Si Tapas and Spanish Cuisine

Tapas is the name of a wide variety of appetizers in Spanish cuisine. Served cold or hot, Tapas have evolved into an entire cuisine, whereby patrons of tapas restaurants can order many different tapas and combine them to make a full meal. Tapa means "lid" or "cover" in Spanish. There are several explanations for the etymology of "tapa": A commonly cited explanation is that an item, be it bread or a flat card, etc., would often be placed on top of a drink to protect it from fruit flies; at some point it became a habit to top this "cover" with a snack.