Alejandro

Alejandro Fernández García How do you behave as “Spanish” in a Spanish situation? This question is easy to answer because when you are here for a few days you get used to behaving in every situation very soon. I am going to focus my ethnographical description of my town, León. It is a small city and for this reason I like it very much. The situation that I have chosen is the typical one because is very special for me. This situation is called “ir de tapas” or also known “ir de cortos”. I really like it because in my opinion is the best way to eat and at the same time for a small amount of money. The usual things to drink when you do this are: a small glass of beer, a glass of wine, a glass of bright orange and grape juice. I consider that it is also a kind of visiting the city. Here in León, there are different areas to do this, for example: “Eras”, “Burgo Nuevo” but the best one is the “Barrio Húmedo”. When I go out to do this, my friends and me put a kitty of 5 or 10 Euros to spend during all the night, afternoon and so on. One person of the group has the responsibility of keeping the amount of money and he /she also has the “obligation” of ordering our drinks and our “tapas”. On the one hand, I consider it is very important to have one “leader” but for this person is a big burden because he/she has to be the owner of everybody’s money. On the other hand, I think that this person( the owner)is the most important one in the group because if everybody have their own money and in every bar everybody put one Euro, it could be a “chaos”. So, I consider that the most comfortable way to do that is to put a kitty also known in Spain “poner bote”. Now, I am going you explain you what happens when you order your drinks. If you are in a bar, when you order your drinks, the waiter asks you: what do you want to eat? or in Spanish: ¿qué quieres de tapa?. And in this precise moment you have to decide what you and the rest of your group want to eat. I say that because there is a wide variety of “tapas” and when you do this for the first time you choose one among all the “tapas” by chance. But when you have done it more than one time you choose

your favourite. And then, you go to this bar only to taste your favourite “tapa” and instead of calling this bar by its name you associate it with its “tapa”. As I have already said, there is a great variety of them and the vast majority are typical products of this area. You can eat highly-seasoned pork sausage, blood sausage, cured meat and so on. These are the usual ones because they are our products. But if you don’t like them you can order: croquettes, potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce, fried chicken, mushrooms, squids, our best known Spanish omelette and so on. The typical presentation of “tapas” is the following: you get your food in a small dish only for you but when you go with a group of people the dish is bigger. But for example, in another bar called “Seaki” the “tapa” is extremely big. I say that because you can have a dish full of potatoes with garlic mayonnaise, a portion of omelette, one sandwich for only one short of beer or a glass of wine. So you receive three or four different “tapas” for only one consumption. Sometimes in “ Seaki ”if you just take four or five drinks, you may have enough food to be full and you may not to be hungry to have dinner or lunch.. In a nutshell, I wish that this essay can help you in your trip around our country and specially our small town. I assure you that you will have a good time and you will enjoy yourselves a lot. I promise you that “tapas” are not going to disappoint you because “ir de cortos” is the best thing of the world.