Tapas Pinxtos

When we were in Spain a few months ago, we ate tapas everyday. They were so tasty and cheap! I haven't found a place here that sells anything close to Spanish tapas, at any price. There are a few different types of tapas. You can have a variety of warm ones in sit-down restaurants or you can have ones served on bread. The ones with the bread base, tapas pinxtos, are often served in bars.

Pinxtos were fun to eat but it was a little challenging if you were shy. You have to stand at a crowded bar in late evening and jump up and down to get the attention of the bartender to get a plate. Once you have a plate, push in front of people and reach across other people to grab your tapas at the bar. Don't worry about offending people because others will do the same to you. Each pinxto has a toothpick in it. Save the toothpicks and hand them to the bartender when you want to settle your bill. That's how they tally what you owe. It's usually about 1.60 euros per toothpick. Don't be a tacky tourist and 'drop' a toothpick or two.  Not going to lie, it took a heroic effort for me to be so aggressive, but there is food at stake. Mike had to figure out how to get us a beer because I was exhausted by the work to get the plate. However, it is well worth the effort. These little buggers are phenomenal!

So this weekend we had a few people over for some christmas festivities and decided to serve tapas pinxtos. We made a few of our favorites.

One is a tiny croissant sandwich with Iberian ham (similar to prosciutto) and Havarti.

The other two are on baguette slices. One was brie, juicy pear, and a fig.

The last one we made was with goat cheese, tomato and basil. In Spain, this one also had olive paste on it, to make it more savory. However, we couldn't find olive paste yesterday. Anything with tomato and basil is a win anyways.

Stupid hard to find ingredients. I have no idea what was in one of my favorite pinxtos. Its in the top picture. It is the purpley-red one on the bottom row, second in. It was piled very high with a delicious cheese mixture, something like a cross between cream cheese and mascarpone. Maybe there was also some almond flavor too. The top was glazed with a dark sweet jam, like huckleberry. It was so rich that I could only eat the one, but the flavour was amazing.