Tapas trails

Tapas trails are probably a bit old hat now but I still like to do one from time to time. In fact we went over to Novelda last weekend and, between dodging puddles and downpours, we did four stops on their current tapas route. It reminded me that I hadn't written anything about the trails for several years and whilst, for some of you, there may be a touch of "been there, done that" for relative newcomers it may still be one of the untried delights of Spanish life.

The first tapas trail or ruta de tapas that we ever did was in Sax, probably in 2005. I don't suppose that was the first one ever organised in Spain so they must have been around for ages. There are lots of variations on a theme but the basic idea is pretty straightforward. Some body, often the local Chamber of Trade or the Town Hall, persuades any number of restaurants or bars to take part. Each participating establishment prepares a tapa, often two tapas, for the route. They agree to sell the tapa and a drink, usually limited to beer and wine, for a fixed price to an agreed timetable. There is often a supplement if you want a soft drink which always seems a little contrary to me.

With the tapas decided the organising body then produces a leaflet and, nowadays, a website that features photos of the tapas along with a description. Being the 21st Century there are often nods to the fact that some people are vegetarian/vegan or gluten intolerant with little symbols to show which tapa has which characteristics. Often the times when the tapas are available is generalised for all the participating establishments and sometimes each place has different hours which makes it a bit more difficult to navigate the route. How long the route is available depends. In the past they tended to stretch across a couple of weeks and be available every day but now it's more usual for them to be weekend only events lasting for all the weekends in a particular month.

As you order, eat or pay for the tapa you traditionally get a sticker or a stamp or something to show that you bought a tapa in such and such a place. I'm sure there is an electronic variant but I've never encountered one. When you've collected so many stamps/stickers and/or when the event finishes you can take your completed leaflet to some collection point - maybe the Tourist Office or the Chamber of Trade offices. The winning establishment gets the publicity and some sort of award and there is nearly always a draw among the participants with prizes which range from a bottle of wine or a free meal through to a luxury cruise.

The organisation varies from town to town. The one in Novelda (which is still on for another week or so as I type) was for both savoury and sweet tapas. Each offering cost 2€ and that didn't include a drink. What's more you voted not only for the quality of the tapa (which is habitual) but also for the service which was a new idea to me. Usually you only need to go to a percentage of the participating establishments or try a set number of the tapas but the rules for each route are different. The number of places you need to visit is determined to some extent by the size of the town. If Alicante or Murcia runs a tapas trail then asking people to visit ten or even twenty places is easy because there are, potentially, hundreds of bars that may be involved. On the other hand there may only be twenty bars all told in Monóvar so each route has to be adapted to the particular circumstances. The possibilities for routes are manifold. We've done routes which have centred on varieties of coffee, on cocktails, on cakes and pastries and I've seen routes based on seafood or on traditional recipes. 

Pinoso has had a couple of stabs at a tapas trail, though they used the Valencian word mossets to describe tapas. They changed the rules slightly each time but of all the tapas trails I've ever been on I think the Pinoso ones were, uncharacteristically, the least well organised. So often Pinoso does things really well. The most basic mistake was that, at least on one of them, you had to go to every establishment and eat every tapa. This took no account of people's tastes; you don't like seafood - tough. There were also a couple of places that were out of the town centre - excellent in itself but, if you were transportless - tough. But the worst thing about having to go everywhere and eat everything was that some of the bars were really cynical about the event. Whilst most made an effort to produce something special a couple made no effort at all and did an anchovy on a bit of bread which devalued the whole event. There were also a couple of places which didn't seem that happy to sell tapas to people when they could sell something more expensive. Oh, and when we tried to do some of the places advertised as open on Sunday evening we found they were all closed.

Still, worth a go, especially if you haven't done one before.

Staying home and keeping warm

It's been a bit miserable for days, nay weeks, now. Tumble dryer rather than washing line, slightly moist bath towels. Dirty boot prints across the kitchen floor. I've been looking for something to do. What about popping up north for the weekend? I don't know why but I thought about Huesca or maybe Sigúenza. Some travel website says I'm talking about five or six hours. Well, if we set off after I finish work on Friday evening we could still be there for a nightcap around midnight. Paradors, Paradores, choose your plural, the upmarket hotel chain, constantly promote their offers. I had a bit of a look. None of it quite fits. Maybe it would work. Why not? Well, the truth is, it looks a bit dear actually. Madrid maybe, Madrid is always good. It always makes me feel less like a yokel when I'm in an art gallery and I'm not the only person there. That's not exactly free either and the deals on the super fast trains don't seem to be quite as stupendous and ubiquitous as the news stories would suggest. I suppose that I need to remember too that the house and car insurance are both due in the next few weeks.

Well then, if not now, I could, at least, think about something for the near or middle future. What about the festival in Benicassim? All the hotels within a ten mile radius seem to be booked already. A local festival then? SOS in Murcia maybe? Same thing. And I think about it, all that effort, all that upheaval. Anyway my back is hurting a lot at the moment and my feet feel funny.

It's not that I haven't had a very pleasant weekend. On Friday evening we went to Monóvar, just 12 km away, for a film in a series to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of a relatively famous local writer whose pen name was Azorín. It was an old black and white Billy Wilder film, dubbed into Spanish, with Jack Lemmon. The audience was pretty select and could have come back to ours for a cup of tea. Yesterday we had coffee with friends. In the evening, we did a Burns Night complete with haggis, piper and men with no underpants. Today we went for a meal as a sort of late birthday celebration with a couple of friends. Not a word of Spanish to worry about as we ate roast beef or sticky toffee pudding. In amongst all this I went to take some snaps of the delayed Saint Anthony, San Antón, festival in Pinoso where the priest blesses people's pets. Not an action packed weekend but a long way from gardening leave or pure catatonia.

