Seville Tapas

The tapas culture extends to every corner of Seville. It coexists with white-tablecloth dining in perfect conjunction and mutual promotion and contributes to making the culinary industry one of most dynamic sectors of the city's economy and to enhancing its culinary status in terms of quality and good service. It also contributes, of course, to the much sought-after wealth-employment binomial. In Seville, often cited as the birthplace of the tapa, this is not only a deeplyrooted, appetising tradition that Sevillians honour assiduously, but also an excellent showcase for its culinary assets and culture, acclaimed throughout Spain and abroad as a pleasure not to be missed by anyone who wants to know and feel the city, to experience its joy of living, hospitality and vibrancy.

Different tastes and customs result in a plethora of tapas: hot or cold, home-cooked (veritable small meals), simple or elaborate, light or substantial, to accompany a drink or vice versa, not forgetting the novelties, the "creative tapa", a product of the invention and skill of the city's chefs, who combine tradition and contemporary tastes to perfection in the apparently modest extent of a tapa to offer up the most appetising culinary treats.

Some of the best tapas in the city's culinary culture include pinchos morunos (small Moorish-style spicy beef brochettes, soldaditos de pavía (battered fingers of hake or cod deep-fried in olive oil), snails (in season in the summer), potato in vinaigrette, and potato salad, not forgetting the different types of olives: the large gordales with a firm meaty texture, the finer sevillanas, the smaller, crisper, brownish-green manzanillas, black olives and marinated olives. The assorted cured meats also make good tapas: caña de lomo, morcón, cured ham, etc., and cheese cut into wedges is yet another popular tapas option.

Montaditos are also a speciality honoured in the tapas ritual, and the repertoire is never-ending, as these small rolls can be filled with countless combinations of ingredients, including palometa and cheese, pringá, Iberian pork fillets, loin of pork, roquefort, sliced pot-roast, capote (tuna and sweet pepper)... Fried fish is a popular suppertime "solution" in many Sevillian households. Pieces of floured fish deep fried in olive oil are served in paper cones to be eaten at home or on a street-side terrace. The most popular fried fare includes hake, marinated dogfish, squid, croquettes, fried prawns, puntillitas (tiny squid) and fish roe.