 S.M. King finds heaven in
her local tapas bar.
A tapa in Spanish
is a lid. This, if you pause to think about it, makes a good deal of sense.
When I’m eating tapas, I generally manage to keep my own lid intact. There’s
much to be said for a little judicious eating when a good Rioja threatens to
claim your sobriety.
This style of snacking has its origins in a humble round of
bread. Long, long before the bliss that is MoVida emerged, a little dough lid
was used to protect a glass of wine. Some theories suggest this was to keep
fruit flies away from one’s sweet sherry. Other less reputable thinkers suggest
it was to keep people like my partner away from one’s sweet sherry.
Who knows, and indeed, who really minds about the beginnings
of this small wonder?
Tapas, a term that refers to any small dish served with
drinks, is magnificent. Going to a tapas bar is a marvellous way to eat and a
downright sensible way to drink.
For Melbourne’s
Consul General of Spain, Miguel Utray, sharing tapas is also an important
social ritual that involves a bit of leg work.
“Tapas is a way of nurturing the spirit and body by means of
a social encounter with many people in a short period,” he says. “We will have
a small circuit of bars and take a small drink and a small portion of food in
every one of them. The more exquisite the food, the better.”
This kind of exquisite tapas crawl can thankfully be
replicated in a fairly compact city like our own. There are a few great places
to try within stumbling distance of each other in the city. Among them, MoVida
and Bar Lourinhã are both recommended by Utray.
At Bar Lourinhã, traditional dishes like spiced chickpeas
and spinach are on hand alongside more modish offerings like Wagyu carne cruda and shaved baby beets. Wagyu
beef has also found a home at MoVida, where owner/chef Frank
Comorra’s cecina
claimed The Age Good Food Guide’s
inaugural Dish of the Year award in 2007. You really haven’t lived well until
you’ve tried this heavenly dish of air cured Wagyu topped with a poached egg
and truffle foam.
Around the corner at Canary Club, try the pan con tomate manchego and Jamon Iberico. (Please note: once
commenced, a love for great Jamon
will send you to debtors’ prison.)
There are a few Spanish wines on the menu but, as with
sister venture the Hairy Canary, this is a joint in which to devour cocktails.
Try a Sour Spaniard or a Pino Canario.
According to Utray, good tapas bars can be found the inner
suburbs as well.
The stalwart Spanish Club in Fitzroy serves up stellar tapas
in its front bar. In typical St. Kilda fashion, Lola’s Tapas has set up shop in
what used to be my local drycleaners.
The wine list is entirely Spanish at Basque Tapas & Wine
in Windsor.
Mahou and Estrella Damm, and Alhambra Especial are among its imported beers.
At $9.50, Gambas al
pil pil, sizzling garlic & chilli prawns, is one of the priciest dishes
on the menu. You only get two, but they’re worth it. The servings here are
small, but with most dishes hovering around the $5 mark, it’s a great place to eat
broadly. This is the ideal place for beginners to perfect their ardour for tapas
staples like Croquetas de bacalao (creamy
salt cod croquettes).
Even if it does occasionally mean I must find a wheelbarrow
to extract my partner from MoVida, thank the deities of pleasure that tapas has
finally and truly arrived in Melbourne.
“I must say that as a Spaniard I can find anything I need or
almost everything in Melbourne,”
says the Consul General. “Even if it can sound a little bit strange, I
feel that Melbourne is a city that wants to be Mediterranean.”
It doesn’t sound strange at all, sir. We’ll take the
compliment!
Bar Lourinhã
37 Little Collins
Street, Melbourne
Tel: 9663 7890
Basque Tapas &
Wine
159 Chapel
Street, Windsor
Tel: 9533 7044
Canary Club
6 Melbourne
Place, Melbourne
Tel: 9663 1983
Lola’s Tapas
35-37
Blessington Street, St Kilda
Tel: 9534-0092
MoVida
1 Hosier Lane,
Melbourne
Tel: 9663 3038
The Spanish Club
59 Johnston St,
Fitzroy
Tel: 9417 4059
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