It just feels to be passing by though. The last time we were in Sigüenza I'd wished we were staying in that converted castle. Just trogging up a motorway or riding the train makes me feel like we actually live in Spain. It's the same when I hand over the money to see whatever they have on at the Thyssen or think about the free tapas in Guadix. Somehow doing things locally isn't just the same. Maybe when the weather improves in Spring life will pep up a bit? Winter here is just as depressing as it is in Billingham, Brighouse or Bearsden.

Mossets it is

Mossets is, apparently, the Valencian language equivalent of tapa, or, in the plural, tapas. I presume that you know about tapas, it's one of those words that is now as English as coup or zeigeist. Tapas are little snacks.

Normally, around these parts we're not big on free tapas. You often get a handful of crisps, a few olives, or some nuts with your beer but it's an optional extra. It's not the same in Andalucia. The last time I was in Guadix I forgot that we had crossed a frontier and I made the typical foreigner abroad mistake of telling the waiter that I hadn't ordered the mini hamburger that he had just put down in front of me. In Andalucia substantial tapas alongside your drink are still dead common.

I think of the town I pay my rates to as being called Pinoso but, just to continue the Valenciano lesson, lots of people refer to it by its Valencian name of el Pinós. And the publicity says El Pinós a Mossets or something like Pinoso out for a bite to eat.

Tapas trails are a bit old hat nowadays. They've been around for ages. A bunch of bars and restaurants sign up to produce a tapa or two for the trail during a set period. Some organisation, like the local town hall or the chamber of trade, puts together a little leaflet or booklet which lists the participating establishments and what they have on offer. Usually it's a set price offer for a drink and a tapa. People do some or all of the route and usually vote for their favourite tapa with a prize draw included.

In my opinion Pinoso has never quite got this right. The first year of the route participants had to go to every bar if they wanted to vote and enter the prize draw. Not only did this make full participation relatively expensive and time consuming but it also meant that there was no real incentive for a bar to be innovative. Good for you if, as a bar, you mixed tastes and traditions in your tapa but punters still had to go to the bar offering a bit of ham on bread if they wanted to vote. It also took no account of personal likes and dislikes - you don't eat fish - tough luck, you're a vegetarian - forget it. A couple of the participating eateries were also out of town which was a bit of a snag if you didn't have transport. Actually living away from town is a disadvantage too. The set price is 2€ and includes a beer or a wine. If you want a soft drink it costs more. I'm sure though that the town hall has no interest in incentivizing drinking  and driving.

Despite my moaning we've been out of course. We've been to half a dozen places so far and one of the major improvements this time is that you "only" need to go to a dozen of the seventeen places participating. It's still too many but it is a step in the right direction.

Tap, tap, tapas

As far as I remember the first ever time we got involved in a tapas trail was in Sax which is a small town about 20 km from here. It was probably in 2005 and I remember it well because afterwards we went on to a meal in the village hall organised by the Culebrón Neighbourhood Association. Certain members of our party had had a little too much to drink and they were unable to fully participate in the village AGM afterwards leaving me as the sole speaking British representative.

Tapas trails, rutas de tapas, are a simple idea. Somebody, usually the Chamber of Trade or the local Shopkeeper's Association persuades a number of bars and restaurants in their town to sell a bite sized snack and a drink, usually either beer or wine, for a bargain set price. They persuade other sponsors to cough up a prize. Then they produce a route map cum leaflet and, within the set dates, punters skip from bar to bar eating the tapas and drinking the drink. Each time the participants have something on the trail they get a stamp on their leaflet. The punters have a good time, the bars get more trade and the towns look busier.

In Sax I think each bar gave clues to a puzzle. Solve the puzzle and win a prize. In Cartagena, where we lived the tapas trail was a big deal with about seventy places taking part and thousands and thousands of tapas served. Everyone who handed in a leaflet with at least six stamps got a free entry to one of the city museums and there was a draw for a bigger prize.

Earlier Pinoso trails may have passed me by but, to the best of my knowledge, the first tapas trail here was this summer. It was tied in with the performances of a couple of classical Greek plays. We made a bit of a half hearted attempt to get involved but we hadn't checked the leflet properly and asked for one of the tapas on a Tuesday when the route only ran from Thursday to Sunday. We felt so stupid we threw the leaflets away and skulked at home till it was over.

There is another Pinoso tapas trail running at the moment. It is blessed with a name in Valencià. It started last Thursday and runs for the next three weeks with afternoon and evening sessions from Thursday to Sunday. Top prize is a weekend in a spa hotel and there are meals out to be won too. There are just fourteen bars involved but each one is producing a couple of tapas so the range isn't bad for a town with 8,000 people.

We asked a couple of sets of our British chums if they fancied doing a bit of the route with us. I think it was a new experience for both couples. It was a good evening. They got tapas in four places but, because I had to come from work I was a little later and just did three. The tapas weren't bad but they weren't inspired either. Most were a bit samey, something on a bit of bread, toast or cracker. Maybe I'm being a bit hard because I was denied the more amusing half of the experience as I had to drive home afterwards. Nonetheless it was excellent to be doing something on home turf

We were in good company too. There were lots of gangs of friends and couples with the leaflets doing just the same as us. Which bar next? We kept seeing the same people strolling from one bar to another just as we were.