Sketches from Spain

"Or, as the refrain goes, 'Con pan y vino se and el camino' (With bread and wine the trail can be walked). Shepherds know that one well." – from Spain by Jeff Koehler

















The Spanish barman of old found that if he slipped a crusty day-old piece of bread with olive on it over the rim of the wine glass, well, maybe the patron would be more likely to ask for a bit more of both.  What is commonly now called tapas used to be called 'lids,' and we might easily picture a more than friendly competition arriving among the seaside saloons just who might come up with the most creative topping for the lids.  The patrons, more than obliged to give a nod to each and sip, crawled from pub to pub to taste in what is called a tapear, or in essence a pub crawl.  Underneath the modern complexity, always harkening back to the ancient and the local, is the Spanish pan, or bread, ranging

from classic large, round country loaves to long, this barras de pan (barra means bar or rod). Bread in Spain is most often bought in a bakery and seldomly wasted, hence the natural origin of the tapas as a great usage for day old bar bread.  "Bueno es pan, y major, con also que agregar" – "Bread is good, but better with something to go with it." And so the simplest of any starter tapas the Pa Amb

Tomaquet, or country bread rubbed with tomato and olive oil.  Simply find a good likeness to the wide slices of pa de pages (crusty Catalan round-loaf), toast it, mark up the sides with the cut end of a garlic clove, then rub cut tomatoes firmly over the bread while squeezing some of the juices.  Place over the rim of a favorite beer and wine and it is tapas from the Mediterranean at home.