Taste of Spain Part VI, Seville Part II - Tapas Capital of the World?

After hitting two very good tapas places in Barcelona, dinner in Seville had its expectations. At least for me. If you type "Tapas capital of the world" in Google I'm pretty sure the first few hits will land on pages that talk about Seville, Spain.
I think one of the guide books labeled it as "one of the tapas capitals" in Spain.

It was our last night in Seville and the goal was to do a "Tapas Crawl." Very similar to a "Bar Crawl", a tapas crawl involved going to multiple tapas bars and trying different tapas. We were rookies at this and didn't know what to expect. How hard could it be? The concierge recommended a strip of places to hit so it wasn't going to be hard at all. It was going to be pretty exciting.

We go to the area where there is a strip of tapas bars only to find that most of them were closed! Perhaps because it was a Tuesday night? We would approach a restaurant and ask:

"Tapas?" (in a very curious and hopeful way)

This question would turn to be more curious and more hopeful as the night would go on because most of the places weren't serving tapas. Most if ot all were serving rationes (full plates). The Tapas Capital of the World wasn't living up to its reputation.

After having a quick paella, we hit a bar that we originally passed up. It wasn't an Emilios or Ibericos back home, and it didn't look as good as the first two places we hit in Barcelona. Plus, we had to order from the bar! What kind of concept is that!
Little did we know we were slowly learning.

We talked to the bartender who spoke perfect English and recommended an area called "La Alameda" which he described as a strip of bars that had a lot of nightlife and tapas. It was a little out of the main city center, perhaps a 15 min cab ride, but it was going to be worth it. Tapas Capital of the World, here we come!

We arrive and its what we expected. Strip of bars, a lot of people hanging out outside, this was the place. We walk down the strip and hit the first trendy place we see. We look at the menu... no tapas.

After a quick drink, we hop to another place. Again, a dive bar and not fancy at all.. you literally walk up to this little window and ordered. Luckily there were indeed tapas! Nothing close to previously places we've been too at all.. but tapas nonetheless...Then I slowly realised...

We were in a crawl for "bar food." Tapas places back home and even the couple places in Barcelona spoiled me. They served it in such a more elegant way than you wouldn't think of it as "bar food." But really, tapas are simply small portions of food that accompany your alcohol. I mean its one of those things you know, but really didn't hit me until Seville. Thus, the best way to order tapas... is from the bar!

A lesson we took to Madrid.

To be continued...