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Joaquim Gines was terribly excited when he arrived in New Zealand from his native Spain two years ago. Everywhere he went he saw restaurants advertising tapas - the snacks that are a fixture in Spanish bars and suppress the hunger pangs before the typically late evening meal.
"So many places were doing the tapas thing," he says. "I was over the moon." Not for long. Joaquim would soon realise what those of us who have enjoyed tapas already knew: restaurants that offer tapas in New Zealand are just delivering a lot less food for a little less money.
"They say they are serving tapas," says Joaquim, "but they are just serving a small meal."
The word tapa means lid, and the dishes started as lids placed on top of wine or sherry glasses, some say to keep ash or insects from falling in. Joaquim explains that, in Spain, tapas consists of good-quality food - olives, ham, almonds, and really good ones - in small servings. "But what people do here is make a small steak and charge a lot for it. It is not a tapa."
Bellota, the tapas bar in SkyCity, is the closest thing, he says. "They serve good food and they care about it."
It's something of an irony that Spanish food has made so little impact here given that the man regarded by many as the world's greatest chef is Ferran Adria;, of El Bulli on the Costa Brava. But if it's hard to find good Spanish food cooked for you, there's nothing to stop you making it yourself.
Joaquim and his New Zealand-born wife, Margaret Brebner, run Barcelona Delicatessen, which imports and distributes to top food stores such as Fred Samuels (at the Auckland Fish Market), Dida's and Zarbo. He decided to start the business, dealing in olives, sauces, preserves and meats, because he saw a gap in the market.
"I still think there is a gap but I am not sure that New Zealand people are ready for this gap to be filled. Part of the problem is that here interest in cuisine is restricted to a few people. In Spain everybody loves cooking. It is part of us, like fishing is part of a New Zealander."
Joaquim senses that interest is growing, partly because the America's Cup was staged in Valencia, the home of paella.
This Spanish classic is named like other Spanish dishes for the dish it is cooked in. Its basic ingredients are short-grain Spanish rice (bomba or calasparra), tomato and saffron, to which are added meats or seafood.
Joaquim is often asked if paella is "a dish for foreigners", like that English, not Indian, dish, butter chicken. "I tell them paella is The Dish, in capital letters. My mum cooks it twice a week at least."
Barcelona native Joan Farras - his name rhymes with "one" but starts with the same sound as the "s" in "pleasure", which is apt - shares Joaquim's joy in food and his pain about the lack of Spanish food here. But he argues that the isolated nature of traditional New Zealand suburban living is inimical to the cultural cross-pollination that makes for good food. The Spanish population has not developed the "critical mass" that has enabled Italian and Chinese cuisine to make the impact that they have. "But slowly it's changing. I've lived here for 33 years and when I came here you can imagine what I thought."
Through his firm, Iberian Ham Products, Joan imports to fine food stores around town - Farro, Nosh, Pyrenees and Didas among others - specialising in hams and chorizo sausages. He detects that interest is building, albeit slowly.
As he talks, Joan makes allioli, the Catalan name for what the French call aioli,, pounding garlic and egg yolk in a mortar and adding good Spanish olive oil in a drizzle until the pestle can stand up in the creamy golden emulsion. He slices pieces of serrano ham, dry-cured for 18 months at high altitude to the point that the bacterial activity makes it biochemically closer to a cheese than a meat.
"Simple is good," Joan says cheerily, pouring some more wine into my glass. "I respect food far too much to treat it as a luxury."
Websites
www.iberianham.co.nz
www.barcelona.co.nz
TOP TAPAS
Joan Farras suggests some easy tapas to prepare at home.
Pulpitos al ajillo (Baby octopus with garlic): Most bars in Spain have a grill and a hot plate, so barmen do some cooking as well as serving coffees and beers. Using the hot plate - very hot - with olive oil on it and a mixture of chopped garlic and parsley, cook the baby octopus (or cuttle fish... ) for about five minutes, turning it over with a fish slice. Serve a scoop on a small plate. This can also be done with prawns, squid rings and other fish, but baby octopus are conveniently bite-sized. This goes well with a full-bodied beer.
A small plate of anchovy stuffed olives. They're hard to beat with a glass of cold, dry sherry on a warm summer evening. This is perhaps one of the fundamental tapas.
Some lightly toasted slices of baguette (white sourdough or another similar good quality bread) topped with a thin slice of tomato and a couple of anchovy fillets in olive oil. This dish proves that robust reds go well with fish.
Serve some thinly sliced jamon (Iberico or Serrano) on bread rubbed with tomato and olive oil. This can also be done with chorizo or salchichon.
