm, Sun noon-3.30pm & 6pm-11pm. ??

FUEGO

Near the spot where the Great Fire Of London started, hence the name. This busy establishment has two sections: there is a pukka restaurant and a throbbing tapas bar filled with City folk drinking as if their lives depend on it.
1A Pudding Lane, EC3 (020-7929 3366). Mon-Fri 11.30am-2am. ???

BARADERO

In the gastro-desert that is Docklands, Baradero makes a good oasis. The tapas operation is busy, the dishes are sound enough and the bar has one of those orange-squeezing machines so you can watch out for the freshness of your juice. The bean stew - fabada Asturianas - is particularly good.
Turberry Quay, off Pepper Street, E14 (020-7537 1666). Mon-Fri noon-11pm, Sat 6pm-10.45pm. ???

EL PIRATA

Smack, bang in the middle of the 'Rolls Royce triangle' - that chunk of Mayfair between Green Park and Shepherd Market. Given its location, the relatively low prices do this tapas-bar-cum-Spanish-restaurant great credit. A busy place.
5-6 Down Street, W1 (020-7491 3810). Mon-Fri noon-11.45pm & Sat 6pm-11.45pm. ???

GALICIA

They are pretty casual about answering the phone here. Perhaps they are so busy, they don't bother. Either way, the food here is good enough to please the local Spanish community - and make it hard to get a table. One solution is to have enough tapas while you are waiting at the bar to make that table unnecessary.
323 Portobello Road, W10 (020-8969 3539). Tue-Sun noon-3pm & 7pm-11.30pm. ??

LOMO

The tapas bar sibling to Lola in Camden Passage, a friendly restaurant where the change of chef has moved the cuisine away from modern-Italian towards Spanish. It has been fallen on with glad cries by foodists marooned on this once-trendy part of the Chelsea Beach.
222-224 Fulham Road, SW10 (020-7349 8848). Mon-Sat noon-midnight, Sun noon-11pm. ???

EL MOLINO

A small, agreeable bar on the Holloway Road whose proprietor, Tino Risquez, sees it as his life's mission to bring Spanish grub to the local student population. The food is sound and the atmosphere authentic.
379 Holloway Road, N7 (020-7700 4312). Mon-Sat 11am-10.30pm. ??

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