Fashionable Spanish

Press, 16 December 1988, Page 12

Fashionable Spanish

From the “Economist,” London

ALL of a sudden, Spanish culture has become fashionable in London.

Spain has long been popular with British holidaymakers — 7.5 million Britons went there last year. Yet once back from jet-set Marbella or more modest Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava, Spain would be forgotten until the next visit.

Now magazines and colour supplements have endless articles on Spanish food, architects and clothes designers. Barcelona rather than Paris has become the city to go to for the week-end. And London has seen the arrival of the tapas bar. Though Britain has plenty of Spaniards (40,000 in London alone, according to the Spanish embassy), those who work in restaurants have been far more

likely to be seen rushing around with steaming platters of pasta at Luigi’s rather than paella at Don Quixote’s. The few Spanish bars and restaurants have catered mainly for expatriates. All that is changing. Over the past couple of years middle-class tourists have begun to discover the "real” Spain and, with it,, proper Spanish food. Hence the rash of tapas bars springing up in London. Tapas are snacks — such as fried shrimps or little skewers of spicy lamb or fish — that Spaniards eat to tapar (meaning to “put the lid on”) the appetite until dinner — traditionally not until after 10 p.m. The fact that tapas are tasty and inexpensive (the dishes usually cost between SNZ4.SO and $9) is a more likely explanation for the bars’ success.

Young Londoners have been short of places where they can meet their friends for half an hour or the whole evening, chat, drink and eat small quantities of good food. So far there are about 15 tapas bars in London. Rebate’s in Vauxhall is reputed to have the largest variety of snacks. Older Spanish restaurants are hurriedly expanding, hoping to catch the tapas wave.

And Londoners are learning the ways of the bars. One television executive says that, at her packed local tapas bar, anybody wanting a bottle of Cordon Negro (champagne) and chorizo al jerez (spicy sausage cooked in sherry) should order them in the right Spanish accent. Copyright—The Economist