Most Americans think tapas means appetizers. Small plates. Overpriced bites you order before the real food arrives. That misunderstanding has been doing a lot of damage to a lot of menus for a long time.
In Spain, tapas are not a course. They are a way of spending an evening. You go to a bar, you order a few things, you drink, you talk, you order a few more things. There is no entrée waiting at the end. There is no defined arc from start to finish. The meal is the conversation, and the food is what you eat while the conversation is happening. You might be at the same table for three hours. You might move to a different bar and start over. The food is almost incidental to the rhythm — and yet the food is also the whole point, because the best tapas are made with the same care as anything else in a serious kitchen, just without the ceremony.
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