Reid & Robie

Spain is love served on a plate.

– Anonymous

Blame it on Anthony Bourdain.

When Robie and I saw a rerun of CNN’s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown during a trip to Mykonos last December, it set the course for what we would do after the Camino. At the time we knew we were heading to Spain in August so I could walk the Camino del Norte with my sister. And we’d already made plans to spend the winter in sunny Morocco. What we didn’t know was where to go after arriving in Santiago de Compostela since it seemed likely we’d have time before the scheduled move to Morocco in November.

After watching Parts Unknown that question was answered.

The travel and food series that ran from 2013 until Bourdain’s suicide in 2018 used food as a gateway to explore the intersection of a place, its people, politics, economics and history. And the episode that captivated us showed Bourdain’s long-time cameraman Zach Zamboni introducing Anthony to his adopted hometown.

A newlywed married to a Spanish woman, Zach takes Bourdain on a tour of Granada during Holy Week. The duo is seen sidestepping vibrant processions and attending authentic flamenco. While most travel shows would focus on the Spanish Renaissance masterpiece at the Cathedral of Granada or the glittering Royal Chapel where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried, with Bourdain as host, Parts Unknown barely mentions the famed La Alhambra, an architectural tour de force and Moorish palace that looms above the city. Instead, for nearly an hour we watched Anthony and Zach barhop around Granada eating free tapas.

The word “tapa” means lid or cover in Spanish, and legend holds that the custom of complimentary tapas began when King Alfonso XIII was served a slice of bread covered with ham atop his wineglass to keep flies from landing in the royal goblet. A few years later free tapas were commonplace as bars across the country offered small plates to patrons in the lean years following Spain’s civil war. Ten years after Franco’s death, Spain was on the road to economic recovery and free bites were becoming a thing of the past. But in warm, sunny Andalucía, the tradition held firm, and today restaurants and taverns in Granada continue to provide complimentary tapas.

In Spain tapear means to go for tapas, while gathering with friends for un tapeo is a tapas crawl. After seven weeks in northern Spain where my diet consisted mainly of potato and egg tortillas and ham bocadillas (sandwiches), I wanted nothing more than to enjoy an extended tapeo.

For two weeks Robie and I wandered the bustling plazas filled with restaurants around Granada’s vibrant Centro district and scoured the cafés of Albaicín in the historic Moorish quarter where narrow, winding streets and medieval whitewashed houses look out toward La Alhambra. Along the way we ate everything they put in front of us: roast pork, chicken wings, anchovies, paella, fried potatoes, merguez sausage, tuna salad, meatballs, pork rinds, cheese, and lots and lots of olives.

It was awesome!

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-Reid & Robie