Our first experience with this was at Oleum which I have wrote of in a previous entry, Oh so delicioso. Great tapas there although I normally couldn't help but ordering a meal as well, always huevos rotos. Although here is a delicious pic of my tapa when I went back alone. I was soooo very relieved to have been given something without fish, let alone something this delicious!
Notice the traditional way they serve Coca: ice and lemon. I'm in heaven :)
The next night we were priviledged enough to tapa hunting with a true veteran of Granada tapas. He brought us to Bar Casa Julio, this tiny bar which has been in business forever (aka 1947) and the owner (possibly Julio?) is behind the bar serving everyone. It's the type of place where you are shoulder to shoulder with people, standing, devouring every morsel and loving it.
This place is known for small fried fishes in which Ryan attested that they were outstanding (I naturally passed). Next were croquetas caseras or homemade croquettes filled with ham. They are very yummy especially to a starving Amy! Though my favorite at Casa Julio is berenjena frita (fried eggplant). Now many of you may be shocked at this favorite or perhaps you may not enjoy eggplant in general. Well I assure you, this is just downright incredible. The berenjenas are sliced thinly and covered in the lightest, crunchiest batter. To make them even better, you drizzle them with hearts of palm honey....pure heaven.
Afterwards, Ignacio offered to take us to Chinese Tapas. Even if you have spent your life in Spain and lived off tapas, Chinese tapas would still be a foreign idea. We had to partake in this once in a lifetime opportunity. So just a few steps away were Chinese tapas. Even walking into the building seemed wrong, like we had stepped into a time warp or alternate dimension. After ordering our drinks, we were asked what tapa we would like. Now this is also an exciting development seeing as traditionally free tapas are choosen by the server or chef meaning you don't get to choose your free tapa. But as always, the Chinese know just how to get us with their all you can eat buffets and now choose your own tapa! I choose the tallarines con verduras (essentially vegetable lo mein) which I prompty devoured.
This is just a few of the choices. Others included chicken wings and some kind of fish or shrimp.
At this point in the night our bellies were full of the gratis food and we headed for one last drink. Commonly in big cities such as Granada and Barcelona people will stand along busy streets with flyers promoting clubs or bars. We had a few such offers and decided, why not especially with beer advertised for 1.50?? Upon arrival, we noticed the place was empty but then again 11 is very early for Spain. The bar tender hooked us up with an even better deal: 1 Euro beers and gave us all a free shot. I think something is wrong with Granada. Don't they understand we are supposed to be paying them for food and drinks? Not that I'm complaining, just every time I turn around we aren't having to spend anything...god it's great.
The following night, Ryan and I wanted to continue this quest for tapas. Truly we wanted Paulina to experience the best tapa at Bar Casa Julio. Try as we might, it was not possible. We wandered, thought, and even attempted to retrace our steps. At that point, Paulina compared us to Jack Sparrow using his compass which unfortunately was quite acurate. Neverless Ignacio has given us a few tips the previous night so we tried those bars instead. Across from Chinese tapas was a small sandwich tapa bar. We received chorizo subs with some potato chips or crisps (depending on where you're from ;). My only compliant: Pepsi. Just not acceptable so we moved on. Next up is a touristy place that is set up like a medival bar with swords and shields on the walls along with new flat screen tvs playing pop music videos. The upside in addition to having COKE were the extra large tapas.
Try to remember: we did not pay for this food and our drinks cost 1.80 each!
Once again we scourred the streets for Casa Julio and even asked someone. I guess I should admit something: at that time we did not know the name of the bar nor the street it was on. As Ryan was explaining it to the friendly guy, he said "It's this little bar, you walk down a small street and turn into it, the place has been there forever, and the guy who owns it has pictures up of himself from a long time ago." I'm sure you are now going, how the hell would any of that information help someone figure out where we were talking about? Well it didn't, but the guy was nice and suggested a place that he thought "might" be what we were looking for. It wasn't, but we tried it anyway. Free food: can't go wrong. This place also did not have coke and served a fish tapa...double strike. Lucky for me Ryan tried the Gazpaco so I sipped on that. While chatting away, we had given up hope on finding Casa Julio on our own so we texted Ignacio for help and being the great guy he is, he met up with us shortly afterwards. Of course we did find Cas Julio before he got there and realized that we couldn't find it before because it was closed when we had originally started our search!?! Never have I been so proud to find something nor as pleasantly rewarded with berenjenas fritas.
Ryan and my final day in Granada was spent exploring the city and capitializing on the last night of free tapas before our return to Barca and actually paying for our meals. We hit up our favorite strip but struggled to decide where to go. Lucky for us Ryan spotted a sign advertising a choose your tapa bar so we figure, why not? The place is Bar Tapas 380. It was a find! We sat at the bar to discover the bartender/new owner has family in the states and has even been to Carbondale. He was chatty and funny and very enjoyable, but the highlight for me were the delicious tapas. The list was long, at least 20 different tapas to choose from and everything we ate was exquisite.
This probably was my favorite: Ham with carmelized onions. Those onions were sweet and savory and I could have eaten an entire plate of them alone!
This is carne con salsa. I ordered it on our final round after Ryan had tried Squid con salsa. He loved it, so I figure why not try it with meat? Good call Amy, good call. Upon complimenting the cook, we discovered they were from Romania and this was a traditional dish there. Wow, I need to go to Romania now.
I leave you with Ryan's new favorite wine. I tried it and it was excellent. We are officially on a hunt to find it here in Barca.
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