Tapas Papa Frita – Scottsdale, Arizona
While dining at a restaurant in Phoenix, our stomachs roiled a bit as a pesky fly took a nosedive into my glass of Mexican Coca Cola. By the time our server returned, the acid in the Coke had completely dissolved the fly. There was no evidence remaining that a fly had drowned in the carbonated water. If anything, that little escapade gave credence to one of two stories that explain the origin of Spanish tapas. In this particular origin story, the genesis of tapas was in the working class taverns of Andalusia where field workers used slices of bread and meat to keep dust and insects out of their sherry glasses. That story made me wish I had placed a…