To celebrate surviving the infamous Spanish AP test, Mrs. Aycock’s AP Spanish class embarked on a cultural and culinary outing to Si Tapas, a Spanish tapas restaurant in Dallas. The owner and chef, both Spanish gentlemen, make it a priority teach their customers about Spanish history and  culture as diners taste their way through the geography and climate of Spain.

Tapas is the name of a wide variety of appetizers in Spanish cuisine.

Served cold or hot, Tapas have evolved into an entire cuisine, whereby patrons of tapas restaurants can order many different tapas and combine them to make a full meal. 

Tapa means “lid” or “cover” in Spanish. There are several explanations for the etymology of “tapa” but the most commonly cited explanation is that an item, be it bread or a flat card, etc., would often be placed on top of a drink to protect it from fruit flies; at some point it became a habit to top this “cover” with a snack.

Mrs. A’s students sampled a variety of tapas: jamón serrano (salt curred ham), chorizo palacios (pork sausage with paprika and other spices), manchego and smoked idiazabal cheeses (sheep cheese), montaditos (baguette slices with a variety of toppings, the favorites being tomato jam with a goat cheese/pine nutcrumble and pork loin with caramelized onions and blue cheese), croquetas mixtas (ham and cod croquettes), gambas al ajillo (shrimp with garlic), angulas al ajillo (baby eels), tortillaEspañola (potato/egg omelet), patatas con chorizo (potato and sausage), okra frita y curry (fried okra with curry spice), setas(mushrooms), and espárragos (asparagus grilled with manchego).  

While students actually enjoyed everything they sampled, the highlight was the Paella de mariscos, a seafood, rice and vegetable dish with clams, squid, cod, mussels, prawns, red bell pepper, onion, peas, and saffron rice.