Campervan Eating Out: Don't be Afraid to 'Tapas-Up' Your Meal

summerbourne

Sometimes, when Glyn and I are eating out in a cafe or restaurant we don’t want to have just one big main course each – we want to try several smaller dishes and this is when we say “Let’s Tapas-it-Up!”  Tapas is a Spanish cuisine but here is a way that you can do this in any restaurant and it makes for a much more interesting meal…

Tapas, small savoury dishes typically served with drinks at a bar, originated in Spain but now it tends to be a style of dining in which the people at the table share several small dishes of different foods at the same time.

Checkout the history of Tapas

I generally, don’t like eating large plates of one food and much prefer to have smaller amounts of different food so Glyn and I often order a tapas-style meal at all sorts of restaurants and they are usually really happy to do this for us.

For example, we may just order three different starters and a bowl of chips to share. Or we may order one main course and a few side dishes and an extra plate and then share it all out between the two of us. That way you get to try different dishes and tastes and sometimes it works out cheaper than going for the full Monty.

When we were campervanning down at Croyde on the Devon coast the other week, we found a lovely restaurant there (Blue Groove) where we were able to sit outside and have a great meal.

Checkout Blue Groove Restaurant, Croyde, Devon

We decided to ‘Tapas-it-Up’ and this is what we had:

  • one main-dish chicken curry with rice
  • prawn crackers and mango chutney
  • one bowl of sweet potato fries
  • one green salad

We then just got an extra plate and shared it all out between us. I washed it down with a Pimms (sooo love  a Pimms and lemonade sitting outside on a warm, summer evening in a pub garden) and Glyn had his usual Estrella lager. We first tried Estrella  in Valencia several years ago and it’s now our favourite lager.

The staff at the restaurant were very happy to do this for us so don’t be afraid to ask for a tapas-style meal and an extra plate wherever you go. I think once you’ve tried it you won’t look back.

Happy Tapas-ing!