While their claim to having invented table football and the mop can be dismissed as bullshit, the Spanish have a slightly better case when it comes to snacking. After all, Tapas is basically just bar snacking elevated to the status of national cuisine. Over the last 20 years, tapas has been gentrified no end. Upmarket tapas bars can be found in urban centers all around the world, and in Madrid and Barcelona, you can find everything from Sushi-tapas to Mexican tapas, El Bulli inspired molecular gastronomy tapas and a million other posh variations. All of this is a far cry from tapas as the majority of Spaniards know them, and while it’s great that Spanish cuisine is undergoing such a rennaissance, at the same time there’s a feeling that the typical Spanish tapas bar is being squeezed out.
