I was reading an article in some woman’s magazine about tapas. It said that tapas originated because bartenders put little plates of food on top of glasses of sherry in Spain to keep the bugs out of the drinks.
Frankly, if a bug were to land somewhere on my food or drink, I’d think I’d rather have it land in the drink, where the alcohol is. Wouldn’t that be better than having it land on your food?
I think originally, it wasn’t a plate. The food WAS the plate. The first tapas were stale pieces of bread with a little topping. Think bruschetta. (Though that’s not Spanish.)
You would think if they’d wanted to keep bugs out of the drink,they’d just cover the glass – not put food on the cover to attract more bugs. Heh!