RICHARD FRISBIE :: Tapas Judge in Zaragoza

Zaragoza 2008 International Expo Tour . . .

Nearly one hundred bars, nearly three hundred tapas - welcome to the world of tapas judging!

During a recent visit to Zaragoza, Spain, to preview the 2008 International Expo, I stumbled into one of the sweetest gigs any foodie ever found. I became a tapas judge.

What qualifies me for this prestigious position? I could just say "I eat tapas, therefore I am qualified" but that is not enough. If it were, half the world would claim the position. No matter how laden every bar is with platters of tapas, they just can't make enough for that many people! It is not even a consideration that I make tapas, and throw tapas parties at least twice a year.

Easy Party Food with Spanish Tapas
In Bilbao, Spain, Tapas, By Any Other Name . . .
No, I am a tapas judge because I'm the lucky person who just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

It was little more than coincidence that found me in Zaragoza during their 2007 International Tapas Festival. It was fortuitous that my schedule while there included a tour of the tapas bars, but, since Zaragoza is famous for its tapas, and since I am a major food and travel hound, that was a no-brainer. It just so happened that my "tapas" night coincided with the competition part of the festival. When the sponsors heard I was in town on a 2008 Expo tour they extended the invitation to judge their local pride, tapas. And a Tapas Judge is born!

Zaragoza was having one big Tapas Party, and I was invited! The city was divided into six zones, with from seven to forty two bars participating in each zone. Armed with maps, a scoring pad, and local guides, my friends and I set out to make the world safe for tapas lovers everywhere. What hubris! What conceit! What an appetite we brought to the table!

At first we were eight intrepid foodies with two local guides. Then the evening progressed like the Agatha Christie play "Ten Little Indians", except that even with what seemed like justifiable provocation, our steady reduction in numbers was from more benign causes than murder. The flu and a migraine claimed two almost immediately, although an inauspicious start that found us jammed into a noisy bar waiting for the tapas to be cooked nearly did us all in. That bar certainly didn't make enough tapas for this popular event! It was quite a while before we finished there, causing some of our group to be in bad humor.

Then, our leisurely stroll through one of the most populated "tapas" districts (for those of you following along with the official guide - Zone A) devolved into a hurried rush, in part to judge as many different creations as possible, but mostly because it was a cold and blustery night ? not one for lingering in narrow wind tunnels with an increasingly moody group. The brisk pace and the perquisite glass of wine or beer with each tapas soon had us warmed, but one after another my friends caved, until we were just five genial foodies on a mission to taste every tapas Zaragoza had to offer. It was a mission of sheer folly!

The International Tapas Festival is held annually to find new tapas using unusual food combinations and variations on the classics. My friends and I agreed that anchovies with black olives in oil was the best traditional tapas of the evening, but we had so many different "new" tapas that it was impossible to agree on a winner! In the skewered division we had: tapas of pickles and olives, shrimp with cod ball and hard-boiled egg, hard-boiled egg and anchovy, deep fried red peppers stuffed with cod, and hot green peppers with anchovies. On the more traditional bread slices we had: manchego cheese wedges, plain slices of blood sausage, blood sausage chopped with shredded cheese on top, peppers with anchovies, crab salad, cod filet, and the local ham drizzled with olive oil. There were more - ham croquettes, unidentified salads spread on bread, shrimps served innumerable ways - but I just caught a glimpse of them, there wasn't time (or room enough in my stomach) to taste them all.

At final count, there were 81 participating bars with 4053 total votes cast. REINA (Reina Fabiola, 5) finished third behind EL LINCE 1 (Plaza Santa Marta, 3) and GRAN TABERNA BILBILIS (San Clemente, 7-9) both in a near tie. Unfortunately, we only managed to judge seven bars, for a total of 16 entries. With only five votes to cast it would seem that our input was insignificant, until you realize we made up 1% of the vote. That means that except for the top three competitors, the rest were all within 1% of each other (many much closer) so our votes made a big difference in the final outcome.

OK. So, statistically we could make a difference, but we didn't get to enough bars to wield any clout with our votes. Such was our luck, we went to none of the bars with winning entries. But two of the tapas I tasted finished in the top half at least. Here's where three placed from a few of the bars we visited:

LA REPUBLICANA (Mendez Nuñez, 38) came in at #21. Their featured slice of blood sausage topped with a tiny quail egg dusted with cinnamon looked really pretty, and tasted good on its own, but the complex flavors did not go with the local beer I was drinking. I switched to a local red wine (Cariñena - tinto) and enjoyed the second one.

DOÑA CASTA (Estébanes, 6) came in at #38. They featured a chocolate concoction that was not available while we were there. That's probably just as well, because I'm not a big chocolate fan. We had some traditional non-entries while we waited, but, it was the first bar we visited, and as I mentioned, very crowded and noisy. By the time we got to the fifth or sixth bar I didn't mind the noise, and the cheek (meaning behinds) to cheek people (I almost said cheek to jowl, but they weren't that kind of bars!) but early on it was a turn off.

LA TASQUILLA DE PEDRO (Cinegio, 3) came in at #60. Their blood sausage and curry sauce was a complex flavor combination - sweet and savory and very tasty.

Make no mistake. This event is serious, and the winner's bragging rights are huge in terms of business volume and publicity, but it was all good fun too! The camaraderie of too many people drinking too many glasses of booze and eating too many (is that even possible?) tapas has to be experienced to be believed. The warmth, the gentle competitive nature of the crowd, each with his or her own favorite bar and tapas, made for a delightful and delicious evening in Zaragoza. One I can highly recommend.

When visiting the 2008 International Expo next Summer in Zaragoza, be sure to pick up a Tapas Bar brochure and take one of the self guided tours through historic neighborhoods filled with the culinary delights Zaragoza is famous for TAPAS!

www.zaragozaturismo.es for more information on Zaragoza and the Aragon region.
My article on other dining options there:
Migas in Zaragoza

And a somber side trip rich in history:
Belchite - A Forgotten Infamy

Richard Frisbie, FOOD Correspondent:

RICHARD FRISBIE is published twice a month to Gather Essentials: Food
It is a food junkie's take on growing, raising, preparing and - above all else - eating food. Together we'll explore the trends, addictions, equipment and regional specialties that make up the sometimes mundane and sometimes sublime cooking and dining experience. You can keep up with my other postings and Gather activity by joining my Gather network -- just click the orange "Connect" button on the upper left-hand side of this page --- I look forward to hearing from you.

BIO - Richard has been writing culinary travel articles for more than five years as a columnist for his local newspapers, and as a regular contributor to the many Hudson Valley, Catskill Mountain and other regional New York publications. His most recent addition to that list is a wine column called "Fruit of the Vine" for Life in the Finger Lakes magazine. Online, he writes frequent articles for EDGE publications and Travel Lady, as well as Gather.

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